Friday, January 14, 2011

Áine & Neil's Wedding - 02.07.2010

Áine & Neil's wedding day did not start so well for me...

..in the brides room by myself photographing the dress, shoes, flowers etc. Nothing unusual there! I moved the dress to hang it on the back of an obliging door.  It was hanging via those tiny (and annoying) little ribbons that help the garment hold it's shape.  Since the dress also had beautiful lace straps, I slipped these onto the hanger so as to get the full effect.

Cue almighty sound of ripping fabric..

One of the aforementioned lovely lacy straps was no longer attached to the wedding dress, but in my hand...  and very much unattached to dress...

Oh.

Crap.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

My heart is now beating wildly as I weighed up my options which came down to these:

1. Say nothing and act surprised when bride puts on her dress and it's in bits.
2. Ask someone for a hand moving the dress and then try to frame them.
3. Own up and pray to god that someone in the house knows how to sew and that the bride doesn't murder me.
4. Exit stage left through the bedroom window.

After some deliberation, and serious consideration to framing one of the bridesmaids, I decided I had to tell the bride and proceeded to take myself and my now frantically beating heart to the kitchen and informed her. To my utter surprise (& joy!) she said "oh that happens all the time" and proceeded to clip the strap back on via previously completly invisible pop fasteners.  I'm not sure that I can adequaetly describe the sense of relief.  I found it interesting afterwards when telling this story that most people opted for the 'say nothing' approach!

So after my little drama, the rest of the day went very smoothly altogether - no doubt I was on a pure adrenalin high for most of it after the 'dress incident'! After a beautiful ceremony in the Sacred Heart Church in Glounthaune, we made it over to Charles Fort in Kinsale for photographs with the bridal party before the weather turned.  Afterwards, we had a few more shots at the Trident Hotel before I thanked the bride & groom for their warmth, friendliness & enthusiasm throughout the day and left them to enjoy their wedding reception.

Below are some of my favourites from their day.

That dress... grrrrr

Sometimes getting a bride into a dress is a team effort :-)

I love reflections and while the bride looks gorgeous (twice!), it's the lovely expression & body language on her bridemaids face that makes this a beautiful image for me.



Smiles all around and eyes only for each other. One of my favourite moments of any wedding day is watching bride & groom meet for the first time on their wedding day, and it's a moment that's not always possible to capture.  It's also a lovely moment to watch family members, and in the background in this image there is a whole range of emotions being displayed along with the smiles.

There was gorgeuos light in the church and I was hoping it would finally move to light up the bride and groom for me.  Alas, it wasn't to be this time, but I like the quietness of this image.


A gentle moment between the bride and one of the younger guests as he tries to comandeer her flowers.

I didn't know it at the time, but this shot recreated a picture from the bride's parents wedding album and was a lovely touch on the her behalf. Full credit to her for putting the idea forward - and lovely result.

Groom standing tall & proud as he sneaks a peak at his beautiful new wife. 

Finally, a little comedy to end the day. I think most ladies out there will understand the sentiment "my feet are killing me"

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Helen & Ant's Wedding - 29.05.10


Helen & Ant's wedding is fresh in my mind as I handed over their wedding album to them when they were back home in West Cork over Christmas.  

The bride and myself were both worried about the weather beforehand and were working out contingency plans in case the promised rain came at the wrong time.  Thankfully, we needn't have worried!

Spirits were high throughout the day and after a lovely ceremony in Ahiohill Church, we were greeted outside with the wonderful sight of an ice-cream van ready and waiting to provide us all with some icy treats.  The bride & groom stepped up to the challenge themselves and after a few very dodgy first cones (which were still eaten might I add!), they quickly got the hang of things!  After a few quick family shots at the church, we headed down to Charles Fort in Kinsale for some pics of bridal party and then onto the Carlton Hotel for the reception.

Personally, I had a wonderful day photographing this early summer wedding and enjoyed the company of the bride & groom very much and wish them every happiness together. Here are a few of my favourite shots from their wedding day - with captions.

I think I spy a nervous groom :-)


Wonderful expression on the groom's face as he looks at his new wife.

Is it wrong that I wanted to be in that queue and not taking pictures of it?!

I am sooooo jealous....

Happiness is...

A quick pit stop along the way to pick up bride's car gave us this lovely photo opportunity outside the her parent's house.

I love this shot for the comedic element. Love that one guys is completly out of step with the others and absolutely love that you can see tags on the bottom of some shoes. Classic.

This is definately one of my favourite bridal shots from the whole year.  The bride looks so graceful and elegant and happy.  Her dress also looks fab and is tying in beautifully with the daisies scattered in the grass.

I do love it when they ignore me completely and only have eyes for one another.  Very sweet, and like the previous images, the daisies work very well.

Blue skies can look beautiful in wedding pics, but moody skies can work equally well.