Getting married in Ayrshire? I'm an Ayrshire boy.
Born in Ardrossan, raised on this coast — I learned to read the weather off the Arran hills long before I learned to marry people under them. These days I stay in Glasgow's West End, but Ayrshire weddings are homecomings for me: the beaches I grew up on, the towns I know street by street, and that west-coast light photographers cross the country for.
The coast does the decorating
Every Ayrshire wedding gets the same headline guest: the Isle of Arran, sitting across the Firth of Clyde doing its sleeping-warrior silhouette behind your vows. Sunset here lands on the water, which means golden hour actually glows gold. Beach ceremonies, garden ceremonies, grand-hotel ceremonies — as a Humanist Society Scotland celebrant I can legally marry you at any of them, sand between your toes included. A handfasting on an Ayrshire beach with Arran behind your bound hands? That's the postcard.
Ayrshire venues I know
Seamill Hydro at West Kilbride — the grand Victorian on the shore, minutes from where I grew up (I spent half my childhood jumping off its back wall onto the sand), where the Firth Pavilion faces the water and the beach is your photo studio: read Ben and Jessica's wedding there. And Piersland House in Troon — the 1899 mansion the Johnnie Walker family built, all carved wood and gardens, five hundred yards from the beach. And the Brig o' Doon House in Alloway — married in Burns country with the auld brig in your photographs. And Rowallan Castle near Kilmaurs, a Sir Robert Lorimer castle in its own estate, where the panelled Ceremony Room takes 120 and the light does the decorating for you. Marrying somewhere else on the coast — Ayr, Largs, Portencross, a clifftop, your gran's back green in Ardrossan? Even better. This is home turf; tell me where, and I'll be there early. And Riverside Lodge Hotel in Irvine is another good one for a do-it-all-in-one-room day. Just along the coast road, the Gailes Hotel on Marine Drive has chandeliers, a glass-roofed conservatory and the links on the doorstep: read Kelly and Michael's wedding there.
Along the shore from the Hydro, the Waterside Hotel has a seaward lawn facing Arran. Up the coast at Fairlie, Kelburn has the graffiti castle and a walled garden under yews older than the castle itself. In Ayr, there's the Fairfield House Hotel on the seafront and the Peacock Lounge at the Fox & Willow. Out by the airport, Adamton House is an 1885 sandstone mansion with a flying past. And inland at Annbank, Enterkine has an oak and glass pavilion by the River Ayr: read Brycen and Ammara's evening celebration there.
A real Ayrshire wedding
For a whole day on this coast from start to finish, read Clare and Jamie's wedding at Piersland House in Troon: two Ayrshire teachers, twenty-nine years together, and a ceremony on the lawn in July sunshine. My Piersland House guide has the practical side. For an evening celebration inland, read Brycen and Ammara's six o'clock wedding at Enterkine House, near Annbank.
Coming from further afield?
Ayrshire is quietly brilliant for travelling wedding parties — Glasgow and Prestwick airports are both close, the coast road is a joy, and the ferry to island elopements on Arran sails from my home town. English couples: your humanist ceremony here is fully legally binding, unlike at home — come north, marry for real, and get Arran in your photographs.