What a great day I had being back in fabulous Fife when filming Fiona and Gordon’s wedding video at Balbirnie House hotel.
Balbirnie House Hotel is one of my favourite wedding venues in Fife. This beautiful old historic building is spacious and grand. There’s plenty of light to ensure quality filming even if the weather is dull. Fortunately, today’s weather was sunny and bright. Perfect for creating a beautiful Balbirnie House wedding video!
My day started by arriving at Balbirnie House about ninety minutes before the wedding ceremony. This gives me enough time to film the opening ‘establishing’ shots of the wedding video. These shots help to set the scene of where the story of the day will be told and helps to set my wedding videography apart from other videographer’s work.
I love to capture the details of the wedding day and the wedding venue. It’s essential to film the people on a wedding day, however, I also feel it’s also very important to capture details of what makes each wedding unique. I like to capture details such as the flowers, chair covers, the order of service, buttonholes, kilt pins and the sporrans. And of course, the wedding rings! Once these details have been filmed it’s time to film guests as they arrive. Most importantly, I need to film the groom and show him looking at his best.
Gordon was calm and relaxed. Especially when he managed to squeeze a pint of ale in before making his way to The Orangery for the wedding ceremony! Bride Fiona had stayed at Balbirnie House the night before the ceremony. So no requirement to film Fiona arriving in a wedding car. Instead, I filmed her making her way down the staircase. She looked beautiful coming down the stairs arm in arm with her father.
The lovely civil ceremony was hosted by Humanist Celebrant Tim Maguire. Afterwards, everyone headed outside for the group photo. The entrance to Balbirnie House features a wide staircase and impressive columns. There’s plenty of space for even the largest wedding party group photo.
There was time for the newly-weds to have a glass of champagne and a canapé or two before their formal photo shoot began. The photo shoot took place in Balbirnie’s beautiful landscaped gardens. I love the manicured lawns which are ideal for taking photos with Balbirnie House as a brilliant backdrop. The daffodils were in full bloom, adding a little bit of vivid colour to the greenery. I used my camera slider to film a few low angle shots of the newly-wed photo shoot.
After cutting the sumptuous looking wedding cake, the guests headed down to the beautiful Ballroom. Time for the wedding breakfast and speeches. Gordon’s father had acquired a photo of each guest. These were placed at each guest’s table setting. The guest’s reactions to seeing their photos were great to observe and film.
In a slight break with the traditional wedding speech format, the guests were treated to four wedding speeches. Two were before the wedding breakfast, presented by Gordon and Fiona’s Fathers respectively. These were followed by Gordon and his Best Man after the wedding breakfast. Very entertaining, with some amusing anecdotes!
My wedding coverage was nicely rounded off recording the first few dances. The evening entertainment was provided by the always amazing wedding band Callanish. I’ve seen these guys perform at a number of weddings and I never cease to be amazed at how good they are.
Big thanks to Kylie and all the staff at Balbirnie House Hotel. You are always extremely professional and courteous and make filming a wedding at Balbirnie House a pleasure. I’m looking forward to seeing you all again next month!
Thank you, Fiona and Gordon, for being such fun and making my role pleasant and enjoyable. You are a lovely couple and I look forward to showing you your wedding video upon your return from Honeymoon.
Shared here is a few wedding photos I’ve taken from the Balbirnie House wedding video and a couple of short ‘highlights edits‘ from the video. Enjoy!
Presented to you here is one chapter of Fiona and Gordon’s wedding video. This video shows the highlights of the photo shoot and the cutting of the wedding cake. The music I used in the edit was specially chosen by Fiona and Gordon.
Balbirnie House Wedding Video and Photos
