Rufflets Wedding Photography – A Midsummer Garden Ceremony in St Andrews
There are weddings where the weather gods simply show up, and Calum and Eleanor’s midsummer day at Rufflets was one of them (the guests confirmed they did bury a sausage). It was the kind of day where the light is almost blinding – golden and relentless from morning to last dance – but you can’t resent it because of the sheer joy that, for just a few short months over summer, Scotland can bask in this glorious warmth. And in St Andrews, where a haar can roll in off the North Sea at any given moment, a day like this one felt like a gift.
Rufflets Hotel sits just outside St Andrews on the Strathkinness Low Road, and if you’ve ever driven past it in summer you’ll understand why it’s one of the most sought-after wedding venues in Fife. The walled garden in particular – where Calum and Eleanor held their ceremony – is one of those settings that simply speaks for itself. Borders in full bloom, stone walls holding and reflecting the heat back to the ceremony, the kind of dappled shade that every photographer chases (and that I made the absolute most of for family portraits!).
A Pre-Wedding Shoot Around St Andrews
The morning before the ceremony, we spent an hour wandering St Andrews together – a pre-wedding shoot that took in a few of the town’s most photogenic spots. The Scores with its view out over the North Sea, the quad at St Salvator’s with its cobblestones and warm sandstone, and the beautiful grounds of the Cathedral ruins. It was already warm by mid-morning and the light was sharp and directional, the kind that rewards shade-seeking and punishes anyone standing in full sun without squinting.
Pre-shoots like this one are something I always recommend to couples marrying in St Andrews. Beyond the photographs themselves – and the ones from that morning with Eleanor & Calum are some of my all-time favourites – they’re a chance to get comfortable in front of the camera before the pressure of the day itself. By the time Calum and Eleanor were standing in that garden in front of their families, they already knew how I worked and I already knew what made them laugh.
The Ceremony – Rufflets Walled Garden Amongst the Roses
Eleanor & Calum’s wedding ceremony was held in the walled garden, and the heat by early afternoon was serious. The kind of heat that’s unusual enough in Scotland that nobody complains – quite the opposite. Guests arrived with sunglasses on and stayed that way. The light was harsh in the technical sense, but the garden’s mature borders and the height of the surrounding walls created natural pockets of shade that kept things manageable, and the colour in the flower beds was extraordinary.
What I remember most about the ceremony is how relaxed it felt. Calum and Eleanor had clearly set a tone – this was a celebration rather than a performance, and their guests responded accordingly. Half Irish, half British, the mix made for exactly the kind of warm, irreverent, slightly chaotic wedding atmosphere that I find most enjoyable to photograph.
Irish Hospitality and a Long Afternoon
I should say at this point that I was offered more drinks over the course of this wedding than perhaps any other I photographed that year (and perhaps any other I’ve photographed since). The Irish contingent were generous to a fault. I held firm. If I hadn’t been driving home shortly afterwards, maybe it would’ve been a different story, but alas.
The reception stretched through a long, warm afternoon and into the evening – the kind of day that photographers love because the light just keeps giving, and Rufflets just continued to look stunning. Midsummer in Fife means golden hour arrives late and lingers, and by the time we did family portraits, the harshness of the afternoon had softened into something altogether more forgiving.
Wedding Photography at Rufflets, St Andrews
Rufflets is a venue I return to regularly and one I’d recommend without hesitation for couples considering a St Andrews wedding. The walled garden ceremony space is genuinely special, the interiors are warm and well-lit for reception coverage, and the grounds offer enough variety for a full day of photography without ever feeling repetitive.
If you’re planning a wedding at Rufflets and you’re looking for a photographer who knows the venue well, I’d love to hear about your day.
Planning a wedding in St Andrews? Find out more about my St Andrews wedding photography here.
Getting married elsewhere in Scotland? I travel across the country — see my Scotland wedding photography page here.
Want to see some more examples of my wedding photography at Rufflets? See my write-up from Atia & Shahariar’s Nikah Ceremony at Rufflets here!
