Montmarte Cemetary, Paris - part one

While in Paris for a workshop (which will be blogged very soon!), I took one Sunday morning off to wander about Montmarte Cemetery.

A distant relation of the great photographer?

This cemetery is renowned for it's resident cats, and the "cat man" that feeds them!

Sneak peak - Megan & John's wedding, Liverpool

I have had a fantastic weekend in Liverpool for the first wedding of the season; I shall start blogging it in full once the newlyweds have been to see the full results, but in the meantime.....a wee sneak peak!

Kandyce & Dan's wedding - Vancouver, Canada; part five

Post wedding mingling led to a home barbeque as the sun set. Oh that Vancouver sunset..... it was amazing... I didn't get much time to work a couples session but what I got was beautiful!


Kandyce & Dan, what a gorgeous day, for a beautiful couple!

Kandyce & Dan's wedding - Vancouver, Canada; part four

The ceremony was short, sweet and had a funny ending!

Kandyce & Dan's wedding - Vancouver, Canada; part three

It was a nervous Dan awaiting his bride...The bride's father showed his Scottish roots well.....

Kandyce & Dan's wedding - Vancouver, Canada; part two

A marquee was available for cover if the weather wasn't great, fortunately it wasn't needed. The sun was out, there was an open bar, and everyone enjoyed mingling awaiting the arrival of the bride.

Kandyce & Dan's wedding - Vancouver, Canada; part one

I am SOOOO bad at blogging, time for another kick up the backside....

I have SO much to put on here too! SO LET'S GO!!!

This wedding is way behind in being blogged, thank goodness they are family!!

It was an honour to be part of Kandyce & Dan's adorable wedding in Vancouver, Canada last September. In the back garden of the groom's parents' house, under amazing canadian trees, the bride and groom became man and wife, surrounded by family and friends (and Jack in a kilt!)

A marquee had been erected, summer chairs were on the lawn, there were beautiful little personalised touches around the garden; fans for the ladies, trees to plant, homegrown flowers in tubs, it was truely a wedding where formality was left at the front door and everyone was asked to come in and be part of the family!

And the winner is....................

Facebook Nikki McLeod Photography:

"I am over the moon to announce the winner of the 2010 Nikki McLeod Photography 'Win your wedding photography' competition is...............................
GILLIAN!!

Gillian and Mark gained over HALF of the 726 votes in the past 48 hours! And I have just spoken to a very excited Gillian who has told me that she is going ...to donate her number of votes to CHAS, which I am SO touched by! Everyone gains!

Commiserations to Claire the runner up; but Claire should check her email this evening, as I am also sending her a fantastic special offer should she still like me to photograph her wedding!

Thank you to everyone who voted and I am now looking forward to photographing Gillian and Mark's wonderful St Andrews wedding!"

THIRD PLACE IS.............................

ANITA!!!!

Anita's wonderful story touched the hearts of many, and her beautiful castle wedding would be a joy to photograph!

So.... Anita should now check her email, as I have sent her details of a special package for photographing her wedding, with co...ngratulations for getting to third place in this great Nikki McLeod Photography competition!

NMP's "Win your Wedding Photography" FINALISTS!!

Here they are...... the three brides and their hubby-to-be's who are in the running for Fife wedding photographer Nikki McLeod Photography to be at their wedding!

Who would be your choice?

ENTRANT ONE; GILLIAN!

Mark and I met while we were at Glasgow University together studying Politics. I'm an Essex girl by heritage but grew up in East Fife, and he's a 'rugged hometown boy' from Pennsylvania, USA. I'm a liberal politics nerd, and he went to Military School in South Carolina. I have a little white cat and he owns a bulldog. I like vegetable soup and he likes steak. But somehow we work and we make a great team. When we finished our Uni courses last year we both had to move back in with our parents in order to find jobs, (start to) pay back our student debts and figure out the rest of our lives...this means being 3336 miles apart!

We chat and share and connect through Skype, email, letters and postcards, with regular phone calls and video calls when we can. I went out to the states for Christmas 2009, where I met his family and he proposed. Hopefully I'm going out again in a month or so.

We're having the wedding here in Scotland, at St.Salvator's Chapel in St.Andrews, where my parents got married. He's going to wear a kilt, my mum is going to make my dress, a quirky ginger 'weegie' guy is going to be best man and do the speech about me. His parents are getting passports especially for the occasion, which will be their first ever trip to Europe. Our Scottish guests are going to have to teach their American and English counterparts how to Strip the Willow like the best of them!

We've got a lot of planning and arranging to do, and after the wedding it won't stop there. We're not even sure yet if we'll have a honeymoon, because after we get married we need to start the lengthy, complicated (and expensive) visa process so we can eventually be together. We're hoping to move to the states and pursue politically nerdy careers, so there is a lot hanging in the air, yet we're just going with the flow and taking it as it comes.

