On Friday I was lucky enough to join Emily & Martin for their wedding photos at Merchant Taylor’s Hall in York – a stunning, ancient medieval guildhall near the city wall in the Aldwark area of the city.

I joined the lovely Emily at their home in Copmanthorpe for the bridal preps.

I thought their rustic bench in the garden was a tasty spot to show off their thistly flora.

Martin is Scottish and it was great how they had that flavour run through the day.

Note the patron saint of Scotland, St. Andrew’s blue & white coloured ribbons, to go with the bride & bridesmaids dresses!

Inside a special little niece was being cute

Emily’s weddings shoes with her dress in the background

In another small world scenario, it turned out I went to school with this bridesmaid, Jane!

I thought Em looked like a 50’s movie star! A bit Hepburny!

My wingman on this wedding was the legendary Phil Barber (of Barber Photography), and he joined the chaps for their morning preps.

Here’s Martin & the boys, possibly reading Emily’s to-do list!

A wee dram of 10yr old malt to warm the cockles…

…’caus most of them would remain exposed for the rest of the day!

Martin had his Buchanan family kilt specially made for the day & the guys looked ace.

Here’s a snap I like of Mum & Jane helping Emily into her beautiful gown

Beautiful.

Emily’s father sadly passed away and was obviously missed on the day.  But special Uncle Ian watched Em glide down the stairs.

This one might be my fave of the day, with mum & daughter in a moment, with the time to the right.  They had a lovely bond.

The girls, all geared up and good to go!

I’ve just realised their church was called St. Andrews too!

These two really weren’t messing around!

As a surprise for Martin, Emily had booked him a bagpiper!

Phil was in on the secret and this was genuinely the moment Martin heard the first notes ring out

This is another candid I like of Phil’s, showing the chaps enjoying another wee slug

Mum & Emily, on the way to the church

A glimpse of sunshine, as the girls walk down the church path

I’m not sure if this is Phil’s or mine, but I like it alot!

I dashed down to the front to catch best man, Stockie, and Martin looking sharp & excited.

Their first glance as emily floated down the aisle

Aww

One from the back.  It was a lovely church.

The vicar lit a special wedding candle for them from the church Easter candle

The kiss! Look at mum, givin’ it pure pride.

I quite like the starkness of this composition.  For some reason I find it nice to look around

Signing the register

And back down the aisle, as Mr & Mrs Buchanan!

Confetti!

They’d hired a vintage bus to shuttle people to the church and back to the walls of York (under which the bus couldn’t fit)…

…and the bagpiper piped them along the streets to the Merchant Taylor’s Hall.

I had a little time for a portrait shoot of our newlyweds

I had to ask Martin to lower the kilt a few times!

As it often does when you’ve a small window for a shoot in this country, it started raining as soon as we started shooting.  Their pre-wed was in central York (post here) & it chucked it down throughout, but they we’re well up for it & skipped about under a brolly to get used to being shot.

Literally over the road from the church is Bishopthorpe Palace, home of the Archbishop of York.  Em & Martin had asked permission to shoot a few snaps after the ceremony so we drove over….

And took shelter in under the arches

I really like this one of them hanging out together and chatting as man & wife.

As the rain eased, we ventured out for a big snog

A clean detail of Martin’s awesome outfit & button hole

and one of Emily’s beautiful dress & thistly flowers

I followed the Beauford to the Merchant Taylor’s Hall inside the walls of York (you can see why busses might struggle!), and snatched this shot as I drove!

Probably not the safest  of manoeuvres, so keep that between you, me and google.

The main hall was an amazing room, beautifully dressed for the wedding breakfast.

One of Phil’s as they walked in, with a lucky flash from a guest’s camera

A little montage from some seriously good speeches.  Mum, Emily’s brother, Martin & Stockie were all sterlingly delivered

They had two first dances, one for themselves & one for the guests.

Then later into the evening they had a Scottish Kaylee (apparently spelt ‘Ceilidh’!)

It’s certainly amusing watching a bunch of people getting progressively more drunk and learning increasingly more complex country dances!

I’ll get their images to them soon, and we’ll host a client area for guests to see their finished images, but in the meantime I hope they enjoy the surprise honeymoon they’ve had booked for them by a family member!

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