Barnbougle Castle Wedding | Rosebery Venues | Rosie + Sean | Castle Wedding Venue Near Edinburgh, Scotland | Edinburgh Wedding Photographer
Barnbougle Castle Wedding | Rosebery Venues | Rosie + Sean | Castle Wedding Venue Near EdinburgH | Scotland Wedding Photographer | Edinburgh Wedding Photographer
Rosie and Sean decided to fly all the way to Scotland from America to get married at a romantic seaside castle just on the outskirts of Edinburgh, at the lovely Barnbougle Castle. Barnbougle Castle is truly a beautiful piece of history. It’s origins date back to the 13th century and is placed right in the center of the Dalmeny Estate, near South Queensferry.
Before driving over to Barnbougle Castle, Rosie started the morning of her wedding day at The Scotsman Hotel, getting ready in a bridal suite overlooking the Edinburgh city skyline. When I arrived at The Scotsman Hotel, Mercedes (the owner of the design-led wedding planning studio of Scarlett & Bell) was there ready to go with all of the details and plans to make sure their wedding day went by seamlessly, which of course it did. I always love not only working alongside talented individuals, but ones I consider encouraging friends in the industry! Ever since I moved to Edinburgh when I married my (very Scottish) husband, I’ve been grateful to be able to form a small community of like-minded friends who have the same design-led mindsets on wedding days, and of course can run a tight ship with the couple and guests feeling their most relaxed and in wedding bliss selves. Anyways, that was a long ramble, but to conclude, I highly suggest hiring Mercedes of Scarlett & Bell to help with you wedding planning in Scotland, whether you are from here or from abroad. Fina Beauty’s team was also there putting the finishing touches on Rosie at The Scotsman. Once her hair and makeup was completed, we headed over to The Royal Mile to capture a first look for her and Sean. Of course The Royal Mile can be busy, but there are plenty of quiet corners I am happy to suggest so that couples can have an intimate and personal moment away from the crowds.
Once we finished taking bridal portraits on The Royal Mile, a vintage car picked up Rosie from The Scotsman Hotel and drove her over to Barnbougle Castle just in time for the wedding ceremony. I arrived to the venue just before Rosie, alongside Matt Willoughby, who was the wedding filmmaker for the day. He is also someone I would recommend for a relaxed, friendly and unique eye to create a cinematic wedding experience for you to relieve in motion. I was able to capture all of the stunning wedding floral installations that were done by Adelaide’s Flowers just before the wedding ceremony started, which was beautifully held outside on the Barnbougle Castle terrace, overlooking Edinburgh just beyond the waterfront. After the wedding ceremony, which was full of beautiful Scottish wedding traditions, the couple walked out in front of Barnbougle Castle as the bagpiper played and confetti was thrown at them by all of their loved ones.
The rest of the evening was filled with drinking and delicious courses by Wild Thyme with their loved ones in the main dining hall of Barnbougle Castle, sitting outside on the terrace with coffee and Sicilian Pastry Shop cake and then dancing the night away to the live band, The Soul Establishment. It is so beautiful to see so many Americans enjoying the scottish culture and their heritage, and especially in such a romantic history castle, like Barnbougle. x
Scotland Castle Wedding Venue - Barnbougle Castle, Rosebery Venues (a lovely Scottish castle wedding venue on Dalmeny Estate, near Edinburgh, Scotland) | Design-Led Scottish Wedding Planner - Scarlett & Bell, Mercedes Somerville | Edinburgh Hotel Bridal Suite - The Scotsman Hotel | Scottish Wedding Florist - Adelaide Menzies of Adelaide’s Flowers | Luxury Bridal Makeup and Hair Stylist in Edinburgh - Fina Beauty | Edinburgh, Scotland Wedding Reception Catering - Wild Thyme | Wedding Cake - The Sicilian Pastry Shop | Edinburgh Live Wedding Band - The Soul Establishment of Established Entertainment | Scotland Wedding Filmmaker - Matt Willoughby Film assisted by Simon Hird Weddings |
Carlowrie Castle Wedding | Will + Lindsey | Edinburgh Wedding Photographer | Edinburgh Wedding Venue | Scotland Wedding Photographer
Carlowrie Castle Wedding | Edinburgh Wedding Photographer | Edinburgh Wedding Venue | Scotland Wedding Photographer
I’ll start this blog post by saying that Will and Lindsey are such a fun couple, that I think we’ve spent the most time with them both then I ever have before with a couple, since capturing their wedding day. And thankfully they live near us in Edinburgh and Lindsey and I can relate to being Americans who married a Scottish man. It’s all very entertaining in the best way possible!