I think we should win your fabulous competition because our wedding is going to be a colourful amalgamation of our lives that span the width of the western hemisphere and will come together for this one spring day in St.Andrews. It'd be a wonderful honour to have a fun and gorgeous document of the first step in our transatlantic lives together!
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ENTRANT TWO; CLAIRE!

Adrian and I met whilst out on a night out for a mutual friends birthday in Southampton in January 2010. It soon became apparent to Adrian that Claire played a sport at uni and eventually found out it was rugby that she played. He didn't believe this until she told him she played prop and demonstrated her scrummaging skills in the middle of wetherspoons (all whilst sober). Adrians revenge came later on that evening when the attended the student night in Jumpin Jaks and the chance to win a bottle of bubbly arose, he nominated Claire to go on stage in an attempt to win this (still sober). The competition - Placing a 10p between your buttocks and walking across the stage, needless to say Claire didn't get very far but won the bottle of bubbly just for the comedic value of the attempt.
This is pretty much how the relationship has developed, we try and have fun in everything we do. We watch rugby together which can provide an interesting observation as Claire is Welsh and Adrian in English and that is how we spend most of our winter and throughout the summer we marshal for motorsport.
We are both on a weight loss mission at the moment, not just for the wedding photos to look good, but to improve our general health, gone are the days of Claire playing prop and being coached by Adrian due to the over 3 stone she has lost.
So all in all, we have been together just over 4 years, engaged for 3 years in this coming August and will be getting married when we would of been engaged for 4 years. On this day we will have people traveling from as far away as Canada and Guernsey and pobviously as local as Cardiff.

I forgot one thing that I would like to add about something Adrian and I have done together. We were on the way back down the A34 one weekend from a hillclimb and came across a car that had gone off the road. In the drivers seat was a man lifeless, no breathing and no pulse. We got the man out of the car and whilst I started to resuscitate this man, Adrian directed the traffic ensuring I was safe. After 20minutes of resucitation the Ambulnace arrived and managed to get an output.

And although it is an afterthought to the original statement this is something we went rhough together and something that made me change my career direction into nursing and Adrian appreciate what hard work goes into the medical profession. As far as we know, the gentleman involved was still alive 2 days later.

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ENTRANT THREE; ANITA!!

Eight years ago Grant and I met online. I was still studying in Germany (I’m from Berlin) and was looking for pen pals in Scotland because I always loved Scotland even though I had never been and wanted to know more about life here.

Grant was one of the more mature guys to answer my post and we soon got chatting.

After a few weeks we were totally in love and 3 month later I came to Scotland to meet Grant for the first time.

My mum was having a blue fit because not only was I going abroad to meet some stranger…..but said stranger was also 14 years older than me (and only 5 years my mums senior *giggle*)

The second he picked me up at the airport I knew he was “The One” and he felt the same for me.

The following month he came to Berlin to meet my mum and dad who fell in love with him too so we got their blessing and three month later I decided to leave my home….family…friends…work (and country come to that) to be with the man I love.

I haven’t looked back since J

We have been through a few bad times, we have tried for a baby for a while but I have lost 3 so far so we have given up just now…for a wee while anyway to help us heal really.

Shortly after the third one Grant proposed to me in the beautiful gardens of Crathes Castle and I couldn’t ever have said anything but “AYE” I think he thought it was time to get my mind onto happier things J So we are fully concentrating on our wedding and have just this Saturday booked Barcaldine Castle for our venue...we just blew half our budget on my dream venue..a gorgeous castle but Grant said I deserve my dream to come true..now we need a great photographer to make this dream a lasting memory and after sacrificing so much to be with the man I love I think I deserve to have you document our union with wonderful photographs that will last long after the flowers have wilted and we are old and wrinkly, to show to our children and grandchildren what a wonderful day we had and that true love can overcome all sorts of obstacles and have a very happy ending indeed J

I soo hope to win you for our big day!

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How amazing are these stories!!

And now it's up to YOU to make one of these brides the winner! Will I be going to Oban, St Andrews or Cardiff?! Only YOU decide!

All you need to do to vote is complete the comments box BELOW, with your name, email address and then in the comments box, pick your winner by name or number!

This competition is open only for 48 HOURS FROM 3PM TODAY. The competition will be closed on Saturday 3rd April at 3pm; the winner will be the one with the most comments mentioning them!

Oh and there is another way you can vote too! Check out my Facebook page , become a fan of NMP there and mention your favourite bride in the comments box under the "Win your Wedding Photography" competition! Both Facebook and blog comments will be counted up on Saturday afternoon and the winner will then be announced!

------- 5th April----

Competition is now closed, results are here on the blog!

"Win your Wedding photography" finalists.....

will be announced TOMORROW APRIL 1ST!!

