“There aren’t enough stars I can give Debbie as a rating, she was just faultless start to finish. We eloped just the 2 of us, and Debbie calmed my nerves all morning, orchestrated the nervous pacing groom and understood what we wanted without us having to even speak. She captured our vibe perfectly, and understood exactly how we wanted the day to be captured. The photos honestly took our breath away, nothing was too much. Debbie and her husband even drove us down to a nearby Loch we wanted to capture some photos at. Not only is Debbie an amazing photographer but she is always a genuinely lovely person. Really couldn’t recommend her enough!”
Amy & Tyler eloped last month to the Scottish Highlands and it was a perfect day!
Their story:
Back in the days of Blackberry Messenger Amy’s details were put out by a friend and Tyler reached out to her for a date. The plan was that Tyler would take Amy to see The Hobbit at the Cinema but unbeknown to Tyler, Amy really really didn’t want to see The Hobbit so she missed her bus on purpose and turned up over 2 hours late…but Tyler waited the 2 hours and 10 years later here they are eloping to the Scottish Highlands.
They held their ceremony in the garden of their wee holiday cottage in Whitebridge and it was stunning. It was lovely to work alongside Alyson Stewart Humanist Celebrant again who is amazing!Amy and Tyler had a proper Highland ceremony with a few traditions such as drinking from the Quaich, a Handfasting and Oathing Stone it was beautiful.
The couple asked me to be one of their witnesses which is always an honour.
“Debbie you’ve blown us away. We love every single one. It’s exactly the type of vibe/ mood we wanted. I’m genuinely in love with every single picture. We are both in tears again looking through them lol. Thank you so much for capturing exactly what we wanted.“
I am based in Wester Ross and some of the areas I cover are Torridon Wedding Photographer, Shieldaig Wedding Photographer, Kinlochewe Wedding Photographer, Gairloch Wedding Photographer, Achnasheen Wedding Photographer, Poolewe Wedding Photographer, Ullapool Wedding Photographer, Achmelvich Wedding Photographer and Applecross Wedding Photographer.
‘They are wonderful. Really love how they are so naturally captured, wonderful As is the video, thank you so much!!! Really looking forward to go through all with my grandma! Take good care and thank you again for your wonderful photos…’
It was an absolute pleasure to photograph Yasmine & Hugo’s wedding! I especially loved meeting their big softy dog ‘Finn’ who was their ring bearer.
The couple had a small outdoor humanist ceremony with their family and friends at Puilladobhrain which translates as ‘The Pool of the otter’, it so was beautiful.
Their ceremony had a mix of Scottish and German traditions; ‘cutting the lumber’ was very funny to watch, picture the Chuckle Brothers ‘to me to you’ and picture this lovely couple with a bow saw and thick branch.
They laughed so much and they were a joy to photograph.
Yasmine & Hugo had a great team of wedding suppliers:
“What incredible photos…You are very talented! Such a lovely way to capture the day. Thank you so much.”
James & Katie wanted to have a wee wedding on the West Coast as James’s family is from the area. Katie searched the internet and discovered Arduaine Gardens and the Loch Melfort was the perfect location for the couple. The couple discovered that the Loch Melfort hotel was where James’s family had their honeymoon but they no clue about this until after they booked and also it’s the exact same area where James would holiday as a child…it was obviously meant to be.
Their wedding was beautiful! It was really relaxed and over looking the sea.
James & Katie travelled up from Leeds with their immediate family to have their Humanist ceremony by the lovely Shona Sharp (Highly Recommend!). Their ceremony included two Highland traditions with a Handfasting and sharing a Quaich they also had their nephew as their ring bearer which was lovely.
I love a wee relaxed wedding by the sea and this was perfect!
Lovely to work with Katie & James’s wedding suppliers:
“Debbie is a totally brilliant photographer and person. She photographed our wedding and captured the day beautifully! We were over the moon to get pictures of all the candid moments between our guests and she captured the joy and love we felt all day in every photo. She was also such a joy to have on the day, from stitching a button back on the bride’s dress to ushering lingering guests and making sure we had Prosecco in hand she was so helpful in making our day go smoothly. She’s really friendly and easy to talk to and really understood what we wanted from our day and so blended right in and caught it all on camera! We’d highly recommend Debbie to anyone.“
Zoe and Glenn had thee most amazing wedding by the shores of Loch Etive and right on Zoe’s family’s doorstep, it was wonderful. The couple done so much themselves, and with the help of their families and friends of course. It was such a personal wedding and the first ever Do It Yourself wedding I have photographed which was a total thrill for me as I love all this kind of thing. I also have to mention Zoe’s Mum’s beautiful garden, it was stunning!
Here’s what they said about their wedding….
Wedding planning
“It took a long time. It was hard work because of all the DIY that we did for the wedding and we were renovating our house at the same time! Zoe really enjoyed planning all the little details and making bits of décor like signs, and hanging lights (with Glenn’s help) and invitations, it was a good excuse to be crafty. We didn’t go for too much décor though because we let the beautiful scenery speak for itself. Glenn enjoyed building things like the stage and dance floor (with Zoe’s help). It was a team effort. It was a bit of a challenge to source all the materials we needed for the DIY, like the dancefloor!
We decided to have the whole day outside, which was a gamble on the Scottish weather. We had to come up with two or three contingency plans. The long-range weather forecast was ambiguous but as every day passed the forecast improved and then we couldn’t have asked for better weather on the day itself!
Covid made planning the wedding even harder because we live in the North East of England and were planning a wedding on the West Coast of Scotland. All the lockdowns and restrictions meant we couldn’t visit often and had to do a lot of planning remotely. It also meant that the few trips we did get to see Zoe’s family in Scotland often became overrun with wedding planning catch ups! Covid was always in the back of our minds too for restrictions on the actual day and made us question what we’d be able to have but we were determined to get married one way or another and so we just ploughed on and hoped for the best. It mostly worked out for us, which was brilliant!”