So on the morning of the wedding day Lindsey got ready with her family in a stunning suite at The Bonham Hotel in the west end of Edinburgh. It’s one of the loveliest little tucked away hotels, if you’d like a luxury hotel experience but not in a touristy part of town, as it’s hidden away in a residential area. The lovely team at Hair Beauty & Bridal was set up with the natural light at the windows and everyone had lovely chats, breakfast and a relaxing morning together. After the hair and makeup was done, everyone went in robes and headed to the bridal suite in Carlowrie Castle, as they also have hotel rooms, and that is where all of the family stayed the night of the wedding day. I think it’s so great when a wedding venue, like Carlowrie Castle, has plenty of rooms for the family, so they can just roll into bed at the end of the night, without waiting for a taxi. Once we were in the bridal suite, Lindsey had a drink with her mom and watched out of the window as guests started to arrive. Lindsey’s dress was from a boutique in South Carolina, called Gown Boutique of Charleston. Will was downstairs greeting guests at the front door of Carlowrie Castle, where a bagpiper was playing scottish tunes. As half of the guests, Lindsey’s side, were from the states, It’s the kind of “awe, that’s so Scottish” vibes that I love at a wedding day and could see everyone really enjoying being in this country when they were greeted to the castle with the piper. It was magical!
Carlowrie Castle has so many lovely green houses around the property, and the one connected to the castle is where they had their wedding ceremony. Lindsey’s dad walked her down the aisle and they had a really beautiful ceremony filled with lots of natural light and love from their family members. After the ceremony everyone went out front of the castle for a large group wedding guests photo and then everyone was served apps and the castle bar opened for the guests while Will and Lindsey went for a walk around the castle gardens. Carlowrie Castle has the loveliest gardens for a stroll, so Will and Lindsey were able to get some alone time in as well as a few portraits being taken before they headed back into the castle for dinner. The bagpiper stayed to pipe them into the reception with his majestic tunes. Will and Lindsey chose miniature Lind & Lime Gin bottles for the wedding favors and were placed at everyone’s place setting at dinner. It’s one of my personal favorite local gins and its always nice to see a practical gift for guests, as I am sure there wouldn’t have been any left behind at the end of the night.
Carlowrie Castle is such a beautiful castle
wedding venue in Edinburgh.
To end the night, Lindsey, Will and their friends had some wild dance moves happening to the tunes of DJ Lee Live. As we were leaving Carlowrie Castle to head back into town at the end of the night, we looked back at the moonlit castle. The silhouette of the colorful lights coming from the dance floor with the beautiful, clear blue sky and moon shining brightly gave the most beautiful scene to end this extremely fun and beautiful wedding day at Carlowrie Castle. x
Wedding Venue - Carlowrie Castle | Edinburgh Hotel - The Bonham Hotel | Edinburgh Wedding Florist - Narcissus Flowers | Edinburgh Make-up + Hair Artist - Hair Beauty & Bridal | Wedding Dress Shop - Gown Boutique of Charleston | Groom Outfit - 8 Yards Edinburgh | Bride + Groom Rings - McIntyres | Wedding Catering - Carlowrie Castle | Edinburgh DJ - DJ Lee Live | Wedding Cake Designer - Liggy’s Cake Shop in Stockbridge
Edinburgh Wedding | Ruth + Mark | Edinburgh Wedding Photographer
Edinburgh Wedding | Ruth + Mark | Scottish Bride | Edinburgh Wedding Photographer | Scotland Wedding
Edinburgh Weddings are some of my favorite! The architecture in this city is like no other. But truly, my favorite part of this wedding day is that Ruth and Mark are some of our best friends in Scotland and we were honored that they wanted Ross and I to capture their wedding day! Ruth and I actually were introduced by a mutual friend on Instagram telling us to meet at Cairngorm for coffee simply because he “thought we would get along well.” Well, he was completely right, because now she is one of my best friends here in Scotland!
