Kai and Kristi flew in from Lake Michigan with three kids, three parents and twenty-five years of marriage to celebrate. No pressure, then.

When a couple reaches out about a quarter-century together, you know it’s going to be special. Their vision was simple but stunning: a ruined castle backdrop, their closest family around them, and the kind of raw Scottish landscape that makes people cross oceans to get married here.

Here’s how they first put it to us:

When couples name specific castles, we know they’ve done their homework. Kilchurn and Urquhart are both stunning. But we had somewhere in mind we thought they’d love even more, somewhere with the same drama and far fewer logistical headaches.

They came with a castle in mind. We had a better one.

Enter Old Newton of Doune. It’s a grand, castle-style house with its own grounds, and right beside it stands Doune Castle, which Outlander fans will know as Castle Leoch, Jamie Fraser’s family home. So Kai and Kristi got the ruined-castle backdrop they’d dreamed of, with all the drama and none of the logistics of staging a ceremony inside the castle itself.

The ceremony took place in the grounds at Old Newton of Doune. Just them, their three kids, three parents and the Scottish landscape. Intimate, meaningful, and exactly what twenty-five years deserves.

Loch Venachar, then golden hour back at the house

After the ceremony we headed to Loch Venachar for portraits. If you’ve not heard of it, you’re not alone, and that’s exactly the point. It doesn’t have the name recognition of Loch Lomond or Loch Ness, which means it’s quieter, wilder and, on a still day, a perfect mirror. Twenty-five years of marriage and they still looked at each other like newlyweds.

Then back to Old Newton of Doune as the light softened, making the most of golden hour with the castle standing behind them. No stiff posing required. Two and a half decades together means you’re easy in each other’s company, and it shows in every frame.

“Twenty-five years of marriage and they still looked at each other like newlyweds. That’s what we’re here for.”

Day two: a sunrise in Glencoe

The next morning, we picked them up early (and we mean early) for a sunrise shoot in Glencoe, possibly the most cinematic landscape in the country. We arrived to soft, moody morning mist, the mountains half-shrouded, the whole glen looking like a film scene. We shot until the sun climbed too high, and it was magic the entire time.

And then, the bit where Matt nearly died

Right. Here’s what made this one memorable for slightly different reasons. Matt (the one writing this) was horrendously ill with food poisoning across the shoot. Not a bit queasy, more lost-13-pounds-in-two-days, questioning-all-his-life-choices ill. Jodie basically carried the entire thing while he tried not to keel over on various Scottish hillsides.

Kai and Kristi were absolute stars about it. They got stunning images (because Jodie is that good), and we got through it together. Would we recommend food poisoning as part of your vow-renewal experience? Absolutely not. But it’s a fair test of a team, and it’s exactly when “two of us, always” stops being a tagline and starts being the reason your day still happens beautifully when one of us is falling apart.

Twenty-five years deserves to be celebrated somewhere spectacular. Thinking of your own? Here’s how we help plan a Scotland vow renewal, or just get in touch.