I first met a Celtic shirt clad Paul in the changing rooms of the Tolworth Recreation Centre when we were both in 6th form in 2005. It would have been about the same time that he met his future wife, Carly.

During this time, our social circles have intertwined throughout 6th form, working at Waitrose and playing football for local teams. So it was an honour to be asked to photograph Paul and Carly’s wedding for them.

Paul has a close connection with Scotland, with both his parents being from Glasgow and coincidently his late grandparents living in Musselburgh just outside Edinburgh – where some of my family came to settle too. Carly had always dreamed of a castle wedding so Scotland was the obvious choice for them.

Paul and Carly were pretty laid back in their brief for the wedding – great in some ways and challenging for me in others. A Scottish wedding in winter presents some challenges in itself, with limited light and varying light levels throughout the buildings. Surprisingly however, Scotland did not present rain on the wedding day! *Just quite a bit of wind.

I found myself using a lot of black and white editing for this wedding. I’m not a fan of the heavily edited shots with overly warm tones – I think these styles will eventually go out of fashion and black and white is timeless.

Weddings really aren’t my favourite things to shoot. The pressure, not least the pressure I put upon myself is intense! Paul and Carly were very reassuring in helping to alleviate this pressure before the big day.

Some challenging lighting conditions in the ceremony. Bright low sunlight in the ceremony room, very dark wall coverings in the register signing.

We had a great day celebrating Paul and Carly’s wedding and continued our stay in Scotland by heading over to the Highlands for New Years.