Another of our wedding clients organised for Mark to come and photograph their gorgeous daughter last month. This time it was the turn of the ultra cute Millie to be a mini model for the day! Millie is super smiley (despite the fact she was teething big style on the day of the shoot) and so it was easy for Mark to capture some great, timeless shots of her having fun.
Here’s some of our favourites of Millie’s day:
Most brides, after their wedding day, have their dress carefully cleaned and then packed away in tissue never to be seen again. Rather than being left with an expensive frock that you only wear once, some couples are choosing to organise a photoshoot where they ‘rock the frock’ or ‘cherish the dress’. The start of a trend called ‘trash the dress’ is credited to John Michael Cooper, a Las Vegas photographer who has been taking what he refers to as ‘antibridal’ images since 2000 and there are entire websites dedicated to brides who opt to ‘trash’ their dresses. To be honest, we’d be kinda horrified if we ‘trashed’ someone’s dress but it’s great fun to get a couple on their own after a wedding day where they are relaxed and not having to worry if their guests are being looked after.
We recently shot a post wedding photoshoot for Lisa and Michael around some of their favourite parts of Ayrshire. The weather on Lisa and Michael’s actual wedding day had been horrendous so this ‘rock the frock’ photoshoot gave them a chance to get some gorgeous relaxed shots of the two of them outdoors with some of their favourite backdrops. As Lisa told us “The photographs took my breath away. I had imagined beautiful pictures by the sea and castle but was blown away by how natural and unique the images were! The colours and textures are incredible – Mark totally captured the magic of the day. We couldn’t ask for more.”
Lisa’s wedding dress was ‘Serena’ by Alan Hannah, hair by Volume Hair and makeup by Looking Good. The images were taken at Culzean Castle and at a local beach location. Here are some of our favourite shots from the shoot:
Gayle and Kahl met on the web on Sarah (Property Ladder) Beeny’s dating site (www.mysinglefriend.com) – Kahl was being hassled by his sister Kari to ‘just give it a go’ and Gayle’s friend Aileen talked her into going ‘on a few wee dates’. The couple got chatting online towards the end of September 2006, met a few weeks later and got married on 3rd May 2008.
As far as Kahl was concerned, there was never going to be a more perfect place to propose than on Croy Shore, South Ayrshire. As the sun set, he presented the rock and rendered Gayle speechless.
We asked Gayle and Kahl why they chose Croy Shore to get married, they said “the place means a lot to Gayle and her family as they spent a lot of time there as kids and still do today. We try and get down there most weekends during the summer. We rented the Segganwell Cottages that sit right on the beach from The National Trust for Scotland (www.ntsholidays.com).”
Gayle and Kahl thought the weekend couldn’t have gone any smoother (with huge thanks to all of their friends and family for their massive help). There’s 125 steps from Culzean Castle down to the Segganwell Cottages and Gayle, Kahl and their guests knew every one of them very well by the Monday morning. They built three marquees plus lifted all of the tables, glasses, plates, crockery, linen, chairs etc down to the beach on the Friday and back up on the Monday morning. As Gayle said at the time “it was the best honeymoon bikini diet ever”
Gayle’s dress, veil and accessories all came from Ann Sloane of Hamilton. (www.sloanesbridal.co.uk). Her sparkly shoes however were “a fantastic ebay find”. Flowers were provided by Mary’s Flowers in Ayr. (www.marysflowers.co.uk).
The couple said that photography, food and music were their big 3 for their day. They wanted to eat well, dance like fools and have some stunning images to remind them of the day they ate well and danced like fools! We asked Gayle and Kahl why they chose Archibald Photography and they said “because of Mark…. simple as that. We met with quite a few photographers and we just clicked with Mark. Any photographer that asks what sort of music you fancy listening to before you kick off your first meeting was always going to grab Kahl’s attention”.
The couple had no horror stories of the day. They had a fairly small, informal wedding and planned everything themselves and it all just worked. As they said “who says you can’t have a wedding on a beach at the bottom of a cliff with a barbeque in Scotland in May? The sun shone and everything was perfect”.
The speeches are usually a time for laughs at a wedding and at Gayle and Kahl’s wedding, Gayle’s dad, who’s incredibly shy, bowed out of his ‘speechly duties’ and Gayle’s brother stepped in to say a few words. He’s a teacher and used to public speaking, so you’d think that the unconventional ‘brother of the bride’ speech would be a doddle…. not so. The emotion of the day got a little too much for him and he couldn’t speak for the tears. As he fought to get through his speech, he became more and more inaudible and his voice got higher…. ‘Only dogs can hear me now’, he said through his sobs… There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
According to Kahl and Gayle, saying ‘ I do’ was the biggest buzz!
