We recently suffered a weather front called the Beast from the East here in Edinburgh (well, the UK for that matter) which meant we went from almost spring weather (10+ C) to -9C, really freeking cold and with it many inches of snow. For one week all of my outdoor work was completely cancelled and I had a wedding booked on the 2nd March which I honestly thought would be 50/50 cancelled.

The reason I thought it might be cancelled was Cat and Sean had to travel over from Ireland and all flights had been cancelled into both Edinburgh and Glasgow and there were 13+ hour tailbacks on the motorways around Glasgow. So with their flights cancelled they had to make a 700 drive to get here and then on the day of the wedding we had another major challenge. We still had really thick snow on the 2nd and first of all their planned car was changed to a Mercedes S-Class (still a bloody nice car!) and then we arrived at the wedding venue, Dunbars Close Garden, only to find it closed. Big shit! Cat and Sean had planned for an outdoor wedding and their venue was closed but thankfully they were having a humanist ceremony which meant they could get married pretty much anywhere. The registrar’s husband, who was helping her out, suggested getting married in one of the local closes but I’ve done a few shoots around St Margarets Loch recently which I suggested and what a decision!

St Margarets Loch sits right underneath Arthur’s Seat and is affectionately called ‘Swan Lake” by locals on account of the dozens of swans that reside there. St Margarets Loch and the views behind is fairly pretty when the weather is decent but when it snows the loch and the chapel on Arthurs Seat look absolutely stunning so we ended up going from a fairly nice garden in central Edinburgh to one of the most spectacular views I would say anywhere in Scotland (when it snows!).

St Margarets Loch

Getting to St Margaret’s Loch was pretty easy but it was so so cold on the day. I normally where smart trousers and a polo shirt for indoors weddings and for outdoors I might have a jumper or coat on. For Cat and Sean’s wedding I had three inner layers and a thick coat on and I was still frozen. Cat bles her on had traditional wedding clothes on, dress, a wee shawl and high heels. I watched both Cat and Sean get progressively whiter through their ceremony and I honestly had huge sympathies for both but they looked really great and the photos look really awesome. 

The path along where Cat and Sean get married is really popular with walkers but during the Beast From the East the weather was so epic people were skiing and snowboarding down Arthurs Seat so the above is probably one of my favourite ever wedding photos which two people skiing through the photo. In 250 or so weddings that I’ve photographed this is the first truly white outdoor wedding I’ve ever photographed and the first wedding where someone has skiied through the ceremony but it made everyone laugh and only added to the day. You can see though it was really really pretty on the day.

The plan on the day was to take photos in Dunbars Close Garden then take photos in a few locations around Old Town but after the ceremony we had to go to City Chambers to pick up their wedding papers and then we took some photos around St Giles at which point everyone decided they were too cold. It was a shame we couldn’t go to more locations but the ceremony photos look great so everyone was happy to head back to the Caledonian Hotel.

Caledonian Hotel

Another first for me, taking photos in the Caledonian Hotel. I’ve been into almost every hotel in Edinburgh at some point, whether it be for photographing a wedding or taking hotel photos for TripAdvisor, privately, AirBNB etc but I’d never been in the Caledonian before. Not once even though it’s located right at the West End of Princes Street but it was really nice inside and I love all the stair photos I took. All of the hotels in central Edinburgh are so different, the Balmoral is simply gorgeous, the Witchery is stunning and interesting but the Caledonian looks really classic and classy. I’d love to photograph a wedding inside. And that’s it for this really epic wedding. It was short, sweet, Cat and Sean were awesome to work with, the venues were stunning and the weather looks great in photos but really was a Beast (from the East) to work in. Awesome wedding.