One day in Edinburgh off a cruise ship. You could get married.

A couple emailed us last week from somewhere off the coast of Norfolk. They were on a round-Britain cruise, had a day in Edinburgh coming up and wanted to know if they could use it to get married. We said yes. Then we realised we’d never written any of this down.

So this is for anyone with a port day in Edinburgh and a suspicion that there’s more to do with it than queue for the castle. Some of what follows is ordinary tourist advice. The rest is about the formal outfit hanging in your cabin that you’ve worn once.

Find out where the ship is actually stopping

Cruise itineraries say Edinburgh. The ship might be in Leith, which is the real port and twenty minutes from town by bus. It might anchor off Newhaven, a bit further along, and tender you in. It might anchor under the Forth Bridges and tender you into South Queensferry, which is lovely and also forty minutes and a tender queue away from anything. Or it might be at Rosyth, over on the Fife side, where you’re looking at the best part of an hour on a shuttle.

This matters because a tender port takes a chunk out of both ends of your day. Look it up before you sail, not on the morning. The cruise line’s port guide will say.

With us: Tell us where the ship docks and what time all-aboard is and we’ll plan from the gangway backwards.

The castle, the garden, the wizards

Edinburgh Castle is worth it if you book a timed ticket on the official site and go early. Take the first slot you can get. By eleven it’s shoulder to shoulder with everyone else who got off a ship that morning. Two hours is enough. The view from the ramparts is the thing; the rest is rooms.

The Royal Botanic Garden is the opposite experience. Free, a short bus ride north of Princes Street and on a cruise day it’s the quietest place in the city by a distance. Glasshouses, big lawns, a view back across to the castle from the top. Details on the RBGE site. If you want photographs taken in there professionally, the garden wants a permit arranged beforehand. We do that, but it can’t be sorted on the day.

Then there’s the Harry Potter walking tour, which we mention because people ask. Victoria Street, Greyfriars Kirkyard, the cafés that disagree about where the books were written. The Potter Trail is free and the guides wear robes. It’s about an hour and a half and it happens to be a decent route round the Old Town even if you’ve never read a word.

Beyond that, the Royal Mile is unavoidable, Calton Hill has the view everyone photographs and Dean Village is beautiful and completely rammed. If you’ve got legs left, walk down to Stockbridge for lunch.

About that outfit

Every cruise has a formal night. Somewhere in your cabin is a dress or a suit that came out once, under ship lighting, for a dinner you’ve already half forgotten. And now you’re about to spend a day in a city that looks like a film set.

We’re not subtle about where this is going.

The easy version: a couples shoot

No paperwork, no notice period, no witnesses. You get dressed on the ship, we meet you in town and we spend a couple of hours photographing the two of you in the Old Town while it’s still waking up. You’ve still got the afternoon for the castle or a pub.

What you go home with looks nothing like the ship photographer’s backdrop and flash. It looks like Edinburgh, with you in it.

With us: There are two of us, so you get the wide shots of the city and the close ones at the same moment. We know which closes are empty at nine and which are full by noon. The details and prices are on our Edinburgh couples photography page.

The other version: get married

Most people on a cruise don’t know this, so here it is. Scotland lets you marry legally almost anywhere outdoors. On Calton Hill. In a garden. On a bit of coast with the Forth behind you. There’s no licensed-venue rule like there is in England, and the certificate you get is recognised at home without any further registration.

The catch is timing rather than difficulty. You give notice to the Scottish registrar at least 29 days before the ceremony, up to three months ahead, and it’s all done from your kitchen table before you sail. The registrar will usually take scanned documents by email and see the originals on the day, but ask them first. Then there’s the Marriage Schedule, which is the document the celebrant needs on the day. For a celebrant wedding, one of you has to collect it in person from the registrar inside the seven days before, on a weekday. For a cruise that’s a problem, because you’re not in Scotland until the morning.

There’s a way round it. Edinburgh’s registrars conduct civil ceremonies at City Chambers on the Royal Mile and when a registrar marries you they bring the schedule themselves. Nothing to collect. You book a slot, walk in off the ship, walk out married and we take it from the door.

Or you skip the legal part altogether. Do the register office at home, before or after, and have the ceremony that actually feels like one here: your own vows, a handfasting if you want one, us conducting it or a celebrant we trust. No forms at all for that.

You also need two witnesses. That’s us. It’s included.

With us: We’ve walked a lot of overseas couples through this paperwork. Read our legal guide, then put your port date into the legal timeline generator and it tells you when each form has to be in the post. Everything else is on the Edinburgh elopement page, and you can check your date against our diary now.

How a port-day wedding tends to go

Say the ship’s in Leith at eight and all-aboard is five. You’re in a taxi by half past, we meet you somewhere quiet at nine for a coffee and a look at the outfits, and the ceremony is at ten, either at City Chambers or up on Calton Hill if it’s clear. We photograph through the Old Town until about half twelve, while it’s still fairly empty. Then a long lunch, which we’ll recommend and you’ll enjoy. The afternoon is yours for the castle or the Botanics or a pint by the Water of Leith, and you’re heading back towards the ship by four with time in hand.

With us: Around four hours is about right for a port-day elopement. We don’t watch the clock, but we do watch the all-aboard time, and we won’t be the reason you’re running down the quay.

Weather

It’s Scotland. You might get sun, you might get sideways rain, you might get both before lunch. Edinburgh has more archways and closes and covered corners than anywhere we work, so there’s always somewhere to stand. Wet cobbles photograph well, which surprises people.

If you want to improve the odds, this is our honest take on the months. Cruise season and the good light overlap more than you’d think.

Before you sail

Cruise dates don’t move, so the first thing to do is check your date against ours. Then run the numbers through the pricing tool; no call needed. If it’s the legal version, start the forms five weeks out at the latest and use the timeline generator so you don’t have to count. Have a word with guest services on the ship too, because most cruise lines will do something nice for a couple who got married on a port day if they know about it. And pack the outfit near the top, because you’ll want it steamed and every ship laundry has a steamer nobody uses.

— Jodie & Matt

Got a port day and a plan forming? Check your date, then get in touch with the ship, the date and where you dock and we’ll tell you what’s possible. Or go straight to pricing.