Angus and Jenny's Wedding photographed at Sweetheart Abbey, Dumfries

The first Wedding we photographed in Scotland at Sweetheart Abbey was of Angus and Jenny and it took place at the beginning of August. This was the furthest we have travelled so far for a wedding although after the success of this one I'm sure we'd travel again in a heartbeat to cover weddings further afield. For all of you who would like to know how this wedding came about, I photographed Jenny's friends, Becca and Pete's Wedding that we photographed at Dove Barn last year and met Jenny at this who was so impressed by the photos she wanted us to travel to Scotland for her wedding which was a great compliment.

Their ceremony took place in an old abbey owned by historic Scotland called Sweetheart Abbey just outside of Dumfries. It is a gorgeous old ruin which has stunning red brick. Being an old ruin there was no roof so the guests had been told to be aware that if it rains you will get wet. I think everyone's fingers and toes were crossed hoping that it wouldn't rain.

As we had only met Jenny briefly (although we'd stayed in touch over e-mail and phone calls) we hadn't met Angus at all so we travelled up a day early so we could meet them at their rehearsal to go over plans for the Saturday. When we first saw the Abbey it was raining and very windy. However, all of those who came to the rehearsal were still smiling and jolly despite the weather which was very encouraging. We had heard that the forecast for the Saturday was not good at all and I think we all feared we may be under umbrellas.

The next day we arrived at the Abbey an hour and a half before the ceremony started and we were greeted predictably by rain. Here's a photo of Jenny's brother arriving.

What happened next was completely unexpected and a blessing. Half an hour before the ceremony was to start the rain just stopped. The skies remained dark (as you'll see in the photos) but Jenny arriving in the dry was in everyone's minds. As she arrived the rain was still holding back, we held our breath and it held off during the ceremony. Then when they signed the register blue skies and bright sunshine shone above us. This wasn't the forecast but the fantastic weather stayed with us for the rest of the day. Seeing the Abbey's red stone basking in the warm light was lovely and a total transformation from the day before.

Here's some photos of Jenny arriving with her dad and one at the end of the service.


After the ceremony we did our group shots here and I took Jenny and Angus for some photos of just the two of them. Here's a very small selection.

We then went on to the reception in a nearby hotel. We did the confetti outside and Jenny decided to throw her bouquet. This made for a great sequence of photos as Jenny's brothers girlfriend caught the bouquet effortlessly which lead to a lot of laughter along with a slightly worried look from her brother. The speeches were after the meal and were great - Angus had bought Jenny's dad a ginger Scottish Wig which you can see in the photo below.

The dancing later on in the evening was also great fun. Following tradition to some extent the first dance started off slow (as photo below shows) - then half way through the band changed it to an upbeat song by the proclaimers (you know the one that goes ... and I would walk 10,000 miles .... not sure what it's called exactly so I'll look it up - if anyone knows please comment on here and put me out of my misery!) - I don't think anyone can hear this song without
wanting to join in as it's really catchy and uplifting .... needless to say loads of people got on the dance floor with them.

Despite the long trip up to Scotland it was well worth it - we had such a wonderful time and all their friends and family were very welcoming and friendly to us. We love the photos from this wedding as they look so different to our normal East Anglian (mainly flat) landscapes. We're so pleased that Jenny and Angus were as pleased with their images as us. Before they'd seen their images Jenny sent me a lovely e-mail which read as follows:

'Hello Hayley,We're so excited about seeing our photos - the day was absolutely perfect, we enjoyed every single second of it! There are many things we would like to thank you for, and are in the process of writing all our little thank you cards at the moment! Thank you so much for yours and David's work on the day - you are two of the loveliest people I've ever met and were so professional on the day, so thank you. I have absolutely no doubt that the pictures are
going to be amazing and I know we'll be thanking you lots for them too!
Warmest Regards
Jenny'

then after they'd seen them they sent a further e-mail and a thank you card which read as follows:

