The majestic wedding venue of Airth Castle Hotel in Central Scotland was the setting for today’s wedding photography blog entry, featuring the Wedding of Ganga and Kieran Welsh.

Airth Castle Hotel is an extremely popular Scottish Wedding Venue and is also very well liked amongst Scottish Wedding Photographers, with its fabulous grounds and character-filled rooms.

Part of Chief Executive Steven McLeod’s highly successful Aurora Group of Hotels, the castle is sister to Glenbervie House another very popular wedding venue as well as Solsgirth House, which has recently been taken over by the group and is also featuring well in our forward calendar of wedding photography bookings.

Airth Castle itself is steeped in Scottish History and dates back to the late 1400′s, however it wasn’t until the early 19th century that the now familiar frontage of the hotel was built.

Weddings at Airth Castle Hotel are always great fun, and it can be clearly seen that the hotel and its staff have many years experience hosting weddings. The traditions and customs they bring to proceedings on the day make it a truly spectacular occasion for everyone involved. The Master of Ceremonies, Hugh, is one of life’s great characters and among the Scottish Wedding Photography community he must be one of the most well-known MCs in Scotland.

Ganga and Kieran were blessed with a beautifully crisp and sunny Winter’s day for their Scottish Wedding. We arrived a couple of hours before the wedding ceremony to capture the fun of the bridal preparations. As is our normal routine Alan and I started photographing the detail shots, before Alan headed off to find the groomsmen, whilst I stayed with the girls.

I think I got the best job that morning as the girls were having great fun – at one point there were four bridesmaids, two flower girls, a couple of friends and Ganga’s parents all gathered in the room for some champagne prior to the ceremony.

The two flower girls were very cute and were exhausted jumping on the bed and running up and down the hotel corridors before the wedding even began!

There was a very emotional moment when Ganga’s Dad arrived to see his daughter in her wedding dress for the first time – Tears were flowing openly (including mine) – and there were some special moments when Ganga and her Dad were left by themselves for a while which I was very privileged to be allowed to capture. It’s little moments like this that make your Wedding Photographs priceless – Ganga will be able to look back at that photograph for years to come and the memories will come flooding back of the last few moments with her father before she became a married woman.

For the Wedding colour scheme, Ganga and Kieran chose a riot of various pinks and blues for the flowers used throughout the day, matching the deep blue of the bridesmaids’ dresses perfectly. They were absolutely beautiful.

Highlight of the day was the Best Man’s speech by Kieran’s brother – where he recalled some of the many letters that a very young Kieran had written to him, when his older brother first started working abroad in France – they were absolutely priceless. “Have you changed your eating habits to frogs legs and snails or do you still eat mince ‘n tatties”, was one of the “tamer” emails.

As Ganga and Kieran live down South, many of the guests travelled a long way for their wedding but it was clear their long journey was worth it, as everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

We had some beautiful but challenging light for the wedding photographs. Fortunately these also happen to be Alan’s favourite conditions for creating some stunning wedding photographs – Alan has selected some of his favourite wedding photographs from the day – see if you can spot which one’s are mine!

Thank you Ganga and Kieran for allowing Alan Hutchison Photography to be part of your special day, we hope you enjoy your wedding photographs for years to come and that they will always remind you of your very special Wedding Day at Airth Castle.

Alan Hutchison ASWPP LMPA is a Multi-Award winning Scottish Wedding Photographer. You can read the original blog post here Weddings at Airth Castle Hotel – Ganga and Kieran’s Special Day. Alan Hutchison Photography - Wedding Photography Scotland

Morag and Simon live down South, but Morag wanted to return home for a proper Scottish Wedding and chose the gorgeous wedding venue of Airth Castle. The stunning castle overlooks the village of Airth and the nearby River Forth.

Airth Castle Hotel was recently named the “Best Wedding Venue in Scotland” at the prestigious Vows awards and is a well-deserved accolade as the staff cannot be more helpful.

Of course weddings don’t organise themselves, even with the perfect wedding venue.  It takes planning.  Lots of it.  However, if Carlsberg planned weddings they would hire our lovely bride Morag – if ever there was a lesson in “best practice” on how to organise a wedding with was it.  (You can see Morag’s wedding project folder in the images below). Morag was so organised and the wedding ran like clockwork allowing the happy couple to relax and enjoy their well-planned day.

We first met Morag and Simon last year for their pre-wedding photography shoot at the Wallace Monument in Stirling.  So on the day we were all very relaxed.

Occasional cases of mass confusion did however occur every time I asked Morag for something – as readers of the blog will know, my wife and wonderful assistant is also called Morag. Eventually we agreed Morag 1 (aka the bride) would be called Morag, and Morag 2 (aka the photographer’s assistant) would be called Mo. That lasted all of two minutes when I already had the names reversed. No problems with the groom fortunately. Well done Simon.

We had great fun with the happy couple and their guests all day – it was a fabulous wedding. In the evening we brought along our popular photobooth to allow guest to get some “couples” shots in our portable photography studio, as well as some fun filled “creative” shots.

Here are some of my own personal favourite shots from the day:-

Friends and Family can view the full wedding gallery here. The password to access the gallery is the Groom’s surname.  The photo booth images can also be viewed there as well.

Like what you see? Want to see more? You can view our portfolio here.

Interested in speaking to us to discuss you own wedding photography or portrait requirements? Please click on the Contact menu at the top of the page or give us a call on 01259 210299 or 07887 835431. We can cover wedding and portrait commissions throughout Scotland as well as overseas.

We’d love to hear from you.

P.S. The Best Man’s speech reference to the Volcanic Ash Cloud disruption was classic, bringing out a carrier bag from Iceland to collect the ash.

Alan Hutchison ASWPP LMPA is a Multi-Award winning Scottish Wedding Photographer. You can read the original blog post here Morag and Simon’s Wedding Day at Airth Castle Hotel and Spa. Alan Hutchison Photography - Wedding Photography Scotland

In Morag and Simon’s case their choice of location was to be the spot where they they originally got engaged, Wallace Monument, one of Scotland’s most popular tourist attractions.

As a Scottish Wedding Photographer who was born in the shadow of “The Wallace”, this is a particularly favourite location of mine and is right bang in the middle of my home patch of Central Scotland.

Wallace Monument stands proud on Abbey Craig rock high above the town of Stirling, and was opened to the public in 1861 to recognise one of Scotland’s greatest heroes, Sir William Wallace (or as Hollywood now affectionately knows him, “Braveheart“).

Nowadays, you can actually get married at the top of Wallace Monument – just keep your fingers crossed that it’s not too windy a day!.

In Morag and Simon’s case they are getting married next year at the stunning wedding venue of Airth Castle Hotel, once owned by the family of another Scottish hero, King Robert the Bruce.  Airth Castle Hotel and Spa is one of Scotland’s premier wedding venues and will make a stunning backdrop for Morag and Simon’s wedding photography.

So, on to the photographs from their pre-wedding photoshot at what was NOT a “semi-private” location by any measure.  Cue the magic trick of making 300 tourists, also visiting Wallace Monument that day, disappear……

Alan Hutchison ASWPP LMPA is a Multi-Award winning Scottish Wedding Photographer. You can read the original blog post here Pre-Wedding Photoshoot at Wallace Monument – Morag and Simon. Alan Hutchison Photography - Wedding Photography Scotland