meta: castle wedding, harry potter origins, haggis, happy tears
I’ve been in Scotland this week photographing the wedding of my dear friends, Char & Pat. We spent the first few days on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, then the next two days in a castle from the 1400’s & 1800’s. Their core group of friends from home all made the trek to Scotland to be a part of their wedding.
It is difficult to describe how beautiful the experience was. That set the wedding bar ridiculously hight for me. Not saying I’m ever going to get married again, and I’m not saying that if I did, it would need to be in a castle in Scotland with my closest loved ones around me, but it would need to be something along those lines. Wow… just, wow. It was such an honor to be there and to document this incredible moment in their lives.
As for Edinburgh – again, wow. I didn’t know what to expect. I walked into a city that hasn’t aged. They don’t tear down old buildings. Every corner I would turn, I felt like I was walking into a movie or going back in time. The stones of that city reverberate with hundreds of years of accrued human experiences. That place has ghosts, all day long.
Adam Smith published “Wealth of Nations” across the street from my apartment, and Harry Potter was written around the corner at a little cafe called the “Elephant Cafe” (it’s the all red place in these pics).
Speaking of ghosts, we went on a ghost tour of the city one night, including some underground passage ways where the unspeakable happened.
I had an uber driver today who had a thick Indian – AND – Scottish accent. Such a trip. As he extolled the many virtues of the society in Edinburgh, he conceded – “There are only two bad things about living here: The weather, and the food”.
Speaking of food, I got my Anthony Bourdain on, and tried the local delicacies including haggis, black pudding, and of course, lots of fish & chips with peas.
These pictures only scratch the surface of what it was like – and Char’s proper wedding photos will wait until I return home in a few weeks.
I’ve discovered that I need to have an opulent library full of leather bound books and smelling of rich mahogany. Yep. That’s a thing.
I’m going to post a few things from the Edinburgh as I wrap up this leg of the trip – I leave for Germany tomorrow and will undoubtedly have plenty to share from Berlin & Hamburg over the next several days.
If you enjoyed that – you’ll happy to know that I’m releasing a book soon.
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