Here’s a tale of serendipity – five strangers moved into a house at the bottom of Broughton Street, Edinburgh in 1999. Matt and Claire were two of them. They were both just out of relationships and had rooms in the hallway opposite each other, Claire was at Napier Uni and working in a bar part time and Matt was working full time managing a bar in the city centre. They found themselves finishing late shifts and sitting up well into the early hours talking and playing cards. After several months, he kissed her on the dance floor in a club when the lights went up and the rest is history…
Claire told us that Matt proposed to her at The Big Chill Festival in 2009 – a mere ten years later!! As she said “we’re big festival goers and The Big Chill is our favourite. After a gruelling 8 hour drive down to Hereford, we were pitching our massive tent while our friends had all dispersed to the car, the bar, the toilet, wherever. I thought Matt was taking an eternity to hammer in the last of the tent pegs; so I turned round to see what was holding him up and he was on one knee with ring in hand, I’m told I forgot to say yes, so he had to ask me again, but it was always going to be ‘yes’.”
The couple chose the stunning Oxenfood Castle for their wedding as Claire had been to a wedding there some years before and loved the grounds outside with it’s tree lined avenues and wide expansive fields. As she told us “the staff at Oxenfoord were incredible, we can’t praise them highly enough, the venue manager Shona actually went above and beyond the call of duty and sewed my dress into a bustle late in the evening after my sister had given up trying to pin it up for the third time.”
Claire wore the Helena dress by Pronovias which she bought it in Northern Ireland when she went dress shopping with her sister and mum. Claire told us “I had tried on lots of dresses, but when I stepped out in this one my sister started to cry, (possibly because she was pregnant at the time and fed up dress shopping) but I loved the detailing on the bodice and straps, it made me feel like I was in a Jane Austin novel. I had originally thought I’d go for something medieval in style, very plain and floaty but once I’d found ‘The One’ there was no turning back, I then realised it didn’t really suit the venue we originally had our eyes on (Forest Hills) so I started shopping for Castles!”
Claire’s sister, Emma, was her bridesmaid but as Emma lives around 400 miles away from Claire and had recently given birth to her first baby (the beautiful Elizabeth Pearl), co-ordinatoed dress shopping was a bit tricky. So when Claire found a fabric she loved for Emma’s dress, the cravats, cake ribbon and kilt sock flashes, she simply sent Emma a bolt of material to do with what she wanted. Emma found a local dressmaker and had a design in mind. Claire only saw Emma’s dress on the morning of the wedding but thought she looked “absolutely beautiful”.
Claire wore her Granny’s antique pearls as her something borrowed but kept accessories down to a minimum because her dress was quite detailed. She commented “I find veils really fussy and never intended on having a tiara, the hippy in me always fancied flowers in my hair – so I went with 5 individually wired white rosebuds dotted through it.” Claire also told us that “Sharon and Monica from Made-Up were amazing. They managed to turn my sister, mum and I into models for the day. On the morning of the wedding they had a vehicle breakdown on the way to the Castle, abandoned their car by the roadside and hailed a taxi to get to us on time. Legends.”
Flowers for the day were provided by Lilium whom Claire chose as when she gave Sharon a swatch of her bridesmaid dress material, she sourced a rose relatively new to the UK called “Dark Hypnose” which toned in beautifully with it. And according to Claire, “she also shares my love of peonies”. Claire and Matt’s wedding cake was provided by 3 D Cakes.
Matt had a kilt made for him by Howie Nicolsby at 21st Century Kilts on Thistle Street, Edinburgh. According to Claire “Howie is a fantastic tailor and his banter is top drawer!”
Claire and Matt had a civil ceremony within Oxenfoord Castle conducted by the lovely Janet Hume. The room used was filled with their friends and family and flooded by sunshine from the large windows.
Following this, the couple (followed by all their guests) made the short walk through the grounds of Oxenfoord Castle to Cranstoun Church for a religious blessing by the Reverend Graham Leitch. This stroll was made pretty quickly as it was starting to rain lightly!
On return to Oxenfoord Castle, the rain started to fall heavily so Claire, Matt and all their friends relaxed in the library in front of a roaring real fire and within the other rooms of Oxenfoord, until the showers went off. Matt’s gorgeous nephews were very entertaining making a star turn on the piano.
