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Monita & Damien’s Ballyseede Castle Wedding
After the summer we’d had, it was always going to break eventually.
June and July had me scrambling around wedding venues looking for shade, trying to keep couples out of blazing sunshine. We’d gone what felt like five or six weeks with barely a drop of rain.
This is Ireland. We were living on borrowed time. 😂
And on the morning of Monita and Damien’s Ballyseede Castle wedding, our old friend came thundering home.
Rain.
Proper Irish wedding rain.
But if ever there was a wedding that proved the weather doesn’t get to decide what kind of day you’re going to have, this was it.
Monita and Damien had travelled all the way from New Zealand to Ballyseede Castle in Kerry to celebrate with the people they loved. There was colour everywhere, emotions running just beneath the surface and a room full of people who were absolutely determined to enjoy themselves.
Rain or no rain.
A Rainy Wedding Morning at Ballyseede Castle
I was photographing Monita and Damien’s wedding for the first half of the day, covering everything from the morning preparations through their ceremony and portraits afterwards.
When I arrived at Ballyseede Castle, hair and makeup were already in full swing.
And the energy was brilliant.
Monita told me they’d make the final call on the outdoor ceremony at around midday. Everyone had their fingers crossed.
We weren’t asking for sunshine.
We weren’t even being greedy enough to ask for blue skies.
Just stop raining.
That would do us.
Because the grounds around Ballyseede Castle are stunning and an outdoor ceremony there would have been beautiful.
Management gave it every possible chance, even pushing the decision beyond the original time to see if the weather might finally turn.
But every time the rain seemed to fade, back it came.
Eventually the decision had to be made.
The outdoor ceremony wasn’t going to happen.
And thankfully, Ballyseede Castle has one hell of an ace up its sleeve.
When the weather refused to cooperate, Ballyseede had the perfect answer — The Belfry, its purpose-built ceremony space just a short walk from the castle itself.
This was never a case of retreating indoors to some forgettable Plan B room.
The Belfry is a beautiful wedding ceremony space in its own right: elegant, full of character, with soft light and enough room for everyone to settle in and completely forget the rain falling outside.
Umbrellas went up.
We made our way across.
But before that, there was still plenty happening back upstairs.
A Wedding Dress With a Story Behind It
Monita and her three sisters were flying around the room.
Everyone had a job.
Everyone seemed to know what that job was.
And somehow amid all of it, Monita told me about her wedding dress.
Her late mum had made it for her.
That changed how I looked at the dress immediately.
It was a beautiful plush pink wedding dress, completely different from what I photograph at most Irish weddings, but its real value had absolutely nothing to do with its colour or design.
Her mum had made it.
And her mum loved birds. She loved watching them and caring for them.
So attached to Monita’s colourful wedding bouquet was a tiny hummingbird pendant in her memory.
Her brother wore a matching hummingbird pendant too.
You could hear it in Monita’s voice when she spoke about her.
There are certain emotions at weddings that can’t be hidden.
You don’t need to manufacture them. You don’t need to pose them. You certainly don’t need a photographer telling somebody what expression to make.
They’re simply there.
And this was one of those moments.
Her mum wasn’t physically in that room, but there were little pieces of her woven throughout the day.
Damien and His Best Man
I left the girls for a while and popped down to see Damien.
Different room.
Different energy altogether.
Damien and his best man immediately fell straight back into the craic.
Damien had been living abroad for quite some time, but watching the two lads together you’d swear he’d never left Ireland.
That’s one of the things about coming home for a wedding.
Years and thousands of kilometres can disappear remarkably quickly when you’re standing beside an old friend.
There was messing, slagging and plenty of laughter.
Exactly as there should be.
When a Song Takes You Somewhere Else
Earlier that morning, we were all in the room laughing and joking while a Spotify playlist played away in the background.
Then a song came on.
And almost instantly, you could see Damien’s sister being transported somewhere else.
I love when music does that.
It happens to me sometimes when I’m driving home from a wedding. A song comes on and, without warning, your mind is flooded with a memory from years ago. You remember the people, the place, how you felt. For those few minutes, you’re right back there.
And that’s exactly what seemed to be happening in front of me that morning.
Whatever memory that song carried for Damien’s sister was clearly incredibly dear to her. You could see it hit her. No posing, no direction, no asking someone to show emotion for the camera.
Just a song, a memory and a few quiet tears.
Those little moments can happen anywhere on a wedding day, sometimes when nobody expects them.
Possibly the Most Colourful Ballyseede Castle Wedding I’ve Photographed
One thing you’ll notice immediately looking through the photographs from this wedding is the colour.
It was everywhere.
Monita’s sisters and their children were dressed in incredible colourful outfits.
The flower girls wore beautiful flower halos.
And the bouquets weren’t the typical whites and muted greens you see at many weddings.
These things were practically exploding with colour.
Pink. Yellow. Purple. Blue.
Against the stone, timber and deep greens around Ballyseede Castle, it photographed beautifully.
The sky could be as grey as it wanted.
This wedding was supplying its own colour.
Ring Security Has Arrived
Eventually it was time to make the short walk from Ballyseede Castle to The Belfry.
Umbrellas were up.
