Castle Menzies Wedding Photography

I headed up to Scotland for the beautiful winter wedding of Jess and Joe at the imposing Castle Menzies in Aberfeldy, Perthshire. The scenery in this part of the world is truly breathtaking and it provided the perfect backdrop for this wedding in the wilds of Scotland.

A perfect winter day

Jess and Joe were blessed with perfect winter weather and made the most of the sunshine by staying at the Farmhouse at Mains of Taymouth in the week leading up to the wedding. I’m sure they managed to take some great photographs for themselves before I arrived to snap their wedding photography.

A magical glow

I captured some shots of Jess and her bridal party getting ready at the Farmhouse. We then headed to the stunning Castle Menzies. The ceremony took place in the wooden beamed attic of the castle. This being Scotland in the winter, fires were lit in the Main Hall below to keep us all warm. The subtle rising smoke made for some beautifully atmospheric shots with the light streaming into the windows providing a magical glow to the celebrations.  After a drinks reception in the warm and cosy Main Hall at Castle Menzies, we headed outside for some more pictures. The beautiful and rustic landscape surrounding the castle provided a stunning backdrop to the photographs.

Drinks, cake and dancing into the wee hours

We then moved on to the Kenmore Hotel where there was a further drinks reception and the cutting of a very colourful cake with an individual cupcake on top just for the happy couple to share. There was much fun, laughter and tears during the speeches at the wedding breakfast held at The Courtyard Bar and Restaurant at Mains of Taymouth followed by an evening of dancing into the wee hours. Every time I go to Scotland I tell myself I need to visit more often. This Castle Menzies Wedding Photography truly encapsulated the history, landscape and charm that Scotland has in abundance.

And in Jess’ own words…

“We met at work a few years ago. Having spent plenty of time enjoying the mountains in Scotland and the Lakes and working around Scotland together, our chosen location for the wedding was ‘UK + Mountains’. Eventually, we settled on Castle Menzies in Perthshire for the ceremony, because we loved the setting, and Jess’ family are familiar with the area. The reception was at a nearby restaurant, the Courtyard in Kenmore, which had the added bonus of everyone being able to stay within a few minutes walk!

We had a humanist ceremony, which meant we were able to (with our lovely celebrant, Jane’s help) make it completely unique to us – not only the readings, but the vows and all the words in between were a collaboration between us and her, which was lovely for us and a lot of fun to do. As well as readings, one of our bridesmaids sung beautifully – despite the smoke which had started to accumulate in the room! Out of all the parts of the day, it was so hard to pick a favourite, but the ceremony was probably it! Most of the flowers were done by one of our bridesmaids, who made lovely buttonholes and bridesmaids bouquets, as well as lots of other general arrangements.

We first met Mike at the Wedding Show in Manchester, aside from being immediately impressed by his gorgeous photography style, we just thought he was someone we’d rather like to have at the wedding! It was a great time driving to a few random spots in Perthshire for photographs together, our friends who sat with him at dinner enjoyed his conversation, and the photographs are utterly fantastic. There would be no hesitation to recommend him to anyone else!”