Fife wedding photographer Nikki McLeod Photography will be announcing the finalists for this fantastic competition tomorrow - the finalists will have 48 hours to get the most comments in order to win!

Can't wait!

29 Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow Wedding Open Day

So just to say...

this Sunday I will be exhibiting at 29 Royal Exchange Square's Wedding Open Day, from 12pm to 4pm.

This is a stunning venue, I was really lucky to photograph a wedding there last October. It was SUCH a stunning wedding, it is going to be a FEATURED WEDDING in next month's Real Life Weddings! I am SO excited about this, as it is my THIRD wedding to be featured in this fantastic publication! You can see this great wedding on this blog post.

If you are still looking for a venue, I cannot recommend highly enough 29 Royal Exchange Square; it is a classy, modern venue and yet the staff there make it so personal. The wedding coordinater there David Smith is a wonderful person; I worked with him at a wedding in Arta when he was wedding CO there. I know he will be a fantastic addition to the 29 team.

Special offers will be available for 2010 and 2011 wedding bookings for NMP photography at 29 on Sunday - so if you are getting married at 29 and you are still looking for a wedding photographer, I strongly advise you pop along to 29 THIS SUNDAY 28th MARCH, between 12pm and 4pm (don't forget the clocks go forward this weekend!)

Bring cash, as I will be collecting for CHAS; everyone that donates will get a special prize!!

"win your Wedding Photography" update

Unfortunately all the entries received over the last month have been either for dates I am booked for, dates I am not available for, or they already have a photographer booked.

So there is still plenty of opportunity to win; details below!

WIN YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY - Carol & John's wedding New Mill Hotel, New Lanark

Last year regular blog readers may remember I ran a "Win your Wedding Photography" competition; my winners were Carol and John and their wedding was held just before Christmas...... during that REALLY snowy part of winter!

The little flower girl was ultra cute! Carol was very smart with her purchases for her wedding; her stunning dress and flowers were bought off Ebay!

The weather gave me my first snowy wedding in 10 years; and the New Mill provided me with a fantastic venue with wintery backgrounds!

This was a special request by the groom; yes the bride IS wearing wellies!

It was fantastic to be part of Carol & John's wedding day and it was a good feeling to "give a wedding" to them!

And so on this, the most romantic day of the year, I would like to announce NMP's 2010 "Win your Wedding Photography" competition!

WIN.....

- coverage by Nikki from the getting ready stage of the day to the start of the meal

- a book-bound coffee table album with the first 20 images included

HOW

- by emailing me on nikki@nikkimcleodphotography.com before NEW DATE EXTENDED 31st March 2010 and telling me why you should win; it could be for any reason; a lovely story of how you met, a heart-breaking story of how love won through the odds, whatever!

On April 1st, I shall pick three finalists whose story shall be posted on my Nikki McLeod Photography Facebook page; the winner shall be the couple who get the most comments on their story on my page. Obviously the best stories will have a better chance of getting the most comments on Facebook so make sure you give me a good story!

RULES

- I shall consider a wedding anywhere in the world BUT any wedding outwith East Central Scotland shall be subject to travel and accomodation costs to be paid for on signing a contract to secure your date. Obviously dates I am already booked on cannot be considered.

- You must send your email to nikki@nikkimcleodphotography.com with the following information; names of the bride and groom, wedding date, wedding venue(s), contact telephone number for the bride or groom, and your blurb as to why this couple should be considered - anything missing from the above list will void that entry. A photo of the couple is also a great advantage to winning! An email will be sent within 24 hours of receiving your entry to say firstly if I am available and secondly if your entry has been considered, and if the wedding is outwith East Central Scotland, how much the travel/accomodation fee will be.

- You must not already have a professional photographer booked and NMP will have free range on the wedding day to photograph the day the NMP way, and use the images in advertising, promotion etc.

- Any client already booked by NMP cannot be considered.

Dead easy! Looking forward to hearing the stories! Get those emails in!

Oh forgot to say - making a donation to my CHAS page will stand you in better stead of getting to the finals! The donation page is on the right hand of this blog!

The first round of finalists will be listed here on March 1st, with the second round on April 1st. April 1st will also be the date all of the finalists' stories will be released on my Facebook page and there will be just 48 hours of voting by comments from friends, family and interested readers.

"breathless" for 2010

2010 is NMP's 10th anniversary, and one of the most successful parts of NMP over the years has been "breathless" - beautiful, sensual boudoir photography, which has gone down a storm as wedding day or anniversary presents, or even just a present for you!

With evening only sessions available throughout the year, "breathless" has gone a revamp in 2010 and a new price list is now available.

So don't hestitate, book your session now; and remember the successful January offer has been extended into February!

Kim was one of the girls who took part in the January offer and she gave permission for these gorgeous images to be shown!