Dunkeld House; JimJen!

Photo: Rob Thomson @ lifetime Photography

I first met Jim and Jen at a wedding fair at the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes on the 21st of February 2016, where I was manning the HSS Stall with colleague Gillian Stewart,  they said that they were looking into having a Humanist ceremony had been in touch with a celebrant near their venue at Dunkeld...so I asked if it was the 20th of August next year, and with raised eyebrows they said yes! 

I had replied to their e-mail that morning confirming I was free, and asking if they wanted to meet up....

We met for a cuppa a couple of months later - and got on like a house on fire!

Paperwork done, and set aside for the time being...

Sent them a happy new year & bundle of questions in January...which they printed out and scribbled all over in the pub.

Then we met to actually plan the ceremony at Loch Levens Larder at the End of January, and they handed me their notes as they hadn't had time to type them up!...and again we could have stayed there all day chatting...

...and this is one of the points at which things vary from the norm...I went home and started typing up my notes from the meeting & their scribbles from the pub, and only realised about 2 hours later that I had pretty much constructed the whole thing! 

It still needed a fair bit of work to get it ready to send, but I think it may have been one of the easiest weddings to write EVER...not because it was particularly simple or straightforward, just that I had a really good feel for who they were and what they wanted, and the words just flowed. (If I could bottle that stuff, life would be a LOT easier - and yes, celebrants can suffer from writers block!!)

So, I'm all pleased with myself, and thinking that I must be awesome at this stuff...but it turns out that while I might be a bit awesome sometimes, I'm will never be as awesome as Jim & Jen...

We did a LOT of drafts, but there was good progress on every one, and TBH I pushed them a bit to make a few things more 'them' rather than using versions or examples that I'd sent...which is pretty much my top advice for any wedding.

So when the big day arrived I was really excited, and the weather held so we got to be outside, and one of my first thoughts was that the flowers were awesome...and just a bit mad, and pretty over the top too (flower special to follow).

So I'm setting up, and the waiter who is helping move chairs starts chatting away about how awesome the Groom was last night at dinner, and how much fun the day was going to be working with them again...and then the photographer is there, saying how awesome their engagement shoot was to do...and after the ceremony was all over I chatted with the florist as well, who was moving some of the huge mad flower displays around, and she said how awesome it was to get to go crazy like this, and how it was all their ideas and plans, and how much she loved them both...and had even stayed just out of sight and watched the wedding - which if course the florist very rarely gets to do...

The lesson of the story?

Be yourselves at your wedding.

Look around and spend the time to find folk to work with on your day who get who you are.

They will be far more likely to enjoy it all, and get on board with all your ideas.

Want mad flowers? Find someone who would love to do mad flowers!

Want the celebrant to wind your Dad up? Find a celebrant who is happy to wind your Dad up!

Want the back row of the guests to secretly form a percussion section & chorus with added French horn for a sing-along?? If you have friends mad enough to do so? Go for it!

Want the celebrant to photobomb you even though she usually doesn't? Make sure you get one with right (lack of) decorum for the occasion!

Thank you to the truly awesome JIMJEN who took the time, and made it their very own.

From all of us who had so much fun being dragged along in your wake!. xxx

Photo: Rob Thomson @ lifetime Photography

Alina & Andrew at Gaurdswell Farm

As promised below when I posted about the very first ceremony at Gaurdswell Farm a few weeks ago, I now have some lovely photos from the bride and groom to share, and they each give me an opertunity to talk about why they are the way they are...so first up, the big KISS moment!

Photo by Michele Lamb

I try really hard not to photobomb my couples big moments, so as seen here, I am WAY off to the side while they share their vows and exchange their wedding rings...which most often puts me out of shot when the moment happens.

I have several reasons for this, but the first, most important and most obvious one is that this is very much THEIR moment, and the ceremony is about them, and they don't need a strangers face between theirs in the pictures that will grace their Mums mantelpiece for ever more!...as a side note, we blew out the candles you can see on the left there just after this, as there was a definite risk to bridesmaids frocks when they all stood for photos.

Next one shows that maybe I'm not a total stranger by this point...

Photo by Michele Lamb

I always (aim to!) arrive an hour before things are due to start.

First off I need to know that if I get lost, delayed by traffic, or some sort of natural disaster, I should still be able to get there on time. Once I arrive I will check that the legal paperwork is there too - so if it is not, we can hopefully retreive it from whereever it has been left. With legal paperwork assured I have time to move furniture if needed, chat with photographers; venue hosts; bridesmaids; groomsmen; readers; musicians - and as seen here - might have a chance to chat with the bride herself, often with accompanying Mums, frocks, fizz and make-up artists!

With Alina I had to check a few of my pronounciations (again!) as we had a properly international gathering, and I'm loath to trip over someones name as I introduce them!

I trully love that brides room buzz, with the excitment almost as thick in the air as the hairspray, and as noted in my first post about Gaurdswell, the accomodations were pretty lavish, so I had a good Oooo and Ahhh as well!

After that, with all my checks made and everyone happy about how it's all going to go, it's into my suit, a fresh coat of lippy, and sit quietly in a corner out of the way until we're good to go!

And after it's all done....

Photo by Michele Lamb

...well...I can't say it's my favourite photo of myself, but I am one of those folk with the 'expressive'  faces (plasticine?) so still shots are not always kind (another reason not to photobomb my couples!) ...but I do enjoy chatting with guests after the ceremony, and I take photos too...even though they are generaly not good enough to use on here, I still like to 'collect' all my couples...which sounds a bit creepy now that I write it down!

