Lothian Chambers Registry Office and St Columba’s Free Church

One of my most memorable weddings of 2015 was this wedding I photographed at Lothian Chambers Registry Office in central Old Town. Meeting couples is always bit of an unknown but thankfully to date all of the people I have worked with have been pretty awesome. For this wedding though I could really relate to the couple with two major things, cycling and cars.

The other thing I can completely relate to the couple with is cycling. In my former skinny years (not my current bushy beard big belly years) I was really into my cycling. In my last year of cycling, which was around 2004, I did something like 14000 miles which combined with a full time job is pretty impressive. So when I found out Paul is a mountain bike coach for Scottish Cycling and Alison is a multiple world masters champion on the track, so cool!

Alison and Paul’s wedding at Lothian Chambers was the perfect size, not too big, not too small and with a really lovely crowd. Everyone that I spoke to was really friendly and when it came to group shots everyone was really well behaved and followed my instructions perfectly. As always, weddings at Lothian Chambers start in the main entrance opposite St Giles Cathedral.

The ceremony was typical Lothian Chambers. Short, sweet and just really lovely. I really like weddings at Lothian Chambers as some weddings, especially religious ones, can seem to go on forever whereas this wedding ceremony took around 20 minutes or so. In that time there were a couple readings, lots of laughs, lots of emotion and just a really lovely feel.

After the ceremony I took Alison and Paul into the mezzanine at Lothian Chambers for some couples shots. We were a little limited time with the City of Edinburgh Suite in which they got married so we sent the guests downstairs, took a load of couples shots which looked absolutely great then we headed outside for some group shots.

If weddings at Lothian Chambers are too small it can be a bit strange doing group shots in front of St Giles but with a really great wedding party and just about enough people I used the front steps of St Giles Cathedral for the main group shots. I always like to do a couple group shots, one a fairly formal group shot, one where everyone is having fun and depending on the size of the party I’ll usually shoot this in both landscape and portrait formats.

After the wedding and some photos around Old Town the wedding party headed over to the delightful St Columba’s Free Church of Scotland on Johnston Terrace. This is I think the second time I’ve been in this venue and when you walk in the main entrance it’s just a really ordinary building. The church hall itself is ok but head down two flights of stairs and there’s a really lovely function hall which is a real pleasure to take photos in. There’s lots of light, lots of space and there’s also a really beautiful garden which overlooks Grassmarket and the southern side of Edinburgh.

At the wedding reception there was a LOT of food. Lots of canapés, wine, soft drinks and sweets. I personally love wedding receptions like this as people can just grab a plate (or drink) of whatever they want and just relax.