Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Killarney Wedding _ Kay & Barry

The weather Gods looked favorably upon Kay & Barry''s wedding which took place recently in "The Kingdom"!
Having never photographed a Kerry wedding before, I was extremely lucky to have Paudi Herlihy a local videographer working alongside for Kay & Barry. Paudi was good enough to call me during the week of the wedding and give me a run down about our possible locations for bridal portraits as well as important details of how long it would take us to travel from Brides home to the church/bridal portraits and finally to the reception in The Brehon Hotel. It helps enormously when you have a fellow professional who works "with" you on the day of a wedding....and the Bride & Groom hopefully reap the benefits with treasured memories.I travelled down to Castleisland the night before the wedding (Kay's home place), the three hour drive was a bit too much to take on the morning of the wedding.....energy levels would definitely be getting low later in the evening!I was finally able to put a face to the voice on the end of the telephone when Paudi called to me at 9.30am to accompany him over to Killarney where we were going to pay Barry a visit.



Barry's supplies for later in the day were on display

After having the "Full Irish" breakfast, Barry, Niall and close friend Dave went out for a quick walk to clear the head and focus on matters ahead of them. As you can see from the image above, the "fry up" certainly didn't kill any energy that Dave had....quite the opposite in fact!

Paudi and I then travelled back to Kay's home in Castleisland to capture her preparations. Brides dresses are always entitled to an image all to themselves.....after all, the amount of time that is spent choosing one, followed by a few "fittings' etc, means it is one of the most focal items on the day of a wedding.

Dora and Pat show no signs of anxiety as the morning unfolds.

As Kay's make up and hair styling is almost ready, everyone's cameras and mobile phones start clicking....all wanting to capture the beautiful bride!


After catching Kay's preparations, I followed Paudi over to the "beautiful "Prince of Peace" church in Fossa where Barry, best man Niall and Barry's two groomsmen Dave (x2) were awaiting.

An unorthodox manner of getting the groom to the door of the church!

Kay and bridal party arriving at the church.

Canon O'Mahony (celebrant) helps everyone to relax at the start of the ceremony and get a few good reactions from Aileen Rachael and Roseanne (the beautiful bridesmaids).

The "Prince of Peace" church has a unique interior as you can see from the image above....it's almost distractingly beautiful. The rear of the alter is a large glass window that offers breathtaking views of the Killarney mountains. There's also a pond built directly outside the large glass window which reflects some beautiful lighting back onto the interior ceiling of the church....truly beautiful!



Love this "cheeky" image












The Brehon hotel awaits with plenty of refreshments!





A private moment captured of Kay and Barry just before their introduced into the function room for their reception.

It's a pretty good feeling when your introduced into the room as Mr & Mrs and to see the goodwill and happiness that's extended to the bride and groom from guests.




Magnificent speeches!


Thanks Kay & Barry for letting be part of your amazing day......I've great memories of my first wedding in The Kingdom!!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Orlaith and Colm's Wedding

 Orlaith and Colm's wedding was one of the most enjoyable and unique weddings that I've had the pleasure of working at.
If you look up the phrase "laid back" in the Oxford dictionary, it just says "Orlaith Keane and Colm Naughton". 
I've had the pleasure of becoming friends with the couple early in 2010 when Orlaith needed some portraits for a project that she was working on. Co-incidentally, a week after doing the photo shoot with Orlaith, we played a gig together in Irishtown and it was then that I became familiar with her unique style of singing and have become a fan ever since. Her new husband Colm was also playing that night and like Orlaith, he's a laid back but talented and competent performer, and both are great craic to be around!
The wedding was unique in that they had their wedding reception "custom made"!! A marquee was erected on Orlaith's home place in Caherlistrane and was decorated in a manner fitting of the most "traditional" of Irish Weddings. The day was made even more memorable by the fact that the tail end of a hurricane was passing the West Of Ireland at the same time.....everything held firm though and the extremely high winds just added to the uniqueness of the wedding.
A chilled out Colm before the ceremony