What is an elopement wedding?

We’ve said before, wedding elopements have never been more popular.

Whether it is the effect of the pandemic meaning that larger gatherings are less in demand or a rise in their presence on social media with a heavy emphasis on unique imagery or a combination of both.

I have been a wedding photographer for a number of years but am now almost exclusively marketed as an elopement photographer in Scotland. So I thought it may be useful to talk you through what an elopement actually looks like – both before and after the day.

The beauty of elopements is their flexibility. In Scotland, you can literally get married pretty much anywhere. Mountain top, Loch Side, Beach, River’s edge, Back Garden, Forest – you name it.

With Amy & Andy’s wedding (all the images on this page are taken from their wedding), they first chose their celebrant who gave them a list of venues that they could get married. They love the mountains so they opted for Loch Clair near Torridon in the North West of Scotland. Loch Clair is an amazing, small loch with outstanding views of Beinn Eighe and Liathach. It truly is some of the most spectacular scenery that you will see in the whole of Scotland.

Amy contacted me about photographing their wedding based on the back of my landscape photography work and the strong emphasis I put into the environment in my wedding images. We spoke on a few different occasions about their vision for the wedding – they wanted myself and Jodie to act as their witnesses (something we do a fair bit of) and to also provide them with atmospheric wedding images of them and their wee boy (who ended up being a fantastic best man/ring bearer)

I put a strong emphasis on story. Whether that is in my filmmaking or my photography, I want my imagery to tell a story. To help tell that story, we arrived at their holiday cottage in Torridon a couple of hours before the ceremony for some getting ready images.

After an hour or so of coffee, music and getting ready it was time to leave for Loch Clair for the ceremony – truly one of the best drives that I have done in Scotland. Meeting Penelope the Humanist at the designated point, we then headed down to the Lochside to decide between us on a suitable spot – it honestly didn’t take long. The whole place was so spectacular. Then, just like that, we had the ceremony. No fuss, no drama. Just 2 people in love in an amazing place.

After the ceremony was concluded and the wedding register signed, Penelope departed and left us with Amy and Andy. We spent the next hour or so walking around and taking images and some drone footage. We had decided before we wouldn’t be spending too much time after the ceremony on images because of their little boy getting restless so we worked quickly to achieve some beautiful photos.