Guests made their way inside.
And Damien took his place at the top with his best man beside him.
Now the nerves started.
You could see them.
Then the doors opened and the ceremony began.
First up was young Beau, Monita’s little nephew.
And Beau wasn’t merely carrying the rings.
No chance.
He was ring security.
Up the aisle he came carrying his security case with possibly the biggest smile in Ballyseede Castle that day, proudly leading proceedings and taking his responsibility very seriously indeed.
Try following that entrance.
The flower girls were next, bringing even more colour into the room with their dresses and floral halos.
Then Monita’s sisters.
Bit by bit, the room filled with colour.
And then the doors opened one last time.
Monita and Her Dad
There stood Monita with her father.
Ready to walk.
And immediately you could see it in both of them.
The emotion was written across her dad’s face and across Monita’s.
Then Damien turned.
That’s one of my favourite moments to watch at any wedding.
Forget me. Forget the camera. Forget everybody else in the room for a second.
Just watch the groom.
Damien saw Monita.
And that was that.
You could see exactly what it meant to him.
To be fair, by this stage the emotion wasn’t confined to Monita, her dad or Damien.
It was running through the entire room.
Tears, Smiles and Everything Between
The ceremony itself was beautiful.
There were touching readings from Monita’s sister and Damien’s sister, with plenty of emotion around the room as the two families watched Monita and Damien finally get married.
But the energy never disappeared either.
One minute there were tears, the next there were huge smiles and laughter. It was that kind of ceremony.
And for two people who had travelled all the way from New Zealand to come home and celebrate with family and friends, you could feel just how much it meant to everyone having them there.
That’s the stuff I want to photograph.
Not because every second is perfect.
Because it’s real.
And Then the Rain Finally Gave Us a Chance
After the ceremony, somebody upstairs must have decided we’d suffered enough.
The rain eased.
Not stopped, mind you.
Let’s not get carried away.
But it dropped to a light drizzle.
That was our window.
I got the family photographs organised outside while we had the chance and then grabbed Monita and Damien.
We moved quickly around the Ballyseede Castle grounds, using the gardens, the beautiful covered archways, the ornate gazebo and, of course, the castle itself.
This is where Ballyseede really earns its stripes as a Kerry wedding venue.
Even after hours of rain, we could still create a completely different collection of photographs within a relatively small area.
And because Monita and Damien weren’t interested in turning their wedding into a two-hour photoshoot, we worked quickly.
Walk.
Talk.
Have a laugh.
Stop when I saw something.
Take the photograph.
Move again.
No performance required.
We had barely made it back towards the front of Ballyseede Castle when the rain picked up again.
Window closed.
Job done.
A Ballyseede Castle Wedding I’ll Remember
Weather gets an extraordinary amount of attention in the run-up to an Irish wedding.
And I understand why.
You plan everything for months, sometimes years, and naturally you imagine what the day will look like.
But Monita and Damien’s wedding is a fairly good argument for not giving the weather too much power.
It rained.
The outdoor ceremony couldn’t happen.
We had to work around showers for the photographs.
And none of that is what I remember most.
I remember Monita telling me about the dress her mum had made.
I remember that tiny hummingbird.
I remember Damien and his best man carrying on as if he’d never moved away.
I remember Beau marching up that aisle with his security case.
I remember colour.
I remember Monita’s dad.
I remember Damien turning around.
And I remember a room that seemed to move between laughter and tears every couple of minutes.
That’s their wedding.
And rain doesn’t get to take any of that away.
Planning a Wedding at Ballyseede Castle?
If you’re considering a Ballyseede Castle wedding, don’t let the Irish weather put you off.
I’ve now seen firsthand what happens there when the weather doesn’t play ball.
The grounds give us plenty of options whenever we get a break in the rain, the castle itself makes an incredible backdrop, the gardens are packed with locations for relaxed wedding portraits and The Belfry means an indoor ceremony doesn’t feel remotely like second best.
And if it rains?
We’ll work around it.
We’re Irish.
We’ve had some practice.
A Thank You
Monita and Damien, thank you for allowing me into such a personal part of your day.
And Monita, thank you especially for trusting me with the story of your mum. Knowing she made the dress you wore and understanding what that little hummingbird represented made photographing those details mean considerably more.
Thank you to your families and friends, particularly everyone who travelled and helped make a wedding on the other side of the world from your home feel so full of warmth, colour and life.
And a huge thank you to the Ballyseede Castle team and staff. They held off the ceremony decision for as long as they reasonably could, gave the weather every opportunity and, when it became obvious the rain wasn’t leaving us alone, everything moved seamlessly to The Belfry.
Sometimes Plan B doesn’t feel like Plan B at all.
And finally, thank you to every guest who ignored the rain, brought the craic and gave me so many real moments to photograph.
Monita and Damien, I hope when you look through these photographs back in New Zealand, Ireland doesn’t feel quite so far away.
Wedding Suppliers
Venue: Ballyseede Castle
Hair: @triciaosullivan_bridal_hair
Makeup: @marilynmcsweeneymakeupartist
Cake: @heavenlybakedtralee
Flowers: @eleanors_florist_tralee
Band: @thesixtyfiveband
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