Wedding Photography by Silver Photography: Cam and Steph's Wedding at Oran Mor in Glasgow

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Cam and Steph's Wedding at Oran Mor in Glasgow

At the end of October I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding Cam and Steph at Oran Mor, at the top of Byres Road in Glasgow's West End. The weather, typically for this year, wasn't great but the Oran Mor is very much an indoors venue anyway so I knew it wouldn't matter too much.

I did, however, know about the secret mode of transport that Cam had arranged for Steph - she was to be whisked, in a circuitous route, from the Grosvenor Hotel to Oran Mor in a bicycle rickshaw pedalled by one of their running friends. Given that it was a bit drizzly, and about 7ºC, I was a little apprehensive on Steph's behalf, as most of my past brides would have politely declined the open-fronted tricycle before demanding a warm taxi, but then I found out the she likes to go wild swimming in the sea in Scotland so I knew she wouldn't mind at all.

When everybody had made it safely from one side of Byres Road to the other, by whatever means, we were treated to a very lovely humanist ceremony with candle lighting and some interesting and personal vows from Steph and Cam.

I have worked at Oran Mor many times in the past and at all times of the year and I always find it a rewarding but challenging place to photograph. It is a beautiful building inside with fantastic colourful art by famous Glaswegian artist Alasdair Gray lining the walls and ceiling. From a purely photographic point of view it is trickier than many places because it is lit almost entirely with strongly coloured lights of various colours - this undoubtedly looks lovely but when, like me, you like to photograph the ceremony without a distracting flash, you have to keep your eye on the colours!

When the ceremony had finished the drizzle had stopped and we managed to even get some photographs outside. After a few family shots on the steps by the main door Steph, Cam and I walked across the road to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. The gardens looked great and offered some lovely autumnal colours as well as the iconic outline of the Kibble Palace. As it was pretty wintry we almost had the place to ourselves as well - it made a nice change from a recent summer visit when there were half a dozen brides vying for attention.

One of the bridesmaids practising her speech to an otherwise bored member of staff.

I wanted to give a special mention to the florist for the wedding, Sparrow and Rose, as I thought that the abundant displays of flowers around Oran Mor were superb. As a keen gardener myself I really appreciated that they weren't just the usual types of flowers but, instead, there were many different and unusual varieties. You can actually see many of the photographs of the flower displays on their own blog here: http://sparrowandrose.blogspot.com/2011/12/stephs-beautiful-wedding-at-oran.html

After the cutting of the cheese cake - real cheeses stacked up in tiers like a normal wedding cake - and the speeches were out of the way Steph decided that she was going to throw her bouquet. After witnessing a lot of discussion amongst the girls about the best distance to be from Steph to ensure that they were in the best spot (and, I have to admit it, a few threats to ward off the competition) everybody lined up in preparation. Steph then threw the flowers high in the air, way out of range of my camera, and all of the awaiting single ladies, whereupon they landed unceremoniously on the floor behind everybody. Someone picked the bouquet up and claimed it for themselves but there was further discussion about whether that broke the rules and should be counted as a disqualification.

We were then treated to an excellent Ceilidh band that included one of Steph's friends, Anna, and was called Point Five.