Duncan and Cat decided to get married under the Great Yew Tree at Ormiston which they told us is “not only a beautiful and tranquil place but one which is very special to both of us”. Duncan further explained, “It is an ancient tree that was preached under by John Knox and George Wishart during the Reformation”.

Cat’s dress was made in a small boutique in Alcester, not far from their home in Warwickshire.  Cat told us “I chose my dress because it was adaptable so it wouldn’t drag on the ground at the wedding venue and I got married in my wedding wellies.”  Groomswear was a kilt was from The Kilt Shop in Musselburgh.  Duncan bought Cat some jewellery from Element Bespoke Jewellery in Birmingham which Cat told us “really complimented the dress without Duncan knowing it” and Cat’s hair and makeup was by Michelle Whittaker from Earlston.

One of Duncan’s colleagues piped for them and the final tune he played before Cat went under the tree was ‘Mhairi’s Wedding’.  The couple’s evening reception took place at Macdonald Marine Hotel in North Berwick and the soundtrack to the evening was by ceilidh band Darloch which Cat and Duncan described as “brilliant”.  Duncan told us “we chose the Gay Gordon’s as our first dance because of the name; it seemed appropriate as Cat’s first dance as a Gordon”.

Cat and Duncan explained, “There was no overall theme to the wedding but we did have some ski related things like our cake (supplied by 3D Cakes) and our tables were named after pistes at the ski resort where we got engaged.”  Marie White supplied the flowers and according to Cat “we wanted something bright, colourful yet simple for the flowers and they were perfect”.

Duncan told us that “Archibald Photography came highly recommended to us by my usher” as Gareth and Marianne’s wedding had been photographed by Mark in 2007.  Cat and Duncan told us, “Our favourite image is the wide angled shot of us under the tree; we are surrounded by the mass of branches showing how high it is. We also love lots of the pictures of the kids; Donnie spinning Coco (the monkey) by his tail and Juliet having run to hug Duncan”.

Duncan and Cat wanted to have a small and intimate ceremony despite having hundreds of friends and family to invite to their reception.  They had just their closest friends and family at the ceremony which worked perfectly for them with such a special and unusual outdoor wedding venue. Cat told us “everything was perfect, even the weather; the rain just started as we went in for our reception.  We had our ‘mad’ idea and stuck with it and had exactly the venue and ceremony we wanted.  It worked perfectly.”

One aspect of Cat and Duncan’s wedding which didn’t go entirely to plan involved a succession of wedding cars.  The first car broke down after their ceremony and couldn’t be restarted, they were then taken to the Macdonald Marine Hotel in a guest’s car (requiring Mark to do some pursuit driving!) and finally a replacement vintage car was brought to the hotel to be used for photos!

Cat and Duncan, we loved being part of your unique and special wedding day.  You didn’t let the slightly thing faze you including the unexpected car trouble and unwell family. Here are some of our favourite images of your wedding:

Two articles in the magazine feature our photography from recent favourite weddings.  Firstly Jen talks about how she found Archibald Photography through the Scottish Wedding Directory magazine and how delighted she was with the end photography result of her and Graham’s wedding at Atholl Palace in Pitlochry:

We are then featured in a fabulous 4 page spread entitled “Giving it some welly” with Susie and Paul’s relaxed, vintage inspired wedding at Mavis Hall Park.  Susie and Paul’s wedding is a great example of how not to let the Scottish weather affect your wedding day plans as theirs was a beautiful wedding in the rain.  You can read Susie and Paul’s full wedding story on our blog here and it was also featured on the massive bridal blog Style Me Pretty.

Both Dayna’s engagement ring and wedding band belonged to her late Grandmother on my mother’s side.  When Dayna was 11 years old, her grandparents took her on holiday from the US to Scotland.  She recalls “We met my cousins in London and then all took a train up Scotland.  It is probably one of my fondest memories of childhood and I thought it would be special to honour them as we exchanged their rings by choosing Scotland as the wedding location”.  Fernie Castle was chosen as the wedding venue and Dayna told us “they went above and beyond my expectations. I was easy to see that weddings are their speciality and they had every last detail down to a science.”

Because Dayna was coming from overseas, she was unsure about booking professional hair and makeup without the opportunity to meet up and practice how she envisioned each to look.  So as Dayna told us”the makeup was actually just some version of my daily face and for my hair I had my Mom accompany me to my regular hair dresser where we found a simple version of the hairstyle I liked that she could replicate. She did a great job and it looked exactly the way I wanted even though under stress she had to redo it a couple a times.”

