A Back Garden Wedding in Morningside, Edinburgh
Alessandro and Mara’s wedding was held at home in Morningside, Edinburgh - with their closest people gathered in the back garden. Friends and family helped put everything together, Champagne towers (although maybe least said about that the better!), planters became ice buckets for bottles of champagne, everyone grabbing a chair and the lawn turned into a dance floor once the music started. It felt personal because every part of it belonged to them.
I shot this wedding of a mix of film cameras - the Contax G2 and Leica M6 handling 35mm duties and a Fujifilm GA645i on medium format.
The Leica summicron-C 40mm was my lens of choice for the Leica. The 40mm is a massively underrated wee lens - I love the 40mm focal length and its easy to frame up as it brings up the 50mm tramlines - just frame it tight and know that there is space around the subject - prefect!
The wedding on Super 8
Alongside the photographs, I filmed the day on real analogue Super 8. The soft grain, shifting colour and little flashes of movement suit a celebration like this perfectly hands passing glasses through the garden, guests dancing on the grass and all the tiny moments that happen too quickly to direct. It does not try to make the day look polished; it keeps the warmth and movement exactly as they felt.
Super 8 wedding film from Alessandro and Mara’s relaxed back-garden wedding in Morningside, Edinburgh.
A wedding made at home
There was no hotel timetable or long list of formalities. The garden had been prepared by the people who knew Alessandro and Mara best, and that gave the whole day an easy rhythm from the beginning. Guests arrived through the house, somebody always seemed to be carrying another chair or opening another bottle, and every corner felt lived in rather than styled for the sake of a photograph.
That is what I love about photographing a wedding at home. The setting already holds years of ordinary life, so the pictures have context straight away. Family photographs sit inside rooms everyone recognises, the garden looks familiar, and the day becomes part of the story of the house.
A back-garden ceremony in Morningside
Alessandro and Mara were married outside with their friends and family gathered close around them. Morningside can feel surprisingly quiet once you step away from the main streets, and the enclosed Edinburgh garden made the ceremony feel private without being formal. People could see every expression and hear every word. Afterwards there was no rush to move everyone elsewhere — drinks were poured, conversations carried on and the celebration simply spread across the lawn.
Champagne, music and dancing on the lawn
The best details were the ones that came from making the day work at home. Large garden planters were filled with ice and used to keep the champagne cold. Food and glasses moved in and out of the house, friends kept an eye on whatever needed doing, and nobody stood back waiting for a venue team to take over.
As the afternoon became evening, the music came up and the lawn turned into the dance floor. It was loose, funny and completely unselfconscious — the sort of party where children, parents and friends all end up dancing together. Those moments made some of my favourite frames from the day.
Edinburgh wedding photography on analogue film
I photographed the wedding using a mixture of digital cameras and analogue film. Film felt especially right here. Its grain, softer colour and small imperfections suited the greenery, the old stone around Morningside and the movement of a party happening outdoors. Digital covered the fastest reactions, while 35mm and medium-format film gave the quieter photographs a tactile quality that feels closer to a memory than a perfectly clean file.
The Super 8 film works in the same way. It catches gestures, movement and atmosphere without asking the day to stop for the camera. Together, the still photographs and film tell the story as it happened: a warm Edinburgh garden wedding, made by family and friends and full of personality.
Planning a wedding at home in Edinburgh?
If you are planning a relaxed wedding in Morningside, elsewhere in Edinburgh or in your own back garden, I would love to hear about it. I photograph celebrations on digital and analogue film, with Super 8 available for couples who want the movement and sound of the day kept too. Get in touch and tell me what you are planning.