Fota House and Gardens WeddingSinéad & Dave

The morning

Starting the Morning With Sinéad and the Girls

My first stop was Sinéad’s family home.

The girls were busy getting hair and makeup done, while more of the gang were in the kitchen having breakfast, chatting and laughing.

And then you have the Irish mammy.

Sure you’ll have something, won’t ya?

Eat something.

Come on, have something.

God, I love Irish hospitality.

We’re an amazing bunch of people for it. You can walk into a house as a complete stranger and five minutes later someone is trying to feed you.

Sinéad’s two sisters-in-law-to-be were there too and we were bouncing off each other from fairly early on.

That’s important for me.

If I can get people to see me as a bit of craic rather than the photographer, the whole day becomes easier.

People stop thinking about the camera.

They laugh normally. They slag each other. They get on with the morning.

And that’s when I get the photographs I actually want.

The lads

Four Kilometres Down the Road to Dave

About an hour later it was time for the enormous journey of barely four kilometres to Dave’s family home.

And apparently the hospitality competition was still going.

I had hardly made it through the door before Dave’s dad was at it.

“Come on away in there and sure you’ll have a cup of tea or coffee, won’t ya?”

Go on so.

Coffee it is.

The groomsmen landed shortly afterwards and we headed upstairs where the lads were getting ready.

These guys have known each other for a long time and you could tell immediately.

No warming them up required.

The craic was already there.

Exactly what I want from a wedding morning.

The stairs

Back to Sinéad and One Photograph I’ll Never Forget

Then it was back over to Sinéad’s house.

The last bits of hair and makeup were being finished and Sinéad was getting ready to put on her dress.

And then I was given a bit of information.

The hairdresser told me that at Sinéad’s sister’s wedding, their dad Terry had become very emotional waiting at the bottom of the stairs for the first look.

“Be ready.”

Message received.

Camera ready.

I asked Terry to wait at the bottom of the stairs.

And even before Sinéad appeared, you could see what the moment meant to him.

He was trying to hold it together.

It wasn’t working.

I’ve photographed a lot of emotional dads over the years. I’ve seen the deep breaths, the looking at the ceiling, the attempts to blink away tears before anyone notices.

But Terry did something I’ve never experienced before.

He actually put into words what he was feeling.

Sinéad was at the top of the stairs and Terry stopped us for a second.

He was fighting back the tears when he said there was a pain running through him.

What a way to describe it.

Because that’s exactly what it was.

Pride. Happiness. Love. The little girl you remember suddenly standing upstairs in her wedding dress.

All of it arriving at once.

Then Sinéad started walking down.

Terry turned around, saw his daughter…

And that was him.

Gone.

No photograph needed manufacturing. No moment needed creating.

My only job was to be ready when it happened.

And I was.

The ceremony

A Wedding at Fota House and Gardens

From there we headed for Fota House and Gardens, where Sinéad and Dave were having their ceremony inside the house.

And bloody hell, what a place for a wedding.

Fota gives you something completely different from the traditional hotel ceremony room.

The historic interiors are full of character. Huge windows pour light into the rooms. There are ornate ceilings, chandeliers, mirrors, old paintings and those wonderful tall curtains framing views out towards the gardens.

For a photographer, there are compositions everywhere.

But more importantly, it doesn’t feel like you’ve simply been placed in another function room.

The house itself becomes part of the day.

The first look

Sinéad and Dave’s First Look

And before the ceremony, we had another moment waiting for us.

We organised a first look for Sinéad and Dave on the staircase inside Fota House.

Just the two of them seeing each other before everything properly kicked off.

After all the madness of a wedding morning, these little pockets of quiet can be lovely.

For a few seconds the noise disappears.

There’s no crowd.

No hundred people looking at them.

Just Sinéad and Dave.

Another moment photographed and locked away.

Then it was time to get married.

The vows

Laughing Her Way Through the Ceremony

If you’re imagining a deadly serious ceremony with everyone afraid to move, you’ve got the wrong wedding.

Sinéad smiled and laughed her way through it.

At one stage she couldn’t remember which hand was her left.

Which, to be fair, is exactly the kind of thing a wedding ceremony can do to a normally functioning human brain.

Everyone laughed.

Sinéad laughed.

Dave laughed.

And on they went.

That’s what I loved about the whole ceremony.

It still had the emotion and importance of what they were doing, but it felt like them.

Relaxed.

Happy.

Surrounded by their people.

The photographs

Wedding Photographs Around Fota House and Gardens

Once the ceremony was finished, we had Fota House and its grounds to play with.

And there is a serious amount of variety here.

Inside you’ve got those beautiful historic rooms, enormous windows and dramatic architecture.

Walk outside and everything changes.

Open lawns. Mature trees. Old stone steps. Long pathways. Formal gardens. The clean white exterior of Fota House itself.

You can make something elegant and quiet in one spot, then turn around and make something completely different fifty metres away.

But I wasn’t interested in spending an hour dragging Sinéad and Dave around every corner of the estate.

They had a wedding to enjoy.

We got the portraits.

We got the bridal party together.

We got everyone walking and laughing.

And yes, we caused a bit of chaos along the way.

That’s allowed.

Actually, I encourage it.

Because when you look back at the photographs years from now, I don’t just want you to remember what Fota House looked like.

I want you to remember what the day felt like.

The reception

From Fota House to Vienna Woods

With the photographs done, it was time for the next chapter.

Vienna Woods.

Sinéad and Dave arrived back to the sound of the fabulous Niamh O’Connor doing what she does best, and the atmosphere picked straight back up again.

Drinks flowing.

People laughing.

Hugs everywhere.

The kind of reception where you know fairly quickly that nobody is planning an early night.

And after the speeches, dinner and everything else that comes with a wedding reception, the dance floor opened.

The Wilful took over.

That was that.

Party mode.

After dark at Vienna Woods

The party

One Hell of a Party

This is where the documentary side of wedding photography becomes ridiculously good fun.

Once the dance floor gets going, I’m not interested in lining people up and telling them what to do.

There’s no need.

The photographs are happening everywhere.

People roaring lyrics at each other.

Friends grabbing friends.

Parents dancing.

Bridesmaids losing their minds.

The person who swore earlier that they never dance suddenly appearing in the middle of the floor.

And Sinéad and Dave right in amongst it.

Exactly where they should be.

The day

Laughter, Emotion and Everything in Between

Looking back through this wedding, there’s no single type of photograph that tells the story.

There’s Terry at the bottom of the stairs trying desperately to hold himself together.

There’s Sinéad absolutely cracking up.

There’s Dave with friends he’s known for years.

There’s the first look.

The ceremony.

The quiet portraits inside Fota House.

The bridal party going for it outside.

The speeches.

The little glances nobody knows I’m photographing.

And then there’s the dance floor going completely off the rails.

That’s a wedding.

Not six hours of posing.

Not six hours of candids either.

It’s all of it.

The beautiful stuff.

The stupid stuff.

The quiet stuff.

The loud stuff.

And sometimes a dad standing at the bottom of a staircase somehow finds two words that describe the whole bloody thing perfectly.

A beautiful pain.

Sinéad and Dave, thanks for having me along for it.

What a day.