I’m so excited about posting this wedding! The sneak preview of this wedding generated so many comments and responses to one of the images in particular (that has been included here too!) that I’ve been dying to get the full story here on the blog.
Straight in to the images, no messing today! I met Kirsty and serious ‘Jonny Draper Photography Bridesmaids of the year’ candidates, Sam, Hollie & Kirsty at the gorgeous guest house they were getting ready in on the morning of the wedding…
I love details. I’m becoming more and more obsessed with them. I love looking for ways to show off these very important things that mean so much to the bride and groom, things that they have spent months or even years talking about and making decisions on…
I have to say, it was a very relaxed atmosphere in the morning with the girls, there was no panic, everyone was just getting on with things!
Over to St Salvator’s Chapel to meet up with Stuart and I started to realise what this wedding had in store for me. Kirsty and Stuart were brilliant to work alongside in the build up to their day – they were so excited and passionate about so many things, but at the same time really wanted to involve me and work on ideas together. Their wedding was a beautiful blend of great Scottish tradition and seriously cool & contemporary details.
Stuart wasn’t quite as relaxed as Kirsty…!!!
One of my favourite images from the day…Kirsty looks so elegant but at the same time you can see the excitement and anticipation on her face…
As Kirsty and Stuart were signing the register I spotted the piper and the driver chatting outside – Love it!
This is where the time I had spent with Kirsty & Stuart and the communication between us in the build up to the day really paid off. I was so looking forward to shooting Kirsty and Stuart’s wedding as there were so many different parts to look forward to on the day. Kirsty & Stuart really wanted a good mix of reportage images, family and friends group shots and then some spectacular bridal party images as well! The key to us achieving this was working together and making sure we got the balance right. We’d worked out what to do and when and most importantly, we didn’t make a big deal about this. I hate the idea of being the photographer who stands on a chair and shouts names out from a list. This instantly draws attention to what’s going on (and not in a good way!) Photography should fit seamlessly into the day and never become more important than anything else.
The beauty of weddings – you never know what’s going to happen! A walking tour of Japanese tourists wandered through the grounds and of course wanted to take a few shots themselves…
I have no idea what was happening in this group shot. You usually get one or two characters at a wedding…we had 7 in the same group here!!!
This was one of the things I was really looking forward to. Kirsty and Stuart really wanted to incorporate some of St Andrew’s most famous sights into their bridal party images, so we walked up the road to the cathedral just before the wedding breakfast. I love the shots of the bridal party getting there as much as what we shot when we arrived there!
I love it. The architecture, history, the drama. The bridal party were as cool as you like and were really up for creating something really special and unique for their bride and groom. One of the things I think is really important when shooting imagery like this, is being realistic with the time spent on it. This shot took about 30 secs to pose and shoot. Done. Yes, I could easily ask a bride and groom to commit an hour (or longer!) on their day to shooting some amazing stuff – but who wants to be away from the party for that long?!?! Especially when, if I do my job right, I already know what I want everyone to do, how the shot needs to look. It takes no time at all. The most important thing to me is delivering something unique to my brides and grooms. What that image is, depends entirely on the location and the bride and groom as people. The bridal party images from Kirsty and Stuart’s wedding are cool, contemporary, dramatic, high fashion images. But this doesn’t suit everybody and it would be wrong for me to force it upon brides and grooms. BUT, you don’t have to do stuff as dramatic as this to be unique…uniqueness (is that a word!?!?) comes from the bride and groom’s personality and the venue or location. I just have to capture it.
Back in time for the wedding breakfast and a bit more Scottish tradition as Kirsty & Stuart were piped into the room…
I love these three shots…
I loved the speeches…very emotional…but I must be getting a bit immune to it all now as I only cried three times…
And down to the Old Course, the home of golf and the most famous bridge in golfing history – and that image…
We then dropped down onto the beach – what a sky!
I love this…beautiful St Andrew’s in the background…
And finally, the evening…
What a wedding! It had everything! Congratulations once again Kirsty & Stuart, it was an amazing day, thank you for your endless enthusiasm, your ideas and creative input -
We got a hell of a set of shots!
x
Welcome to my blog! This is not only a showcase of my work, but also an insight into what else
Jonny Draper Photography is about. So here you'll see weddings, fashion shoots, events, family holidays, weekends away - everything that I do either with or without a camera in my hand!
x
September 1st, 2010 at 11:49 am
Hey Jonny love the shots with the sunlight coming through the trees so romantic, I hope they have a fab wedding