Louise & Richard (Part 1)

The “wedding year” seems to have two seasons.  The first goes from around about March to around about October, while there’s a second shorter season around Christmas.  In between, wedding photographers get time to relax if they’re lucky, but probably spend most of that time catching up on paperwork, album design, tax returns, marketing and other such fun activities. The first of those two seasons finished for me a couple of weeks ago with Louise and Richard’s wedding on a beautiful sunny day in North Dublin. Given that this was the end of September, the weather was a real bonus and made a visit to Malahide Castle between the ceremony and the reception worthwhile. The day kicked off, though, in Louise’s family home where things were nice and relaxed, and where Louise gave me my favourite feedback yet on my photography.

Ask any bride I’ve photographed and they’ll tell you that I have a bit of a thing for mirrors.  I’m always on the lookout for them around the house or the hotel, and will usually include at least one shot like that above in my shots from a wedding.  I showed Louise this photo on the back of my camera after taking it and had to laugh at her response: “You’re the sh*t, man!”. Definitely one for the testimonials page.

Louise’s brother, Andrew, was great fun on the day. He’s 3 and a half – the half is always important – and was super friendly from the moment I walked into the house in the morning.  He was very happy to pose for the camera too, though my favourite photos of him were when I caught him unawares.  On the left, below, I captured him as he dabbled in a bit of makeup-artistry, and on the right I love Louise’s expression upon seeing in looking all smart in his new suit:

Louise’s mother Elizabeth and her two bridesmaids Claire and Aiveen helped her into the dress as the emotion of the day began to catch up on the bride:

Meanwhile downstairs a bouquet of flowers had arrived from a secret admirer:

It was off to Raheny church then, which is one of the largest I’ve been in, and also one which, I think it’s fair to say, photographs better than it looks. From my point of view at least, that’s better than the other way around:

Louise chose her grandmother to walk up the aisle with her, which was a lovely twist on tradition and it was easy to see it meant a lot to both of them to be accompanying each other on that long walk to the altar:

 

And it was, literally, a long walk:

Richard was waiting patiently at the top for his beautiful bride, alongside his not-too-shabby groomsmen Philip and Crónán:

There were lots of smiles and laughs during the ceremony, but time for some reflection also:

And with that, Louise and Richard were Mr. & Mrs. Harris.  As they prepared to walk down the aisle, Richard’s niece stepped into the aisle to get a good view:

With the ceremony done, it was off to the reception at the Grand Hotel in Malahide, with a quick stop in Malahide Castle en route.  As it turned out, the sunny day meant we weren’t the only wedding party to have that idea! More on that, plus the funkiest balloons you’ve probably ever seen, in the next post.