Dayna bought her dress from a local shop to her in Denver called Angela’s Bridal.  She told us “I chose it because it seemed simple yet unique and easy to get to Scotland (at that point we were unsure if we were going to try and carry it on the plane or ship it before the wedding). I loved the black embroidery and the lace up back.”  She wore a black feather hair piece which her best friend had given her (the same friend that introduced Dan & Dayna) and an opal pin my grandmother left to me.  Dayna said “Opal is my birthstone and she always wanted me to have things that represented that.”

Dan wore a tux for their wedding which he had bought in the States.

Quality pictures were one of the most important things for Dayna when she began to plan and she found Archibald Photography online.  She told us “It was actually the first website I looked at when I was sort of “unofficially” google searching. The pictures on your website stood out through the whole planning process so when the time came to book a photographer, although I looked at other websites, the choice was simple.”

Dayna told us “the best thing about the day was that I got to marry my best friend.  I loved how small and intimate the ceremony was. My brother married us which was special and I was able to spend time with both my parents before the ceremony (my mom did my hair and I had tea with my dad, another fond memory replicated from my childhood trip to Scotland).”

Dayna also told us “A funny, astonishing and very impressive thing that happened was Dan’s mother was going to be unable to attend but at the very last min. (as in 3 day before) she decided she could not miss her son’s wedding. She planned her entire trip in a matter two days from plane tickets and transportation to packing and her outfit for the wedding. She arrived the night before in what I considered GREAT spirits for traveling something like 15 or 16 hours straight. We were sooooooo happy to see her and her presence made for a wonderful day, trip and memories.”

Dayna would sum her day up as “Amazing!!!! The whole experience so perfectly represented us as individuals as well as us as a couple. I would not have changed a single thing about it and I am grateful to have such wonderful images to remember it by!”

So first, the proposal.  Tamsyn & Jamie can’t resist an adventure trip, and had loaded their kit into a canoe for a few days paddling and wild camping along the Thames river. When they reached the idyllic Temple Island at Henley, which was glinting gently in the last rays of sunshine, Jamie suggested they stop to enjoy the moment and admire it.  As they pulled alongside the ‘Temple’, he scrambled up the canoe and asked if Tamsyn would be his team-mate for all of life’s adventures. Once Tamsyn had manage to compose herself after a touch of joyful blubbing, she accepted.  As Tamsyn told us”it was perfect, even when the heavens later opened and we spent the first night of ‘almost married’ life in a wonky, flooded, smelly tent trying to stop the pots and pans from floating away!”

Tamsyn knew she wanted a dress that was completely different, and coloured rather than white, but found finding something that fitted the quirky criteria was surprisingly challenging. She told us “I was starting to despair when Mum and I came across Angelina Colarusso – I loved the architectural style and sculptural elegance of her designs, and was overjoyed to meet Angelina and find she was happy to apply her considerable artistic talents to creating something a little on the wild side! As an added plus, the full skirt detaches to convert the whole thing into a slinky evening dress – I may have refused to take it off at the end of the night if I thought I’d never get to wear at least part of it again!”

Tamsyn asked us for a hair stylist recommendation and we suggested contacting Lidia Attino at Volume Hair.  Tamsayn told us she “did a fantastic job on our bridesmaids’, Mum’s and my hair. Vicky Cameron stepped into the breach to do our make-up after I was quavering from a disastrous trial elsewhere, and I was so pleased to have found her – she made us all feel absolutely gorgeous. Amazingly all the hair and makeup looks lasted not only all day but throughout some very warm and energetic hours of ceilidh dancing in the evening!”

Tamsyn and her Dad walked down the aisle to the Flower Duet from Lakme, played by the brilliant Cairn String Quartet, who also flawlessly accommodated their more offbeat request to perform Guns N’ Roses, Sandi Thom and Metallica for our registry signing.  The guests loved their performances before and after the ceremony as well.

Buildings with history and plenty of character have always appealed to Tamsyn & Jamie  They felt The Royal College of Physicians, with its classical library and vibrant Great Hall, had those in abundence. Tamsyn told us “it has an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ quality; everywhere you go a contrasting style and colour unfolds before you, and as Jamie put it, we wandered round like ‘twa bairns the night afore Christmas’. The team there were also incredibly helpful and organised, both throughout the planning and on the day, and didn’t bat an eyelid when we proposed staging a swordfight in their priceless building!”  The wedding day was rainy but it didn’t matter as the interior of The Royal College of Physicians is so stunning.

