Photographing Kendall and Paul’s sunrise elopement at Applecross last winter was a little dream come true for me. Although I grew up on Skye until a few years ago I had never visited beautiful Applecross. I was inspired to visit by the wonderful BBC series Monty Halls Great Escape and since that first day trip our little family have frequently set off over the Bealach na Ba (the highest road in the UK) to stay at the Applecross campsite, eat dinner in the beer garden of the Applecross Inn, drink coffee and eat cakes and run around the beautiful gardens of the Potting Shed cafe and above all else spend hours and days at Sand beach playing in the shallows, running around the bothy Monty Halls renovated in the tv show and surfing down the enormous sand dune.
So when I skyped with Kendall and she told me that she and Paul wanted to marry at sunrise near Applecross – there was one very obvious location! Leaving Skye at *very early* o’clock that morning I was so looking forward to meeting Kendall and Paul and anxiously watching the skies to see if there might be one of our beautiful Scottish sunrises. And there was! It was one of those mornings when the sky turned the richest of reds and social media was awash with friends commenting on the beauty of the sunrise.
At Applecross village we all met. The couple, their lovely celebrant and witness Andy. The story of Andy travelling to Applecross to witness the wedding is lovely. Kendall says ” When I knew we would need two witnesses I wracked my brain and remembered that the guy I hiked with one weekend in Malawi was from Scotland. We hiked Mount Mulanje together because we were both travelling alone. So I sent Andy a facebook message “Hey, I know this is random but I’m getting married and need a witness. Are you busy October 20th at sunrise?” Andy not only did it – he drove an 8 hour round trip, camped the night before the wedding and wore his kilt for the ceremony. What a guy!
Our timing was perfect and as we arrived at Sand the sunrise was at a peak. We walked down to the beach and startled young stags on the shore. Paul and Kendall exchanged simple and thoughtful vows. We explored the beach and the shoreline and made the most of the beautiful light and views across the water to Raasay and Skye.
After a stop for a delicious breakfast and a gallon of coffee at the Potting Shed we talked about our shared loves of rescue animals and running (both of which dominate our IG feeds!) and then we drove back over the Bealach stopping when the whim took us for more photographs. It was a perfect morning.
