Kevin & Siobhán tie the knot outdoors at the Wineport Lodge

Dermody Cahill Wedding

I’ve photographed a couple of weddings with an ‘outdoor’ theme. The last time I photographed an ‘outdoor’ wedding was back in 2005 and it was at the Station House near Trim. They were lucky with the weather but unlucky with the Cows… which trampled the venue the night before….

This time around the wedding was at my ‘local’ and favourite wedding reception venue, the Wineport Lodge, Glasson, Athlone.

Siobhan was getting ready at a B&B over the road (… sorry, over the LAKE…) and she would be getting the venue by boat.

Weather… well, I was worried. The weather was to be bad. Actually bad was an understatement. It was due to pour and pour and pour…. For an outdoor wedding this is usually a bad thing… So we all kept a close eye on it! I would say there was either a lot of praying, a lot of luck or a whole bunch of  Child Of Praigue’s – actually probably all three had a say in the day… because… the rain arrived the 4am that morning along with thunder, lightning (v.v.frighting, oooh Gallileo… sorry, getting carried away)!! Anyway.. All clear for the wedding!!! Phew, that was close.

This was a very intimate wedding. More to the point it seemed to me to be a very appropriate wedding for this couple. A small number of close family and friends and the actual ceremony was in the Gazebo at the Wineport. It contained around 20 family members, a string quartet, one of the video guys, bride/groom, me, priest. The rest of the family/friends were just outside. The couple also did something something really nice and quite unusual. They wrote their own vows. Kevin wrote his own vows to Siobhán and Siobhán wrote her own vows to Kevin. To make it extra speacial they didn’t tell each other what they wrote until it was time to exchange them.

It was very romantic, very personal and very emotional. Everyone was crying. Do you know how hard it is to take photographs when you’re eyes are full of water? (ok if you’re an underwater photographer you do but I wasn’t under water). I thought I was a bit of a sap but then I caught the best man crying too so I didn’t feel so bad.

When the cermony was ended the couple walked straight out of the gazebo an there was the reception! Cool!

Other cool stuff. Kevin’s sister made an empty frame derocated with Congratualtions and flowers and stuff. She then went around all the guests getting them to hold up the frame in front of their faces and took a picture! Brill idea! I used it to take a family photo too!

More cool stuff… the video… This was my first time work with Danny and Danny from Smartvideo.ie . Total pleasure to work with. Ultimate professionals. What’s more is they were shooting a totally different style from other video’s I’d seen. Very artistic, very cinematic. Lots of nice smooth panning, close ups and arty stuff.

A clip from their video can be seen here www.smartvideo.ie. Check out the rest of their demo clips too… lovely stuff.

I always enjoy photographing weddings, I’ll give it up when I don’t. This one left me that little bit happier…

I hope you like the pictures..