Jessica delights in telling everyone she is now three years old. She is the most polite little lady and she ends just about every sentence with a please or thank you. It makes her even more delightful. Next time I will ask her if she will please smile for my camera – and I will thank her when she does!
According to folklore (or June’s brother Tony), June and Richard have known each other for some 40 years and have been planning this special day for at least 30! Richard and Tony were best mates at school and for Tony, this was as special as it could get – his sister was marrying his best mate! Probably where the Friends scriptwriters got the inspiration for the Chandler and Monica storyline!
If this has been a wedding long in the making, June and Richard made it up to family and friends by laying on the most wonderful and exquisite wedding day possible. They were married at one of Scotland’s great wedding venues, the Loch Lomond Arms Hotel in Luss, which has recently been refurbished to the highest possible standards. It is a beautiful boutique hotel set in the most majestic surroundings and is one of the friendliest and most welcoming hotels you will find on the bonnie banks. It is also the perfect place to tie the knot! June and Richard were married in a beautiful and intimate outdoor ceremony amidst glorious autumn sunshine. It was a very special day, meticulously planned, and beautifully executed.
Details of the early Richard and June days are somewhat sketchy because Tony, according to Richard, can sometimes be overcome by the urge to tell fanciful tales. This of course was made known to all guests before Tony delivered his best man’s speech and duly recounted the “alleged” fanciful tales. After much laughter and reminiscing, one story in particular had the guests hoping Tony was indeed a fanciful storyteller but I couldn’t possibly repeat it here!
Katie and I had a great day and want to wish you both the very best of luck for a long and happy life together. It was an honour to be a part of your special day. Special thanks to Katie, Tony, George, Wilma, Roselle and all guests for your patience and understanding and to James, Val, Ula and the LLA team for making us feel so welcome. Here are just a few of my favourite pics of the day……..
I have known Gordon for many years. We play golf together – or we try! We tried again on Saturday morning and despite a few promising moments we ended up with the same old dreadful scores. Both of us have been so busy this past year with so few opportunities to meet up for a game. And there lies the problem – to be good at the game of golf you need to practice – a lot. Raw talent isn’t enough for the majority of hackers on Saturday mornings. Without plenty of practice we never seem to get perfect. But there may have been an alternative reason for the poor play on Saturday morning – Gordon’s mind was on more important matters. “What could possibly be more important than golf?” I here you say! Gordon was due back to the golf course later that day for another important date – his marriage to Theresa! Their wedding was a first for Strathaven Golf Club – the first full ceremony held in the club. Both sets of families and friends gathered for an intimate clubhouse ceremony before the party started in the restaurant next door. Katie and I had a great day and watched as the Strathaven Balloon Festival created some spectacular overhead scenes throughout the evening. As the wine flowed and the night flew in, I took Gordon and Theresa away for some photos to a place he was unfamiliar with – the first fairway! If we keep practicing Gordon you might find it again someday soon! Special thanks to both sets of families and friends for being so co-operative and to Alison, Chris and the team for looking after us so well. The day became a perfect day when I heard Theresa telling Gordon that he really should play more golf. What a great start to married life eh? Good luck to the two of you, have a fantastic life together and here are a few favourites from your special day………
All images copyright (c) Gerry Wilson 2013. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.
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The guys from www.animal.co.uk travel the country with their all action brand of stunt riding. They refer to it as “bonkers” riding and I couldn’t agree more. Absolutely bonkers – but some of the most spectacular stunts you will ever see on a bike. I had the pleasure of watching them a couple of times this summer and they offer the best photo-ops going. If you get a chance to see them make sure you take a camera then you might catch some of this………
Bobby Inglis and Katie McCall picked a very special day to get married. It was specifically chosen to coincide with the wedding anniversary of Katie’s Grandmother and Grandfather Morton. They wed on the same date, 29th July, many decades previously and both had such a strong influence on Katie’s life. Sadly neither could be with Katie and Bobby on their special day but Bobby and Katie paid the ultimate tribute to Mr & Mrs Morton and not only ensured their wedding fell on the same date when they married in front of friends and family at the Torrance Hotel in East Kilbride, they also decided to change their surname and became Mr Bobby and Mrs Katie Morton.
I had the pleasure of photographing Bobby and Katie’s wedding and, despite the demise of our long hot summer days and the return of the rain, we managed to capture some great memories inside the hotel. Thanks to my Katie for her assistance and to Douglas (I Do Videoart) and Fawn for being so co-operative, A special thanks to Katie and Bobby’s friends and family for their patience and understanding, especially both sets of parents, Katie’s sister Lorna, her brother Alan jnr, and wee Molly – it’s always such a pleasure when you make us feel so welcome. Here are a few of my favourites………..
All images copyright (c) Gerry Wilson 2013. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited.
