I’m mega excited to share this one with you all.

Sean and Cima are a lovely couple I got to know over the last couple of years. Although Cima’s family are from Jordan, Sean hails from East Kilbride. So when they said they were getting married at Lochgreen in August 2021 and would I do the photos - I was delighted to be involved. But despite some furious planning, the idea of the Scottish wedding just didn’t work out: there were too many issues related to Covid for Cima’s family in Jordan. They rescheduled their wedding to December 2021 in Dubai and that was that, I thought.

A few months later I got a WhatsApp call from Sean and he asked me if I still wanted to do their wedding photos... Immediately I said yes. I wanted to be there to help those guys and what an amazing opportunity to get to shoot a wedding in such an incredible place!

Fast-forward to 18th December 2021. I’m in a taxi in a foreign city, temperature in the high 20s, heading for the bride’s parent’s house. But for the temperature and very different scenery outside, the day actually ticked along much the way I’ve come to expect! I spent a couple of hours at Cima’s parents’ house photographing everyone getting ready, culminating in a lovely ceremony where Sean’s parents arrived to formally ask to take Cima into their family.

Then it was off to the venue, the Dubai Creek Park Hyatt, and the ceremony itself. There was something faintly surreal about shooting a December wedding surrounded by palm trees with hoopoes calling nearby. The light was beautiful to work in. The ceremony itself was lovely, very personal. A highlight for me was the traditional Scottish hand-fasting – but using a swatch of tartan and a swatch of a Palestinian bridal thobe to reflect the mingling of cultures.

After the ceremony, and with a very short window to get photos before sunset, I marched the couple at whirlwind speed down to the Creek itself. I got them seated on a wee bench and as the sun sank behind the city, shot them framed them under a tree with the Dubai skyline off over the water.

Next we we did a lot of the usual group shots before all the older guests went into the reception area. Sean, Cima and their younger guests were then announced into the room by a traditional Zaffa band. This took about half an hour, as every few metres the band would stop, the couple would be hoisted into the air, there would be dancing and cheering – then the procession would carry on another few metres before repeating. Tremendous fun and really got the crowd going!

Post-Zaffa, there was dancing, dancing and more dancing - I don’t think I saw Cima sit down apart from during the speeches. The speeches were a mixture of lovely and devastating, as Cima’s dad shared his love for his daughter, Sean’s best man brutally destroyed him, and Cima’s sister spoke of how proud she was of Cima (and also destroyed Sean – there was a theme!).

Other than speech time, the dancing never stopped and the evening flew past so quickly. All too quickly I was back on the KLM flight to Amsterdam, itching to get a proper look on the computer at the images I’d taken.

So, what did I learn?

Firstly, I gained a pile of confidence from this one. The stakes were higher than normal – it's not just the risk of getting a wedding wrong but a friend’s wedding, and having travelled halfway around the globe in the process. But I was still able to do what I do even under that pressure – I got some beautiful, fun, creative images for Sean and Cima all while trying to traverse a city I had no prior experience of.

Secondly, some of the traditions and beats to an Arabic wedding are really fun. The Zaffa band was great, and where in Scotland we fire three courses down our guests then expect them to dance, the food was much less of a centrepoint. But there was plenty of mingling of cultures too, with the hand-fasting and quaich making their appearance during the ceremony.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I developed a fondness for strawberry macaroons that frankly I don’t think will ever leave me.

We were delighted with the level of service Peter provided. He made time to speak with us on several occasions before the big day, and was a friendly and calming presence on the day itself.
He's really passionate about what he does, and worked very hard on the day to deliver us a set of images that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. We would happily recommend him to friends and family for their wedding photos.

- Sean & Cima