I spent the most wonderful day on Tuesday as Sarah and David’s Lennoxlove House wedding videographer. Lennoxlove House near Haddington, East Lothian, is one of my favourite wedding venues.
Sarah and David are both from the UK. They currently live and work in Sydney, Australia. They decided to get married in Scotland. Sarah didn’t know David had booked my wedding videography service as a wee surprise. So no pressure on me then when I walked into Sarah’s dressing room to film one of David’s Best Men present Sarah with a bottle of Bollinger champagne!
It was great fun filming the Wedding Party preparations. Due to everyone staying at Lennoxlove House the night before the wedding, I was fortunate to be able to film both the Bridal Party and Groomsmen preparations. This will be carefully edited to music chosen by Sarah and David.
The wedding ceremony took place in the beautiful Under Croft. It was great to meet the celebrant, the Reverend Howard Haslett. Howard was the minister who conducted my own wedding ceremony. He retired during 2010 and continues to marry couples at weddings in Scotland when he’s not soaking up the sun (and red wine!) in France. It was great to have a chat with Howard and hear he’s enjoying his retirement!
Sarah looked radiant in her beautiful white wedding dress. I filmed beautiful shots of her coming down the main staircase with her Father. I was filming the ceremony with two high definition video cameras. One camera at the front of the Under Croft, the other at the rear. While filming, I saw just how relaxed, elated and proud David was to be marrying Sarah.
Reverend Howard did Sarah and David proud with a lovely wedding ceremony. After the marriage ceremony, everyone took advantage of the glorious weather and made their way outside onto the manicured lawns for a champagne and canapé reception.
The newly-weds were piped into the Grand Hall for the wedding breakfast. Catering was provided by the brilliant Heritage Portfolio. I’ve worked alongside Heritage Portfolio on many occasions. They’re one of the best caterers in the wedding business and have always been super-efficient. The food they produce is extremely tasty, too! The speeches were before the wedding breakfast. Again, the proceedings were filmed with two cameras. One camera covering a wide-angle shot of the top table. The other camera filming close-ups of the speaker’s and guest’s reactions. Great fun was had by all!
After the wedding breakfast, the newly-weds cut their three-tier cake with a military sword. This is always a great photo opportunity and never fails to impress the guests.
My role ended with the filming of the first few dances. Again, I filmed this with two cameras. This time, I positioned one camera high up on the massive mantelpiece in the Great Hall. This gave a fantastic wide and high view of the celebrations. I mounted the second camera onto my Steadicam stabiliser system and used this to film cinematic shots of the newly-weds first dance.
Sarah and David are flying to Bali for their honeymoon. A perfect end to what was an amazing wedding day. Great clients, arranging a wedding in Scotland when you live in Australia can’t be easy. These guys pulled out all the stops and had the most fantastic day.
Big thanks to all the staff at Lennoxlove House, led by Ken Buchanan, for the excellent service on Tuesday. You guys are great and I look forward to seeing you all again next month.
Here are a few wedding photos taken from Sarah and David’s Lennoxlove House wedding video.