'Dear Hayley and David,I know we've been in e-mail contact with you Hayley but we wanted to drop you a card to say thank you once again. Now we've had a chance to look over the photos, we really feel so appreciative for the magic you captured on the day! Loads of people have said how nice the photos are and how they 'bring the day back to life'! Lots of people have also told us how nice and lovely they thought you were and we can echo that. Thank you so much for providing such a professional service and for the wonderful photos. Oh and thanks also for the wonderful card you left us!
Warmest Regards
Jenny and Angus Mackay'


As always we would like to thank Jenny and Angus for taking time out of their hectic lives to tell us that they were happy with what we've done. It means a lot to us and I know that a lot of my brides and grooms for the next few years ahead have also said they enjoy reading all the positive feedback on here. What a lovely couple the two of you are and we wish you every success and happiness in your future together.

I can't wait to hear from the two of you soon and to begin our remote album designing which should be fun. I'm sure that Jenny and Angus will have given all those who attended the password to view their wedding photos which are now online. If not, just let them know and I'm sure they'll give you it.

Testimonials - Spains Hall Wedding

Back in February I photographed Marshall and Sun-Young's Wedding at Spains Hall Both Marshall, his mum and a guest sent me some wonderful comments after seeing the photographs so I thought that I would write them on here (as at the moment I haven't got a testimonial page on the main website.

Marshall wrote:

"Dear Hayley,

We are so grateful to you and David for being a wonderful presence on our wedding day. It was a great pleasure to have you at our wedding. When I first reluctantly began researching photographers, my greatest fear was that we would have someone who made the day into a photo shoot rather than a celebration. Never could I have imagined how well you balanced being unobtrusive with getting the important shots. I have now finally had the chance to go through the photos myself. Of course, as I had been led to believe by everyone else, you have captured wonderful shots. What particularly strikes me however, is that you have managed to produce beautiful photographs of those who are normally not photogenic at all - especially of myself! In the past we've taken seemingly endless shots of me and Sun-Young together, and in almost every photo Sun-Young looks wonderful but I look terrible: a frozen smile, closed eyes or an awkward grimace. Not only did you somehow manage to photograph me looking natural, but you've also given us wonderful pictures of my sisters and brother-in-law who normally shy away from the camera. And the sheer quantity of these wonderful photos is amazing! What's more, you did all this in no time at all. You seemed to take hardly any shots, to the extent that I was concerned at the time that there would be only a handful left by the time you got rid of the bad ones. This certainly wasn't the case.

Many thanks and very best wishes,

Marshall "

Marshall's mum Anne wrote:

"Dear Hayley and David,

Thank you so very much for all your enthusiasm, care and attention to detail, with which you took all the photos at Marshall and Sun-Young's Wedding. It was lovely having you around - so nice that you were so excited about everything, and so encouraging to us in the huge numbers of group shots Marshall and Sun-Young requested!

We have just looked at the photographs online and are so thrilled and excited! The photos are BRILLIANT!!! SOOOOOOOOOOO many really lovely ones. We've had such fun looking through them, and refreshing our happy memories of a wonderful day. You have captured it for us with such a huge number of very, very beautiful pictures, and some of them truly perfect. We're enormously delighted, and want to say the biggest possible thank you to you!

Please don't apologise for there being so many - the more the better!
It's great to have lots of photos, and we are just so grateful to you for taking them all for us. There are some stunning shots of Marshall and Sun-Young - and little Su-yun too! And indeed there are very, very good ones of the bridesmaids, Sun-Young's parents, ourselves, the best man and Vicky, the ushers... I could go on and on!! It's lovely to have such a lot of good close-up pictures of friends and wider family too - we're so pleased to have them all. And it's great to have all the pictures of the details of the flowers, the tables, the cake, the place-cards and favours, and especially the Pae-bek ceremonial food from Korea. Your pictures of all the embroidery have come out superbly well, too. It's so very nice to have all these details. We're so very delighted with them all, but of course the highlight has to be the huge number of perfect shots of Marshall and Sun-Young, looking so radiantly happy on their very special day. I wish you could have heard all the exclamations of delight and "Oh look at this one, it's even better!" as we were looking through all the pictures. I can't possibly express adequately what a joy they are.