Outfits
“Glenn and the groomsmen went for kilts, even though none of them are Scottish. Glenn wanted to wear a kilt because of where the wedding was being held. Glenn had wanted to wear a Northumbrian tartan but Zoe vetoed that idea because she thought it looked grey from a distance. We chose a Western Isles tartan because it matched the colour scheme and Glenn’s family names didn’t have any tartans! During the wedding, Glenn appreciated how practical and comfortable the kilt is, repurposing the sporran as a drink’s holder.”
“Zoe wore a Gaia Bridal dress which she got from a bridal boutique near home. She wanted a long dress with some lace and loved the open back on this dress. She didn’t want anything sparkly or too glitzy with it being an outdoor, DIY wedding but wanted to feel her best. If you can’t wear a big, white dress on your wedding day, when else can you? It was very difficult to dance in, but Zoe was determined to get the wear out of it!”
Ceremony
“We had a Salvation Army ceremony because we both have Christian upbringings. Glenn’s family have deep roots in the Salvation Army and Zoe’s mum became part of the Salvation Army about 10 years ago and so both families have connections. Major Denis Lomax led our ceremony which was lovely because he was previously Zoe’s mum’s superior when she worked for the Salvation Army and then he was the divisional commander of the North East of England and knew Glenn’s grandparents.“
Memories
“There are too many wonderful memories to choose from! There’s lots of lovely little moments we both remember…. it was just a completely wonderful day.”
“We unfortunately weren’t ableto have Zoe’s family who live abroad come over for the wedding so we Zoomed them in, another thing to work out since the whole wedding day was outside!”
Looking back
“We’d say to trust that the wedding that we want would work out and make a lovely wedding and not worry if it’s not the wedding that other people expect. Also, don’t worry, the dancefloor won’t break.”
Advice
“Pick the top three things that you really want and make them happen above everything else. For us it was the ceilidh, good food and a good photographer and so that’s what we prioritised in our budget and time and we were very happy with all of them!”
“It was just really wonderful. A culmination of hard work and exceptionally good timing that meant all our guests were up for having a great party. It was a real team effort.”
Favourites
“We both love photos from the end of the day where we are out in the garden with Ben Cruachan behind us.
“Zoe’s favourite is us holding on to each other and smiling at each other with the mountain in the background because it captures how happy we were at the end of a brilliant day. It has us in front of Zoe’s all-time favourite view, we’d been waiting all day for the mountain to peak out from behind the clouds and right at the end it did!”
“Glenn’s favourite is us looking out towards the mountain, heads together. Similar reasons to Zoe’s choice, but Glenn likes this photo because it’s like we’re looking out into the future.”
An amazing day!
It’s was lovely to work alongside the (few) suppliers Zoe & Glenn used on the day:
“Debbie was perfect for our wedding and we can’t recommend her enough…. We eloped to theCairngorms and only had five guests, so we hoped we’d get on well with our photographer – Debbie fitted in brilliantly on the day and felt like our sixth guest. She was happy to chat with everyone, help with buttonholes and always knew how to capture the day without the camera becoming the focus. We love Debbie’s eye for natural photography – our favourite shots were when we had no idea they were being taken! She was happy to lace up her boots and trample around in the forest or balance on stepping stones in the river to get the right angle – she even went the literal extra mile to capture our walk into Ballater for dinner. We love the finished photographs – Debbie had taken our thoughts and ideas and added her own style and expertise to make a perfect memory. We treasure the physical photos and Debbie made it so easy to share the digital versions with friends and family online. The short film of video clips was a brilliant addition that we’d never thought of but are so grateful to have. In short, Debbie was the perfect choice and we’d tell anyone looking for a recommendation to ask if she’s available at once!”
Rosie and Jon wanted a beautiful wedding with adventure and they certainly got that by eloping to Scotland. The couple held their ceremony in the Cairngorms with some of their close friends and then travelled around Scotland for a few weeks, that’s how to do it!
The joy of eloping is that your wedding is so wee there’s not too much to worry about. Rosie and Jon booked a beautiful holiday cottage in Ballater and they got married in the garden with the amazing views of the hills and the peaceful landscape, it was so beautiful.
“We got engaged in December 2019 and planned our wedding and reception for June 2021 in the Midlands. Towards the end of 2020 though, we realised that probably wouldn’t be possible with COVID. We didn’t want to delay so we decided instead to elope to Scotland with a handful of friends. At first we were sad we couldn’t have the wedding we’d planned, but gradually we realised it gave us the chance to focus on those things most important to us. We were able to get married outside in the beautiful Cairngorms and spend quality time with a handful of special people. Planning became much easier and there was little to do in the run up and on the day except to just enjoy it.”
“ After months of lockdown it was wonderful to get dressed up and celebrate, in person, with people who are so special to us.”
“…we’d tell ourselves not to sweat the little things – they’ll either work out on the day or they weren’t that important anyway. Enjoy every moment.“
“It’s impossible to pick a favourite photograph but this one stands out because it captures how lucky we were: to get married outside, in stunning Scotland, with kind friends, a warm registrar and a talented photographer (and it didn’t rain!)“
“In the build-up we thought a lot about the little details that would make the day memorable but what we remember most from the day was joy and laughter with friends.“
“We walked to the pub in our dresses and suits and finished the day in a hot tub in the garden where we got married. We’d do it all again tomorrow.“
So there you go, a stunning Cairngorms elopement. Loved it!
Debbie Thornton Photography 