Ruth started her wedding day at The Place Hotel with a morning of drinking mimosas and having a stunning view of the rooftops of Edinburgh. Mark spent his morning with his groomsmen at his home overlooking The Fourth Bridge in South Queensferry. His guys were doing cartwheels in kilts (good thing Ross was there to capture that craziness in person, because of course I couldn’t post all of those) and drinking coffee from The Manna House, their favorite local cafe. Both Ruth and Mark are such laid back individuals and both just wanted relaxing mornings with their best friends. Those are my favorite kind of mornings.
The Place Hotel is right next door to their ceremony location at P’s & G’s Church, so she was able to easily walk down the street and straight down the aisle for her ceremony. Ruth had the entire sanctuary of P’s & G’s transformed into a whimsical space full of nature and the outdoors. I even spent a day walking along the beaches of Scotland collecting sea glass to use as decor with Ruth. If you are looking for endless beautiful sea glass, the shores of the Dalmeny Estate have a lot that get washed up along the shore. In the end, they were able to gather enough blue and green sea glass to hang on all of the branches that they foraged from a local estate. After their ceremony, everyone caravanned down to the cobblestoned waterway of Quay Commons, in Leith, for an afternoon cocktail garden party in the sun! We then strolled through Custom Lane for their bridal portraits. They played a bit a ping pong in front of Williams and Johnson and just relaxed for a while, just the two of them, before greeting a couple hundred of their closest friends and family back at P’s & G’s for a night of Scottish wedding traditions and wedding party!
The guests (just a few, 400ish of them) were all greeted with a custom drink and handmade wedding favours, a bar of soap from the Isle of Skye company, Skye Soap. There were dances, speeches, a live band the whole evening and some solid ceilidh dancing! It was just the perfect evening and there is nothing better than walking away from a wedding and not wanting it to end. I’m so happy to have celebrated this wedding day with Ruth and Mark. With every unique wedding I capture, I’m left with memories that I’ll cherish forever and I couldn’t be more grateful for beautiful wedding days like this one.
Just in case you wanted to see Ross and I in action, these above photos show us in our happy place, dancing alongside everyone while capturing the fun happening all the way until the final dance, which is my favorite one! I truly love my job and celebrating the couples I’m documenting!
The images below are from the day-after shoot! We started at Fortitude Coffee and had flat whites before we headed off to roam the streets of the city where these two fell in love.
Edinburgh Wedding Photographer - Melody Joy Co. | Edinburgh Wedding Venues - Ps & Gs Church (ceremony + reception), Cafe Tartine (starter), Papillion (main) + Quay Commons (dessert) | Edinburgh Celebrant - Rev. Michael Mair | Edinburgh Wedding Videographer - Sandy Butler Videography | Edinburgh Wedding Dress - House of Mooshki (bespoke) at Edinburgh Bridal Boutique - Pretty Woman | Jewellery + accessories - Róis Scottish Sea Glass Designs | Bridesmaid outfits - Coast | Scotland Groomswear and kilts - The Kilt Store, Edinburgh | Edinburgh Wedding Florist - Narcissus | Edinburgh Wedding Band Entertainment - Corra | Edinburgh Bridal Make-up - Alicia Avenzzano | Custom Scottish Wedding Favours - Isle of Skye Soap Co. | Edinburgh Set design - Big House Productions