When your venue loses power in the biggest storm of the year...

So storm Arwen. How did it affect you guys? Because - I’ve got a story and half to tell you.

I booked Ailsa and Mike’s wedding at very short notice as their original photographer fell unwell and recommended me to them - Imagine the grin on my face when I found out they’re getting married in the beautiful Balbirnie House in the stunning Scottish country side. Now imagine the even bigger grin than the first one, after I had jumped on a quick zoom call with them and realised that we have exactly the same sense of humour, plus Ailsa has the most beautiful and just so honest smile/ laugh and Mike is genuinely so besotted with her, that it kind of made me believe in love again.

Anyway the time has come, and after booking myself a very nice hotel room for the night before in St Oswald’s hotel ( yeah booked a hotel that has the same name as my Ozzie ) I set off for one of my many Scottish adventures of 2021. Except this time, there was a ragging storm in my way. I mean, when I heard the name I thought, this is called after my favourite elf in lord of the rings, so how bad can it be?

Well the answer is.. bad
The journey was - let’s say eventful. I was very happy that I have recently changed my tiny Nissan note for a much bigger juke, because I genuinely think a small car would just go flying all the way to Ireland. It was the first time in my life when I had to put a podcast on instead of music (especially for such a long journey), because I needed to calm myself down a bit. But all was good and I made it safely to my room. I also managed to track down some of the vegan McDonalds burger that was still at only very few places at that point. So essentially very successful journey. Alive and fed well.

Anyway, after doing some work and feeling sorry for myself because I missed my Ozzie… I went to sleep.
And in the morning..
I …
Woke…
Up…
To…
…
A message from Ailsa that said ‘Hey Nat! I hope you managed to get a good sleep and recover from your nightmare journey! I’ve got bit of situation that Balbirnie has been out of power since last night and it doesn’t look like it’s gonna be back on today. We’re trying to work out where we’re gonna do hair and makeup and will let you know as soon as I know. Photos this eve might be all by candle light which could be nice!! Give you an update as soon as I have one’

I mean, I wish I could tell you that my heart sank, but with Ailsa’s stellar mindset of ‘Photos this eve might be all by candle light which could be nice!!’ I knew this was going to be a wedding to remember.

So after catching up with her, I found out Ailsa and her entourage were in another hotel at that point having their hair and makeup done, and it didn’t make sense for me meeting them there, as by the time I would arrive we would be leaving back to Balbirnie. So off to Balbirnie to meet Mike and wait for Ailsa I went.

Honestly, Balbirnie House is so stunning and as soon as you start driving down the driveway you can't help but feel like you’re in presence of one of the most beautiful architecture in the country. Only wish that wasn’t spoiled for me by an eagle who almost flew into my windscreen. Honestly 2021 and animals jumping in front of my car can do one :-)

After getting in terms with the fact that I have just almost run over an eagle ( don’t worry he just about made it ) I put myself together and my day properly started. Mike and all his groomsmen were as dashing, sweet and funny as I though they would be, but they pretty quickly set off to Dunfermline Abbey so they wouldn’t be around when Ailsa and her bridesmaids got back. After little bit of a scouting for photo locations, Ailsa finally got back and I got the chance to take some prep photos in one of the most beautiful bridal suites I’ve seen.
I also started to find out all the ghost stories of things that happen in the house! Spooky!

As we didn’t have a huge amount of time - we only did as much as we could and also took some beautiful photos of Ailsa’s dad seeing her all ready for the first time ever. Honestly look at those bellow in the gallery, they’re extremely sweet!
After that we all rushed over to the Abbey which literally took my breath away! WHAT A PLACE! I love all the photos we took inside of Ailsa walking in and of her and her husband on the way out, with their bridesmaids and families etc. Again - have a look through the gallery, I promise it’s worth it.

After such a terrible storm the day before we got so blessed by such a beautiful warm winter sunshine. Honestly, I couldn’t believe my luck! I absolutely adored the red bus that the newlyweds hired for their guests to take them between the venues as well, and really enjoyed taking photos of them with their friends inside.

Anyway, everything was going so perfectly that it was kind of very easy to forget that the venue still had no power. However, Balbirnie staff were such pros that you genuinely wouldn’t feel like something was wrong. After arriving back and having couple minutes to say hello to everyone we started to take all the group shots outside in the beautiful front of the house and I believe it was Mike’s family I was shooting, when suddenly the lights came on. And the entire group just broke in singing and dancing to ‘yes sir I can boogie’ and jumping around. If I say this was one of my favourite moments of my entire career I am not even lying. Just so much pure joy and love in the air.

After that everything was just pure safe sailing, we did the speeches, we laughed and we cried, we had some amazing food ( my vegan meal was amazing btw! ), we danced, we ceilidh danced, we laughed again, some people probably cried because that choreography is really difficult, I swear. And after a lot of hugs and feeling like I wish I could stay longer, I set off on my journey home, as I had another wedding to shoot the day after in Manchester.

But more about that on another day!
Thank you again Ailsa and Mike for choosing me as your photographer, thank you for my presents I got after and thank you for being my new friends! Your wedding was as beautiful as your love for each other is.

And storm Arwen thank you for not killing me!