Sinead & Diarmaid (Part 2)

Before Father Bohan got to tell the congregation about the chuckle I had given him a little earlier, there was the small matter of a wedding ceremony to take care of.  That, as it always does, involved the exchange of vows and the exchange of rings.  I often position myself in the aisle for this part of the ceremony –  for a number of reasons.  Firstly, it allows me to hang back a little further, which is good because it ensures I don’t inadvertently become the focus of anyone’s attention.  Secondly, it usually gives a good view of the couple – usually, because this is true if they are facing each other, which they often are.  Thirdly, in some churches it’s the only viable place to get a reasonable angle.  Not every church has wings to either side of the altar from which to photograph.  St. Attracta’s Church in Sixmilebridge isn’t any other church though.  In fact it is wider than it is long.  The main aisle effectively runs across the front of the altar, and Sinead’s entrance was from the side, not the back.  That extra width, coupled with a very bright spot light shining on the priest, but not on the bride and groom, when viewed from the normal aisle position, encouraged me to move to the side of the altar, from where I captured this image as Diarmaid completed the formalities.

A few minutes later I spotted him playing with his new wedding ring:

The first part of the day was quite wet – the rain seemed never ending, but as Sinead and Diarmaid greeted their guests in some lovely light in the doorway of the church, I could see from the rainfall radar on my iPhone weather app that we were about to see the end of the rain, which meant that we might at least get the few formal photos that Sinead and Diarmaid were after outdoors at Dromoland Castle, which would be nice.

By the time we reached Dromoland Castle the sky was dry but the ground was wet, so we didn’t venture far from the main door to the drinks reception.  It wasn’t a day for a stroll around the grounds even after the rain had stopped.

I would happily have taken photographs of these two all day, and when they happened to sit like in a lovely natural vignette of light, well it was a photo asking to be taken.  Check out the posing too – all completely natural and unprompted – this shot is straight out of the camera by the way:

It was getting cold, and we still needed a bridal party photo, so we quickly found a quiet area away from the guests to take this:

I loved the red walls on that landing too, and Sinead was keen for a few portraits – so we did this:

and later, en route to the function room, passing some windows, we did this:

Sinead’s mother runs a bakery in Sixmilebridge, so I had high hopes for the cake.  Rightly so – it looked amazing, and I’m sure it tasted even better:

The function room in Dromoland has a balcony that runs around three sides, allowing for a different take on a table shot:

And finally – well I did say I could have photographed them all day, and practically did to be honest!  I’m guessing someone had some fizzy pop!