Culzean Castle Scotland Elopement | Scotland Elopement Photographer

I’ve photographed quite a few elopements at this point in my career and they have all been so special for different reasons. Some have been at secret locations like waterfalls, others have been in canyons or up in the mountains. While they have all been magical, this particular elopement was the closest I’ve experienced to a real-life fairytale! 

Steph & Shane chose to rent out an entire CASTLE for their elopement! These two are seriously the FUNNIEST people on the planet with huge personalities, so they needed an equally amazing elopement location to fit their personalities in. They picked the Culzean Castle in Scotland and had the entire castle all to themselves. They had a private ceremony, just the two of them, in the castle gardens. Having been friends for many years before they admitted to having secretly fallen in love with one another, eloping in a castle made perfect sense! 

The private elopement ceremony at Culzean Castle’s garden house was so full of love.

It was a genuine appreciation of one another and their relationship together.

They not only said their vows and exchanged rings, but also included the Scottish traditions of a Scottish handfasting ceremony with the Tartans and sharing some whisky from a traditional Quaich (a two-handled cup) into their ceremony. 

Having the Eisenhower Room and entire Culzean Castle to ourselves meant we could take advantage of the many backdrops and hidden spots to take magical portraits of the newlyweds, so that’s what we did!

The three of us ran around the grounds of the castle taking photos and eventually wandered down to the private beach where we saw seals. We then moved on to Dunure Castle (some castle ruins nearby which are a filming location for Outlander!) which gave a completely different aesthetic than the castle where the ceremony was held. 

The magical day was wrapped up in true Scottish style, with a night-cap at a random local pub. We walked in, ordered some drinks, and made a bunch of new friends.