Simon + Tanja's Wedding in Aviemore

Aviemore holds a very special place in my heart and I have been going up there for many years so I'm always happy to have a reason to make the 10 hour journey up there to stay with my good friends the Micklethwaits who own and run Inshriach House and Estate. Simon and Tanja made the move 18 months ago from London life to take over Simon's family business to become the third generation to run Pinebank Chalets, turning their life from the daily commute to daily snowboarding.

The wedding took place at the idyllic St John's the Baptist Church, Rothiemurchus. Tanja and the bridal party got ready at the Highlands Hotel and arrived in a 1964 Humber Sceptre MK 1 courtesy of Ross at The Dell of Abernethy and Morris Minor white Cabriolet from Bygone Drives.  As they arrived a handful of snow fell - it was all very pretty and romantic.

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Credits:

Food by Good Highland Food.  We ate roasted red pepper, sweet potato, chilli and coconut soup with oak bury crusty organic bread followed by rare roast fillet of Caithness beef with red wine jus, fondant potatoes and parcels of fine beans and Morayshire carrots.  To finish we had panna cotta with a strawberry compote and homemade shortbread.

Flowers by Country Harvest, Kingussie

Dress by Dress 2 Impress, Inverness by San Patrick

Shoes by Irregular Choice

Tipis by Highland Tipis

Hair by The Retreat, Aviemore

Make-up by Kate Higham

Ale by Cairngorm Breweries

Djs were Owen and Gordie from The Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore

Inshriach House Wedding || Scotland Wedding Photography

One from the archives of last summer at my favourite wedding venue in the country, Inshriach House... I'd actually had supper at Cristina's parents with Cristina and MP about 5 years previously (and now remember some serious after-dinner wii-hoola-hooping action) but funnily enough had completely forgotten about this until I turned up at the house on the morning of the wedding to photograph the bridal party getting ready.

Cristina and her bridesmaids got ready at the Aviemore house which her parents have lived in for years and I got plenty of shots of them in the garden with the cows in the fields looking on.  They chose the pretty Loch Insh Church where Cristina's parents were married 23 years earlier.

Cristina wore a Caroline Castigliano dress with a black sash which was echoed in the bridesmaids dresses which they selected themselves, and teamed with some rather fabulous Christian Louboutin's.

I was reintroduced to them after their engagement by an old friend, Walter, who ownsInshriach; an Edwardian country house in the Cairngorms National Park where the reception was to be held.  Cristina and MP were looking for a relaxed, informal local venue which would allow them to bring the Spanish influence of Cristina's family into the meal (Spanish gambas and local Scottish beef) as well as having an incredibly relaxed atmosphere.  The groom's father was one of the designated carvers as joints of beef were served at table.

An (initially!) reluctant MP was pushed into performing the Spanish tradition of retrieving the bride's garter from her leg - with his teeth.  After first going for the wrong leg he emerged triumphant.

"I saw Cristina walk across the room with a feather in her hair and knew she was the one".  MP