A Romantic Country House Wedding in Scotland | Lunga House | Diana + Scott | Scottish Wedding Venue | Scotland Wedding Photographer
A Romantic Country House Wedding in Scotland | Lunga House | Diana + Scott | Scottish WEdding Venue | Scotland Wedding Photographer
Overlooking the water, on the west coast of Scotland, you will find the lovely Lunga House. This incredibly beautiful country house is located on Lunga Estate, just a short drive from Craobh Haven in the heart of Argyll. With Diana being from North America and Scott from Scotland, it was the perfect wedding venue to house both travelers visiting from abroad as well as the locals who maybe haven’t ventured to every inch of Scotland yet. Even my husband, who was born and raised in Scotland, this wedding day was his first time visiting this area specifically, even though he’s driven on the nearest main road and never stopped off to explore. The Scottish nature scenes are stunning in this area (as are most in Scotland), but all of this to say, definitely worth looking into this historic venue if you’re still searching for a coastal, country house wedding venue in Scotland.
Diana started her day with her bridesmaids getting ready in the upstairs bridal suite of the Lunga House, with beautiful views of the ocean from the three large windows in the room. I started my day as I usually do, by getting there a bit early, roaming around the venue to search for the perfect corners and patches of light. I would then head to find beautiful textures of the venue to photograph any details laid out for me, after going to say good morning to the bride to be and her bridal party.
The Lunga House is perfect for any kinds of scottish weather, as you can get married outside in the garden or have your ceremony in one of their lovely, historical rooms for an intimate ceremony. The country house also has many rooms for a cocktail hour, tea hour, cake cutting space and lounge rooms with seating to break up the standing around. The Lunga House Estate has one large hall on the end of the home and that is where the reception dinner, speeches, toasts and dancing takes place. It feels intimate enough for long tables for dinner, but it’s also large enough to have live band play and have a formal ceilidh dance, like Diana and Scott had for their wedding evening. As I was walking away to the car at the end of the night, I caught a glimpse of the two of them dancing together through a window and the way they were looking at each other says it all about how they feel about one another. I truly loved how romantic this scottish wedding day was, and the Lunga House Estate truly made the perfect backdrop for these two to start the next chapter of their lives together. x
Scotland Wedding Venue - Lunga house Country Estate | Scotland Wedding Florist - The Thistle and the Rose Oban | Scotland Hair Stylist - Hair my Yasmin | Bride and Groom Rings - Molome London
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
South Queensferry Elopement | Those Were The Days Bridal | Scotland Elopement Photographer
South Queensferry Elopement | Those Were The Days Bridal | Scotland Elopement Photographer
I can never get enough of brides who wear vintage. Vintage will always hold a special place in my heart, as I love how you use your imagination of the stories that the piece previously experienced. It really is a beautiful thing. This is another example of how beautiful the vintage wedding dresses from Those Were The Days Bridal can be styled for your elopement. If you from or ever get the chance to visit Scotland, you need to make your way over to South Queensferry. They are a beautiful waterfront town with cobblestoned streets, beautiful bridges, quaint cafes and endless historic architecture that is protected by the Scottish Government. Our friends Ruth and Mark live out there, and we are constantly having sleepovers at their home with delicious meals and endless chats into the night. All this to say, we love South Queensferry and would highly recommend it for your elopement or even just a place to visit for a Saturday stroll.
If you do decide to make it out to South Queensferry, definitely check out The Manna House. It’s the cafe we frequent often when we are there. They have excellent honey lattes, delicious pastries and their French Toast platter is definitely an American portion… which I unashamedly love. Ross also enjoys their fresh baked loafs of bread and salads, you know, the healthier options. Also, if you enjoy walking, the Dalmeny estate has beautiful walkways with gorgeous pathways along the coastline, and we’ve definitely enjoyed some beautiful evenings of S’mores with our friends on the sand. It’s truly a lovely area of Scotland to visit!
Vintage Wedding Dresses - Those Were The Days Bridal | Vintage Menswear - Those Were The Days Vintage | Models - Maggie & Ben
If you’d like me to capture your elopement, wedding, brand, or would simply like a mentor session with me,
reach out on my contact page through the link below! I can’t wait to chat with you!