Emma & Richie, Wedding, Boyle Co.Roscommon to Kilronan Castle

A couple of days before Christmas I shot my final wedding of 2020. As I’ve said on my Instagram page, I barely made it into the teens in terms of number of weddings shot this year but every wedding I had I was truly grateful for & super delighted for the couples that went ahead & tied the knot!

Some of the smaller intimate weddings I’ve had, have naturally been shorter affairs, sometimes with a much later ceremony, but thankfully for Emma & Richie’s wedding, their day was almost normal feeling for me! 1pm ceremony followed by an earlier family dinner in Kilronan. But that earlier start meant I had all the light during the day and in winter, light is everything! On a super calm, cold day, one of the few this December, I started the morning with Richie and his family and dogs running around the gardens around Boyle Abbey! Any time there’s dogs or animals in the wedding equation, I’m happy as it’s always fun to shoot the fur babies of the family!

With a short drive to where Emma was getting ready, I was greeted by yet another fur baby! A very well behaved Sadie the retriever was happily roaming around with a wedding dress just hanging up! As it was my last wedding of the year and of course Christmas period, I naturally went to town with the shoes and flowers and Christmas lights in the background! My favourite detail shots of the year are usually taken now with the sparkly lights of the Christmas tree in the background! Although, I have to confess, I said it in March, and I’ll say it again now, my shoe shot of the year was Shannon’s boots in March, I couldn’t top the simplicity of that shot!

After a few more relaxed portraits with Emma, Aoife and Sadie, we of course grabbed a few more with Emma’s parents before heading down the road for the ceremony in Boyle church. With the weather still cooperating, we got the family pictures at the church doorway, before myself and the bridal party headed around the corner to Boyle Abbey, one of my favourite locations for wedding pictures. Thankfully Emma & Richie know people and were able to get us access to the abbey for a few minutes as it’s generally closed in winter. The abbey alone would have been super for portraits but with time on our side and again knowing some people, we headed into Forest Park to the Fairy Bridge before going for a quick stroll out on one of the jettys onto Lough Key! And how fab does the water look, it was so calm it was like glass, a part from the odd ripple from a lone kayaker who was floating around there…such a day for it!

Back to Kilronan and with light fading fast, I asked the couple for 5 minutes in a super mega cool location near the castle. I’ve only used the area once for pictures back in October, and this time of year it looked totally different, especially in the near darkness. As a photographer you can sometimes plan for a picture, especially a portrait (real moments you can’t) but sometimes, you just go with it and the last shot you just try sometimes works out the best! It was this shot above, one of the last of the day that I definitely like best partly because of the scene, colours and also as it’s something I haven’t shot before…a couple in a dark tunnel in fading natural light! If you’re reading this and you have been to Yosemite, you’ve probably stood at tunnel view for the magnificent valley view…but the view is named after the tunnel behind the car park and it has this exact colour inside, especially in winter (btw I highly recommend Yosemite in winter when travel resumes!). This tunnel was in the back of my mind when I shot this picture, the orange tone of the circular light around the couple.

Congrats again Emma & Richie…and thank you so much for trusting me and having me at your wedding! Stay safe!

And to all couples who got married in 2020, thank you all for having me document your weddings – from the start of this pandemic and restrictions on the second weekend of March at 70 odd guests to my smallest of the year at 6 guests including bride & groom, it was an honour. Big or small, the images of your wedding day are and will be historic documents of this unprecedented year. The masks, the small numbers, the big yellow Covid signs around the reception areas will all be stories to be told years from now! Thanks again, Mark

Suppliers:

Venue – Kilronan Castle

Videographer – Stephen Kilfeather Wanderlust Weddings

Mens Suits – EJ Menswear

Make-Up Artist – Haley Coleman Make Up

Hair Salon – Kreation Hairdressing

Florist – Feehilys Florist

To view weddings at this venue, click here.

If you are thinking about having your wedding at Kilronan Castle, Roscommon, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss your wedding photography!

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