An Intimate Scottish Castle Wedding at Kellie Castle, Fife | Scottish Wedding Photography

When April first reached out to me in 2025, it was clear she had a very clear vision for her wedding, not necessarily a aesthetic, but an emotional vision. This was a second marriage for both of them – April explained how she met her fiance Jim, and the separate lives they had both led before – the two families they possessed – and it became clear why she was looking for a photographer who could document the total harmony between two established families who had without any hesitation embraced one another.

Kellie Castle’s walled garden was just the perfect venue for the intimate gathering of Jim and April’s families – who from here on out I will refer to as one family, because from the moment they arrived at Kellie Castle, it was clear they were one cohesive group. All now in their 20s, Jim and April’s children moved so seamlessly as a group that now and again I had to double-take, as for the life of me I couldn’t tell one side of the family from the other.

Within the four walls of Kellie Castle’s magnificent walled garden, basked in afternoon Spring sunshine, we couldn’t have painted a more beautiful picture of the celebration of the fusion of this family.

A Pre-Wedding Visit to Kellie Castle as a Wedding Photographer

After discussing April and Jim’s requirements, we agreed, with Kellie Castle being a new venue to me, that we would head over and scope it out together when April and Jim returned from the US. This is something I’m proud to offer couples as an added reassurance to their day – so that we can walk through and I can narrate what I’m seeing through a photographer’s eyes, and the couple can point out areas or backdrops they love way in advance. The last thing you need on the wedding day itself is to be looking around an unfamiliar place and trying to choose somewhere you’d like to be photographed.

If we’re not able to meet at the venue beforehand, I always arrive and scope out new venues more than an hour in advance of official coverage starting – so we’re never trying to work things out during the precious wedding hours themselves.

Kellie Castle, Fife – A Wedding Venue Six Centuries in the Making

I hesitate to admit, but this was the first I’d heard about Kellie Castle – I had been absolutely sleeping on this gem of a venue only a 20 minute drive from my wedding hub in St Andrews.

Digging back through the Castle’s history, Kellie Castle has been standing in the East Neuk of Fife since 1360, when it was home to the Earls of Kellie, no surprises there. The estate itself appears in records as far back as 1150, in a charter of King David I, passing through the families of Siward, Oliphant and Erskine across the centuries before falling into ruin and neglect in the late 18th century.

It was rescued in the 1870s by the Lorimer family, who discovered it in a state of disrepair and restored it – a project that left a lasting mark on Scottish architectural history. Sir Robert Lorimer, who spent much of his childhood at Kellie and went on to become one of Scotland’s most distinguished architects, developed his eye for proportion and detail within these very walls. His son, the sculptor Hew Lorimer, eventually gave the castle to the National Trust for Scotland in 1970, where it has remained ever since.

The stories embedded in this place run deep. The 5th Earl of Kellie fought on the Jacobite side at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and spent the entire summer afterwards hiding in an old beech tree in the castle gardens, surviving on food his butler secretly brought him each day. The walled garden where April and Jim exchanged their vows has been here through all of it.

Without hesitation, Kellie Castle will be right up there when couples ask for my venue recommendations – this is the true meaning of a hidden gem, with April and Jim’s wedding being the first held at Kellie Castle for more than three years.

Ten People, a Piper, and a Spring Garden in Bloom

April and Jim, their children, and their partners – ten guests in total, plus me and Johnny, the piper. Johnny is something of a legend in St Andrews circles, a man who has piped for the Royal Family on multiple occasions. The first stage of gathering was each family member being piped individually to the center of the garden – before being piped as one group to the ceremony space itself. Then finally, April and Jim were piped from the Castle to where their family awaited.

It was everything that April had described to me at that first pre-booking call. The family, together as one unit, and a deliberate, unhurried, intentional procession to the ceremony, where together April and Jim would tie the knot amongst those they hold most dear.

The Vows

Jim’s son conducted the ceremony, a decision that had been made very early on, and one that said everything about the intentions of the day. Beyond myself and Johnny, this was a day that was about family – as close knit and closed quarters as possible. No formal structure borrowed from tradition – family, speaking on behalf of family, to family, with family.

April and Jim, true to form, had written their own vows, long and personal, about the moment they first met and the immediate sense – the click, as they described it – of having come home to someone again after having lived the single life through their forties. This was a ceremony where the standard vows simply wouldn’t have fitted whatsoever – but funnily enough, like standard vows, April and Jim actually managed to overlap their personal vows quite significantly. Details from their first meeting – small specific moments – things each had privately held and treasured in the years since – had been written by each of them independently, with no idea the other had noticed, let alone remembered, let alone written into their vows.

I have photographed a great many ceremonies. I have stood at the edge of many a great moment and heartfelt speech, heard many an outpouring of love. But I cried at this one – so did Johnny – at both the sheer relief, and equally new life, each of these incredible humans had given to each other.

After the Ceremony – a Quaich, a Blessing, and the Garden

Once the vows were exchanged, we all raised a glass to the couple. Johnny then offered a blessing in the tradition of his Scottish clan, drinking from the quaich in April and Jim’s honour.

Afterwards, the couple and I slipped into the secret garden within the walled garden alone for a quiet set of portraits before rejoining the group for family photographs with the castle behind them. As usual, I started the couples portrait time with some very lighthearted prompts to encourage those candid moments to unravel. But once April and Jim were sat together chatting away, I hardly wanted to interrupt or pull them away – you could see the ease with which their fingers interlocked and how seamlessly they leaned in together. We took a short walk around the herb gardens and flowerbeds before returning to the family for group photographs.

I knew from the get-go when I first spoke to April that my photography style would marry perfectly to the vision she had – but it’s always such a delight to see everything unfold. April and Jim – I can’t thank you enough for finding me and inviting me to capture your day.

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