Just when I was complaining that I couldn’t tell you anything about the wedding, I remembered that I never really talked about our photographer.  And since we don’t actually have pictures to show yet (d-u-h) I can gush and blab and get excited as much I want about him!

So last time we were up in Scotland we were debating between two photographers. It was a pretty close call (extremely close) but in the end we booked with Paul Walker Images!

(If you are looking for a photographer in the Glasgow area, call up the guys at Life in Frame.  Super nice, very talented with a touch of glam.)

It was a tough choice but now that we’re all in it, I’m super excited to work with Paul.  Shall we just let his portfolio do the talking? Ok!

First of all, I’m looking forward to our venue looking this gooooood:

I know it won’t look exactly like that, he was very adamant about not doing the same things over again, but I’d be delighted with that level of quality.

I’m looking forward to him capturing the mood of the guests, in a natural but stylish way:

I’m excited that he’s able to capture things in a different way that I will completely miss because I’m pre-occupied with, you know, the wedding.

And I don’t need to tell you twice that if you’re getting married in Scotland, your photographer needs be ready for anything:

And I love that he understands that the natural surroundings can say so much about the day:

And of course, I’m really looking forward to him capturing our personalities in pictures:

I’m so curious as to what happened right before this moment!  Her face just says, “Did you just hear what he said?? Cheeky monkey!”

And this one isn’t from his wedding gallery but I just had to show it because it’s just so cool! Love it!

And a few others that caught my eye:

All images property of Paul Walker Images.

Check out his blog!

I know it’s been really quiet but it’s not that we haven’t been doing anything for the wedding!  It’s just that I don’t know what I should share!  On the one hand I really want to tell everyone about every fluffy, shiny detail but apparently I gotta save something for the guests on the big day.

So instead, how about a little sneaky peeky?

NO guesses please!!  But “oohs” and “aaahs” are always welcome. In spades.

2 flights, 6 trains, 3 buses, 8 towns, 4 kilt shops, 1 Parliament, 1 Chinese takeaway, 1 Italian restaurant, loads of cups of tea, 1 wedding venue, 1 wedding fair, plenty of beer and wine, 2 days off work, 3 photographers, 1 football match, caught up with friends and family.

1 successful wedding planning weekend.

And one roll of elephant toilet paper.

This weekend Craig and I are going up to Scotland to take care of a whole medley of things on our To Do list including:

Book a photographer already! Shortlist contender number one is Life in Frame. It’s actually two guys who do the photography of the day, which really appeals to me because that means that they’ll be able to capture both our preparations before the wedding.  We’ve met one of the guys and I can tell that at least he’ll be really comfortable with Craig and the boys.  The second contender is Paul Walker and I just love how he works with lighting. The front of our ceremony room has a wide window overlooking a lake, which is beautiful, but does pose some tricky backlighting challenges.

Hire a band! We’ve provisionally booked Ernest (here’s some YouTube clips of them) but we’re hoping to meet them face to face at the Scottish Wedding Show in Glasgow on Sunday.

Revisit the venue! We have an appointment to go through some more details at the Lochside House Hotel, but we’ll actually be meeting their wedding coordinator at the wedding show.  We need to figure out some more details with the layout and plans for the day.

Cake! Well not really cake (more about that as soon as we know we can do it) but we’re hoping to visit some of the local bakeries to see if they can help us realize our alternative cake idea (and no, it’s not cupcakes).

We’re slightly behind on our wedding planning and the To Do list is getting just a titch concerning. We’re trying to make the best decisions that work for us, and that takes time.

And some evidence that this method is working for us, not one but TWO of our vendors (actually our only two vendors) have won a VOWS award for 2009!

Lynsey McKelvie – for wedding coordinator for Lochside House Hotel (the venue has been nominated but did not win, booo)

Cherry Blossom – for flower arrangements

I’m so pleased that we picked them before they even won, and it tells us that our instincts are on the right track.  I’ll probably go back to the nomination list as well to look for our photographer and entertainment.

Craig and I are warming up to the idea of engagement photos.  Although we are getting married in Scotland, I like the idea of taking pictures down here in England, basically where we fell in love.  And also, London is a great backdrop.  I’ve been snooping around at some London photographer’s portfolios and they confirm to me how cool London is.

Segerius Bruce uses tourist icons with great effect:

That’s Tower Bridge. And they’re also able to find great little corners too:

Another photographer that has caught my eye is Marianne Taylor Photography for the way London is captured really subtly and it becomes just a really nice backdrop, like in this session that I loooooove. Beautiful couple aren’t they?

And then ZaraZoo, with these great shots of the couples from a distance, in 3 different styles:

I haven’t contacted any of them yet for ourselves, but they’ve been bookmarked! And I thought they were still worth highlighting in a post.

Here is also a hint of what else I’ve been doing this wedding workshop weekend:

I  have started to get word that the Save the Date have started to arrive so now I can finally share the design!

The front:

And the back:

Details:

We used Vista Print’s postcard service to make our own Save the Date cards. I’ve had a lot of fun looking at professionally designed ones, but we really couldn’t justify the cost for something that won’t even make it to the wedding day.  We could have skipped them entirely because they aren’t very common in Britain but  I wasn’t THAT successful in squashing that little voice in my head!

Since they were “homemade” and relatively cheap (seriously, the stamps cost more) the pressure was off and I wanted to have a bit of fun with them.  Sheep are quintessentially Scottish and I love to knit so I was really happy to find a cute free clipart image for the front of the card.  The background view is actually from the venue! Isn’t it gorgeous? We won’t be getting married outside (you can’t risk that in Scotland) but what a backdrop!

I am so in love with the back of the postcard if I do say so myself.  It came out exactly how I pictured it in my head and has just a hint of the vintage whimsy that I’d like to incorporate into the wedding.