Katie & Bobby Morton – Torrance Hotel EK
For the final leg of my prolonged birthday celebrations my son and I spent a long weekend at Silverstone for the 2013 F1 British Grand Prix. It was brilliant – 27 degree sunshine and a packed weekend of activities. The race is only a part of the weekend at Silverstone, a whole series of events take place and it’s like a massive festival with 294,000 visitors over the three days. Really worth going just to savour the noise – it’s incredible! Of course the camera came along for the ride and here are a few favourites. Red Arrows were brilliant as were the mad, mental, stunt riders from www.animal.co.uk. The marshalls opened the gates to the circuit at the end of the race and we managed to collect a few rubber souvenirs. Amazing weekend and can’t wait until next year!
All images copyright (c) Gerry Wilson 2013. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited
I met Katie and Bobby at the Torrance Hotel in East Kilbride on another hot Scottish summer’s day – (really!). We got together to go over the final preparations for their wedding later in July. Katie and Bobby both work for the same bank and they absolutely have their heads screwed on – as charming and organised as I’ve had the pleasure to photograph. They wanted to set me a unique wee task and Bobby will then apply some post processing skills so watch this space to see if we manage to pull it off! Can’t wait for their wedding but here are a few pre-shoot pictures from the Hotel…………..
All images copyright (c) Gerry Wilson 2013. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited
With 36 megapixels at my disposal, my Nikon D800 sometimes captures just a little too much detail, but when it’s capturing someone as pretty as my favourite little person, Jessica, it really proves worthwhile. Here she is looking just as lovely as ever!
What a year! Weather wise it was a year to forget. Our summer made a quick appearance in May and reappeared for a fleeting moment in August. It obviously didn’t fancy hanging around and packed it’s bags for far away lands. They tell me it might even return next year sometime! Nonetheless it was a great year and I have some great memories – Bruce Springsteen was awesome on a rainy night at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, we chilled by the poolside in Cyprus in June and sipped brandy sun-downers as the sun started to fall from the sky and the temperature fell back into the twenties, my sensational crab meat and chive dumplings at Opium in Glasgow (Scotland’s finest oriental restaurant – officially!), or feeling the stresses and strains melt away at our luxury getaway in Tenerife last month to the rippling soundtrack of the Atlantic waves slowly retreating over our pebble beach. All fantastic memories. Here’s hoping next year delivers just as many. Anyone needing inspiration for my big birthday present next year might also wish to note I recently spent 60 exhilarating minutes behind the wheel of a new Toyota GT86 and one day soon I hope a nice wee red one will be parked in my driveway – hint, hint!
Of course my year was dominated by the people I had the good fortune to photograph – none more so than the numerous wedding parties and their guests! Every time was different, every subject was different, every day was different. But the results were the same – loads of happy customers and loads of people I previously never knew who smiled for the camera and allowed me to capture the happiness and joy of their special day. It was a great year and to everyone who helped make it so special, I wish you all the compliments of the season and a peaceful and prosperous 2013. Here are a few of my favourite wedding memories from 2012……..
Autumn can be such a wonderful season. Here in Scotland the colours in the landscape take a final breath of cold air before they disappear and hibernate for the winter. The leaves cling on for some final autumn sunshine and just before they fall to the earth they remind us of what we will miss with the impending arrival of a colourless winter landscape. For a final few days the whole world is bathed in the richest of reds and the most glorious of golds. Photographers love this time of year. Not just the landscape photographers – weddings just look fabulous on a bright sunny day in autumn and Shellie and Gary picked a perfectly calm autumn day to get married. They also picked the perfect venue – Glasgow’s iconic and famous registry office in Park Circus. Opulent and extravagant, 22 Park Circus is a Grade A listed town house dating from 1872. It belonged to a wealthy industrialist, Walter Macfarlane founder of the Saracen Ironworks, and Walter commissioned one of the most magnificent interiors to be found in the city. It really is quite something.
Gary and Shellie had a beautiful and intimate ceremony in the Avon Room at Park Circus and celebrated with family and friends before we all sped off to the Burnside Hotel for the wedding reception and a big night-time knees up. It was a fantastic day and, after months of asking, the weather finally decided to behave for me. Yes it was freezing cold but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky – almost unheard of during the 2012 wedding season in Scotland! Perhaps it was fitting for Gary and Shellie because our pre-wedding shoot on Cathkin Braes took place in a howling gale and, as Shellie reminded me, this time I would finally get to see her hair behaving properly!
Park Circus borders the magnificent Kelvingrove Park and after the ceremony we managed a few minutes out in the cold and captured some wonderful photos in perfect surroundings. Between the majesty of the grand Victorian town-houses on the edge of the park lie a couple of beautiful cobbled lanes and some of my favourite places to take a picture. Thanks to Gary and Shellie for braving the cold and for being such good sports. You are such a lovely couple and I wish you all the very best on your new journey together. It was a real pleasure to work with both families and to see a few old faces from my younger days. To Jim and Karen, Alan and Maureen, Joe and Carly, Abbie and Craig, Joshua, Annie, and Olivia. and all your families and friends, thank you for your patience and for the laughter. Here are a few early reminders of a beautiful day to get married and take a photograph…………..
Gerry Wilson Photography 