With again very, VERY many thanks indeed, from us all,

Anne"

and finally one of the guests wrote these kind comments to Marshall's mum which she forwarded to me:

"I can truly say that the photographs are the best - by far the best wedding photographs I've ever seen. I wish that we had had the same photographer!"

If you attended Marshall and Sun-Young's Wedding and would like to view their wedding photos these are still available online and I am sure they will give you the password to look at them.

We are most grateful to Marshall and Anne for giving us such positive feedback and we really do hope they stay in touch in the future with all their news. If you want to read more Reviews of our wedding photography please have a look at the website

Thank you card from Becca and Pete's Wedding @ Dove Barn - Groton, Suffolk

Back in July I had the pleasure of photographing Becca and Pete's Wedding at Dove Barn, Groton. They had gorgeous weather for their day and we got loads of wonderful photographs. They were a brilliant couple to work with and despite Pete breaking his leg on his stag do and being on crutches for the wedding (and a long time after) everyone had a fantastic time. It certainly added to this being one of the most memorable weddings I photographed last year. Due to Pete's crutches constraints, them living the other side of the country and the fact that Becca can't drive I only managed to meet with them again recently to design their album (now Pete's leg is healing and he could drive again). I gave them their album last weekend. Here are some images from their album. I love this one of Becca and her father before the service starts.

I think it shows the affection and closeness in their relationship perfectly. The confetti shot was fun as Pete managed to hobble through.

They specifically asked for one of them in the car with Pete's poorly leg which makes for a very different bride and groom in the car type shot!

Finally the dancing was hilarious as Pete made the most of his crutches and danced around Becca.


I also had some of the hardest retouching I have ever done for their wedding. In the church photographs they asked me to remove Pete's crutches and the cup on the floor - this was tricky to do as the floor had a tiled pattern and getting the perspective for the retouching right was hard but after many hours working on these images I managed it. The before and after shots of this one are below.

BEFORE:
AFTER:

All in all it was a wonderful day and I was very touched to receive a thank you card from them both this morning which read:
"Dear Hayley, Thank you for all your time, ideas and patience with us over our wedding year! The end product of our wedding album is exactly as we had envisaged and will provide us with many happy memories. All the best of luck with continued success in your business and you can count us for a recommendation as a fantastic wedding photographer. All the very best Becca and Pete."

True to their word I am photographing one of Becca's friend's wedding (Jenny and Angus)later this year up in Scotland which should be magical in the ruins of an old abbey!

Thank you Card from Amanda & Glynn

Just a quick note to say how touched David and I were to receive such a gorgeous thank you note from Amanda and Glynn whose wedding we photographed back in September. It is always lovely to hear from couples to know that they are happy with what we've done for them.

Here's Amanda and Glynn's note (minus the gorgeous card that Amanda made herself - she's extremely talented!) which I hope they don't mind me sharing with you:

"To Hayley and David, Just wanted to say a huge thank you for doing our wedding photography on the 1st September 2007. You did such an amazing job and made us feel so relaxed! We are overwhelmed with how beautiful the photos are and we shall hold those memories close to our hearts for the rest of our lives and you helped to make that happen for us! We've had so many compliments about you and your work and we won't hesitate to contact you again in the future and will certainly recommend you to others. We had a magical day and enjoyed every moment. It was perfect photography for a perfect day. You're a star. Thank you so much once again. Kind regards from Amanda and Glynn Rose xxx"

To read some more of our Wedding Photography reviews please have a look at the reviews section on our website.

Here's one of the photographs taken at their reception at Haughley Park Barn


For those of you who did attend Amanda and Glynn's Wedding their photographs are still online for you to view .

Thanks again for your kind comments Amanda and Glynn - we look forward to giving you your gorgeous handmade finished album soon