Alina and Andrew, thanks for sending me these through, and for sharing your day at Gaurdswell Farm with us all, and as I said in the other post - I'm so glad you took that leap of faith booking a stone shell and some mud with an amazing view!

Mid Summer Delight

I really could share all the photos from the wedding I did last midsummers day for my beautiful cousin Naomi and her wonderful husband Bravo. It was held at the home of another cousin just over in Dunkeld and very much a small family affair, with kids and fun and WAY too much food!

...and the view, oh the view, I could sit there and stare at it all day...

Yes, that it Dunkeld Cathedral in the background

 

 I was upstairs putting the signed legal paperwork away safely when the Scottish style dancing to wonderful African music broke out - and had to try and capture the moment before I ran back down and joined in....

Laura & Daniel at Inchyra Byre

Let the weather do its worst!

 

I first met these two by Skype as they were London based, then we managed to find a weekend they'd be up seeing Laura's folks in Glasgow and I'd be down in Edinburgh...so I popped over to meet for a coffee near the station at Queens Street on my way back to Perth, so we were able to do at least some of the planning face to face without anyone having to pay for flights!

...but all the plans in the world can do nothing about summer rain in Perthshire, so as the afternoon got darker and darker out on the lawn, the Inchyra staff and I hatched a plan for what we hoped would be the most efficient system of getting everyone inside the barn while still mostly dry if it decided to come down in sheets, as it was threatening too...

... it did.

It went roughly " Ladies can you please make you way inside and right to the back of the barn as quickly as you can, Bride first!...and then if the younger gentlemen can grab two chairs each and take them into the side room, we'll restart as soon as we can..."

It wasn't very quick, and lots of us got at least a bit damp, but it did mean that I had long enough to make up a few very bad jokes about getting the best value out of every room they were paying for at the venue...and Laura potentially getting two grand entrances!

Folk say that wee disasters like this can make the day, and it really can...everyone was in stitches - including the bride, who was so relaxed and happy throughout and just so excited about the whole thing, that it really could have rained cats and dogs all day, and Laura would not have cared!

The same can't be said for Daniel though...he was properly nervous as we set up, and the lovely cheesy grin below did not really put in an appearance till the paperwork was signed.

Major props too to their great team of pals from London, all of whom donned the kilt for the first time at the wedding, and wore them with pride...though the photographer and I did offer some instructions on how to sit down ‘politely’ in one... if only Kilt Hire firms issued instructions!

Congratulations and thanks to you both, such a lovely warm joyous ceremony!

  

How to go to the loo in a big wedding dress

TOP TIP

Depending on your frock you could try with a bin bag but it can make the dress suffer a bit of static...so another good call can be a long jersey skirt with an elasticated waist used in the same way as the bag- a quick run to a charity shop will find you one if your wardrobe does not provide!

Animals in the Wedding party?

Tangled Ever After

or

79 good reasons not to include animals in your ceremony!

Gotta love some Disney...and yes this is 6 minutes and 29 seconds of your life you won't get back if you click, but there is a slightly serious side to this post too...

I am very happy to have family dogs involved in ceremonies...and last weekend I had a 'Best Pug' and 'Brides Pug' for the first time! But I really am not keen on the birds of prey bringing the rings thing.

There are lots of celebrants who are very happy to do this, so I can easily put you in touch with someone who will, but I'd like to explain my reasoning.

I have only done this once, I was very unsure about the whole idea and to my mind it did not go well...but maybe not in the way you'd expect...

The owl didn't actually have the rings (the best man had them, so that side of it was fake) and it did fly down to the Best man, Grab the chickens foot he was holding, and as he didn't catch the straps to keep it on the glove quickly enough, it promptly flew up to the chandelier and stayed there...

In a cartoon like the one above, this is properly funny, but in real life? Not so much.

The bride, groom and guests were in kinks – except for the few who were genuinely shaking in terror as they hated birds, and especially birds indoors. Despite having been told to be super quiet and not to use flash photography while the wee owl was in the room, everyone soon forgot in the hilarity, and folk were leaning around trying to get a shot of the owl up on high, as the handler tried to lure it down again.

We eventually managed to restore a bit of calm, and a new chickens foot was found, and the owl returned to the handlers glove…only for a huge spontaneous round of applause to start at her success. That was the last straw for the owl, the noise bouncing off the stone walls, and it was actually shrieking in distress as it was taken back outside.

So, all in all not my cup of tea.

Is it animal cruelty? Possibly. Circus act? Heading that way…and unless I find myself conducting the wedding of an actual falconer, next to a mews, with only 5 guests, who is having their pet raptor join in, in a ceremony that is guaranteed to be outside – no matter what the weather does -  I’ll stick with enjoying the Disney version, and not be trying that again!

Steph & Angela; Comrie Croft

FACT: I don't understand the biology of it, but winter brides don't feel the cold like other people.

If you've been looking through my blog a bit (or are about to!) you'll see that I'm not much of a photographer, which is why I get excited when a couple sends me some good photos after a ceremony...and you can see the 'real ones' of this rather magical winters day at Comrie Croft from a 'real' photographer on the link below...but I had to include this one of mine once I found it again, as even though the auto focus has set itself on the wee dude not the Brides, he really was the happiest most excited page boy EVER!

You can see the proper photos and even more of the mad pageboy as well as the beautiful brides at:

http://www.wonderfulandstrange.co.uk/2017/02/scotland-woodland-wedding-photography/