Molly and Larry came from Colorado with two English labs at home, a best friend in Aberfoyle and a very clear brief. Vogue inside. Natural outside. We can work with that.

They were already flying over for a wedding in Glasgow, with Molly’s dad and a few friends in tow, and figured they’d make a week of it and get married themselves. Here’s how they first put it to us:

A vision but no idea how to pull it off is the most common place our couples start, and the easiest for us to work with. They knew the feeling they wanted. We knew the city. So we built them an elopement that started in a Georgian townhouse and ended on a hill.

The Vogue bit

Mornings in a proper Edinburgh townhouse are hard to beat. Larry got his tie sorted with a bit of help, then everyone hugged for a while. Molly got ready upstairs and came down a spiral staircase for a first look that made Larry do a sort of stunned laugh. Then we did what they’d asked for. Editorial portraits in the drawing room. Larry at the grand piano, Molly at the tall windows, the pair of them draped across a Chesterfield like a magazine cover. And, because they missed their dogs, two labrador masks. We’re not going to explain that one. It’s in the gallery.

Then the hill

The ceremony was by Dunsapie Loch in Holyrood Park, with Arthur’s Seat and the crags behind them and the city nowhere in sight. Molly’s dad, a handful of their closest friends and a celebrant in a tartan suit. Vows, handfasting, a quaich of whisky that made both of them wince, a bit of paperwork on a clipboard and that was it. Married on a hill in the middle of a capital city.

From there the day got looser, which was the plan. Long golden grass on the slopes of Holyrood as the light dropped. Down into Dean Village and along the Water of Leith to St Bernard’s Well, then through the old stone arches nearby while the sun went. Nothing posed, nothing stiff. Just the two of them walking through the city with us a few steps behind.

“Editorial in a drawing room by lunch. Knee deep in long grass on a hill by seven. Both of them completely themselves in both.”

That’s what the planning is for. Molly and Larry arrived with a mood board and a week in Scotland. They left with a day that moved from townhouse to hill to river without anyone having to think about a timing or a taxi, and then off to the pub with her dad and pals. Exactly as requested.

Got a vision but no idea how to make it work? That’s our job. Here’s everything about eloping in Edinburgh with us, or check your date and we’ll take it from there.