Wedding Photography at Seton Collegiate Church

Jenny and Jonathan got married on 26 June at Seton Collegiate Church near Longniddy in East Lothian, and celebrated afterwards at Craigielaw Golf Club, Aberlady. Absolutely stunning venues, I could not have asked for better for this wedding shoot. I still can’t believe that although I’m an East Lothian native, I’d never actually been to either venue before. I’d never even heard of Seton Collegiate Church before this wedding.

I’d known Jenny, who looked absolutely stunning as a bride, for years - her big brother is sort of like my big brother, my best man, my old mate and drinking partner - so walking in the door at her parents’ house before the wedding, with all her family there, was familiarity itself.



We did some formals in the garden whilst the pre-match champagne flowed and I did my best to keep my gear together and camera/lens combos on useful rotation. All at a hundred miles an hour. The things you don’t think about as an amateur photographer with no deadline…

Things ran a bit late and I wanted to get up to the venue to shoot the lads larking about before the ceremony, so I scooted off as quick as possible, a ten minute drive or so, and got a few establishing shots of the church before the old Riley carrying the bride and her father rolled through the gates, which I was more or less ready for. I had the 70-200 f2.8 on at the time so was able to get a decent tight shot of the bride waving to the crowd on the way in.


This was a small interior and the seating arrangement inside didn’t leave me with much access, so I thought better of getting stuck up the aisle taking frontal shots of the bride and groom as they entered so I decided to shoot them from behind. I like this one of the bride and her father going into the darkness - it is such a big moment for both of them.


Seton Collegiate Church is actually not a church at all but a ruined chapel, which was a mixed blessing. The disadvantage was the aforementioned lack of access to the front but this was outweighed by the lack of tungsten (or worse, flurescent) lighting - indeed we had some nice soft natural light to play with - and interesting wall textures. I kept the 70-200 on the 5D, which I ramped up to ISO 1600/2000 and wide open at f2.8, floated around at the back of the congregation, and got some really nice shots of the ceremony. Luckily, the light falling on Jenny was perfect. A little magic Photoshop dust and she really does look quite angelic in many of these photographs.


I don’t remember weddings taking so little time - I must have been to loads of Catholic weddings in the past. A couple of readings, a proclaimation by the humanist celebrant, and this was done and dusted in about twenty minutes. Before I knew it I was backing down the aisle tracking my bride and groom, auto focus mode very much in Ai Servo. I still had the long zoom on as I knew it would enlarge the background, which in this case were three magnificent windows. Got some nice shots. The bridesmaid’s (Helen) expression added a lot to this one.


Next up was some candids of the guests milling around in front of the church, some nice shots of the kids playing and the aged and infirm being wheeled around to meet everyone; groups shots of the men in their kilts, and then the masses were bused away to Craigielaw for the reception.


Straight after the ceremony is a period I remember from my own wedding where as the bride and groom, alone at last with your hard-working photographer, you start to feel like you can let your hair down. Jenny and Jonny were very patient as they let me bowl them round for twenty minutes, looking for the light. It was sunny by that point so harsh shadows where a problem, but we found some shade and took a walk in the nearby woods where the light was a soft enough. Then, to Craigielaw.

We were on a tight schedule so I wanted to get the fairly long list of formals knocked out as soon as possible.

Craigielaw really is a magnificent venue. From outside the bar on the patio, looking north, a small natural stone wall, then a championship golf course, then the Firth of Forth. This view only got better as the night went on and the sun got lower in the sky. Perfect place for the formal group shots, including this one of the bride and groom with some of their elders and betters. I love the lady on the left who reminds me of Joe Pesci’s mother in Goodfellas.


The manager at Craigielaw, John, was particularly helpful and put me in the prime location upstairs on the balcony to do a group shot of the whole wedding party. A few test shots before the biggie, one of which caught a little girl in a blue dress playfully levitating. I also love the little boy by the bin in the foreground.


Shooting kids wide open with a natural stone background is always a winner in my book. This young lady was having a whale of a time checking out the courtyard.


Shooting kids blowing bubbles off a balcony with a perfect blue sky in the background is another keeper.


As I said, later in the day as we approached sunset, the light got nice and the guests started to spread out. Most people spilled outside after dinner and I stalked about shooting candids, one of which, of the bride gingerly coming down the steps with a magnificent and typically East Lothian background, I’m really pleased with. It’s funny, as a stickler for the picture, you go back through your archive and you can always pick out bugs and glitches in your images. In this one, I can’t stop my eye being drawn to the golfer’s cap, mysteriously left on the wall to the left of the bride. Could have cloned it out in two seconds in Photoshop but missed it during the edit. Note to self for next time. I promise I’ll deal with it in the master file if anyone wants to buy this as a print!


My final assigment was to shoot the first dance, which again - thanks to the long days in Scotland at this time of the year - was still shot in natural light. Shafts of lovely warm light on the dancefloor proved challenging (hotspots) and useful at the same time. This last one here shows the thoughtful decoration in the venue, lots of nice diagonals, the bride and groom who are clearly very pleased with each other, and the guests in the background.


So, all in all I’m really pleased with how I shot on the day and many of the images I took home for editing. Not perfect, but for my first go… I know I’m on the right path.

Next wedding in two days time.

Comments

[Gina Dover-Jaques]

I love your images and together with your thoughts on the day a great mix. I wish more photographers did this.

Thank you and keep up the great work.

Gina