The first dance was a tricky one for Jamie and Tamsyn.  As they told us “neither of us are dancers, and we dreaded three minutes of awkward shuffling to something traditional. So we decided that we’d choose the mushiest tune we could think of (step forward Celine Dion’s Titanic theme), shuffle briefly – then stop the music and launch into a ‘first swordfight’ instead!  As we started to practise our fight in the weeks beforehand, we did wonder if we’d bitten off more than we could chew – I used to fence internationally but had never performed, and Jamie was a professional musician so is used to stages, but had never fenced. Plus we’d be doing the whole thing in full formal dress (including enormous skirt, train and heels for me), having to remember detailed choreography on top of all the excitement of the wedding day, and trying not to run each other through, as we wouldn’t be wearing any safety gear. We kept the whole thing secret (apart from a handful of helpers), and snuck nervously away for a quick practice beforehand (which Mark also photographed). But once the swordfight music started (Pirates of the Caribbean theme tune!), and we smiled at each other across our raised blades, all the nerves melted away and the whole fight was the most immense amount of fun.”

Jamie and Tamsyn decided they needed a more ‘them’ alternative to flowers. Tamsyn’s Mum was asked if she could help with, “you know, stuff that will look cool, um, maybe with peacock feathers”. She designed and made all the ‘bouquets’, buttonholes, bridesmaids fascinators, table plans and markers, and bookmark place-settings (for which they’d chosen an individual quote for each guest) – and Tamsyn & Jamie were blown away by her imaginative ideas, and how fantastic the finished results were.

The couple also made their own centrepieces, by building stacks of books then planting artificial trees in them.  Tamsyn told us “these caused a few fraught moments with midnight book-drilling and disembowelling topiary balls and trying to stuff fairy lights into them, but they were worth it in the end!”  The wedding cake was blue, green, and purple cupcakes from Liggy’s Cakes described by Tamsyn as “yum!”.

Jamie hadn’t owned a full kilt outfit previously as he’d never felt comfortable in the buttoned-up traditional style, so he eagerly seized on the opportunity to put together his own style entirely. He created his own tartan, and then had his kilt made up in this newly-minted family pattern. The rest of his sleek black outfit was then designed around it.

Tamsyn told us that ceilidh band Two Left Feet were a “huge hit, and got everyone from the oldest to the youngest on their feet, with enthusiastic calling for our many novice English ceilidh-ers (bride included)! One of the best unexpected pleasures of the day was seeing all our diverse gang of family and friends dancing merrily away together.”

Other suppliers worthy of note for the couple were the Humanist celebrant Lesley who “worked with us to put together a very personal ceremony, and was a huge support and calming presence throughout” and caterers Prestige Scotland, who “not only provided fabulous food but were great in helping us plan, and in running an immaculately tight ship on the day”.

So why did Jamie and Tamsyn choose Archibald Photography?  Tamsyn told us “we’re passionate about travel, and were initially captivated by Mark’s travel photography, with galleries of the sort of travel shots we’d love to have taken ourselves, if only we were that talented! Plus Archibald Photography’s ethos of reflecting the individual styles of people they work with, rather than fitting a traditional ‘wedding’ mould, really appealed. Mark is a lovely character in person as well, and we knew he’d be great at putting all our most photo-shy guests (including us occasionally!) at ease.  We’re still struggling to choose favourites. There are so many beautifully dramatic ones against the RCPE’s stunning backdrops, but we also love the really personal shots that have vividly captured all our favourite moments. And there were so many of those! All the various aspects of the ceremony, including exchanging rings (and giggling as we struggle to get them on), speeches, the swordfight (and our joy and amazement afterwards that we’d actually managed to pull it off without someone losing an eye!) – and I could go on, there are countless others. Also, the way Mark’s captured all the character and personality of our wonderful families and friends. We felt carried along on a tide of their thoroughly infectious enthusiasm, and without them the day wouldn’t have been the joyful and exuberant celebration it was.”

A final note from groom Jamie who “remembers having to pinch himself throughout the day, because not only had we actually got married, but we’d done so in a way that felt entirely true to ourselves, and we and our families and friends were having a fantastic time into the bargain.”