After the rain went off, the couple took a short walk around the grounds of Oxenfoord to have some fun and capture some relaxed bridal portraits.
About their evening entertainment, Claire told us that “the ceilidh was a disorganised shambles (as they always are) but my Irish side of the family LOVED every minute of it, Matt and I had handpicked the evening playlist and we danced to everything from ‘Rasputen’ by Boney Em to ‘Bring me Sunshine’ by Morcombe and Wise at the very end of the evening – video evidence suggests it was a roaring success!”
The couple’s rings were by Love for Diamonds in Glasgow. Ann Love was recommended to Matt by a friend and as Claire recalled “she was phenomenal helping Matt pick the design of my engagement ring, I met her when we went back for our wedding rings and she couldn’t have been more helpful. Her shop, just off George Square, is by appointment only, but it’s well worth making an appointment just to have a look at her amazing stock in a Boudoir style setting.”
The whole day was incredible for Claire and Matt, but their most powerful memory was “when we were piped into dinner, to Rod Stewarts ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’, and were greeted by the loudest cheer that we think we’ve ever heard. It was really overwhelming to feel so much love and joy in the room and that moment will stay with us forever. Our piper, Hilary, says she couldn’t hear her own pipes which has never happened to her before! Hilary was fantastic, she also played Elvis’s ‘Love Me Tender’ during the cake cutting and Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ as the evening guests arrived. Another great part of the day was the throwing of ‘The Man Bouquet’ – we have a lot of single male friends and we thought it would be great for Matt to throw our bridesmaids flowers for them to catch – we’re still laughing at the photos!”
Other music choices during the day included Pachelbel ‘Canon in D’ “for a bit of tradition” for walking down the aisle, register was signed to ‘Will You Go Lassie Go’ “for a bit of Irish charm” and Claire and Matt walked back up the aisle to Sigur Ros’s ‘Hoppipolla’ which Claire says was “for a bit of unintelligible Norwegian wailing”! Their first dance was ‘As’ by Stevie Wonder, which Claire says “at 8 minutes long is a marathon, not a sprint. But the words are truly beautiful and Stevie Wonder is a genius!”
So, was there anything that didn’t work out as planned for Claire and Matt? Claire told us “My boss accidentally drove my sister in laws car over an embankment at the front of the Castle (a la “The Italian Job”) rendering it stuck there for the next days wedding. Oh and the DJ’s amp kept breaking during the first hour of the disco – but no-one seems to have noticed and our DJ friend Sally was able to step in and save the day!”
We asked Claire and Matt what made them choose Archibald Photography and they said “because you are the best in the business!” Shucks, thanks guys! Their favourite shot from the day is of them having a kiss under a giant redwood tree.
I have to share a bit of the most amazing email we received from Claire after they had been for their first preview:
“The images really are more than we could have ever imagined – I have seen ALL the work you do as I practically LIVED in your archive section for 10 months (bit of an Archibald website stalker!) but it’s completely different when it’s YOUR day and YOUR friends and family captured so beautifully forever. It’s just wonderful to have images of what happened when we weren’t there or when our backs were turned – honestly, Mark (and Donna) your pictures provoke such strong emotions in me I find it hard not to cry when I look at some of them and that’s even after I‘ve seen each of them at least 100 times already… When I look at them I relive the day frame by frame – it’s like being there again, and when the most magical day of your life is never to be repeated – you need that, you need to be reminded in the most perfect way possible …you are the best wedding gift we could have ever given ourselves.
I adore the images of my mum and sis and me getting ready in the room – I love the light and pale pale shades and tones, it is so serene and elegant. The outside pictures of us alone are stunning too… I could go on… and on… and on – but I won’t. I just thought I’d drop you this tiny note of MASSIVE thanks as I was very quiet yesterday due to my eyes being glued to the laptop and my jaw being on the floor…”
How would they sum up the whole experience? – “A truly magical day, full of love and laughter”.
We asked Claire if she had any words of wisdom for couples planning their wedding. She told us “always hire a professional photographer” – that one we like a lot! We also loved what she then added:
“On the day the little things don’t matter. You are there. He is there. You are getting married!
During the day, take a few minutes to stand back and look at everyone there and how happy they are and remember they are there because they love you and love your husband. I still remember those moments and they still make me glow!”