Photographed the wedding of Róisín and Martin recently at Spiddal Church followed by their wedding party at The Connemara Coast Hotel. It was an absolute pleasure to be trusted with photographing their wedding, two of the soundest (as we say here in Ireland) people you could meet. The same can be said of their families, bridal party and their friends I met through the course of their wedding day. I started the morning at the bridal prep which took place at Róisín’s parents’ house, where I received a warm friendly welcome, makeup artist Fiona from C Beauty was working on the morning along with Collette from Collette Costello Bridal Hair. Always great to see them both as they are super professional. It also turned out that Róisín the bride and Fiona were cousins and I realised that I had photographed quite a few weddings in their extended family.

After the bridal prep I popped down to The Connemara Coast Hotel to meet Martin the groom and his groomsmen before they headed to the church for the wedding ceremony. I spent twenty minutes getting some nice photographs around the hotel which has an abundance of natural light, just a brilliant location for a wedding. Martin and the groomsmen were friendly and welcoming and a pleasure to work with.

I popped back to Róisín’s house to grab some images of her and her bridesmaids before leaving for the church, which wasn’t a problem as both locations were quite near each other.

The ceremony was performed with eloquence and humour by an absolute gentleman of a Priest. I always like to take the family portraits at the church after the wedding guests have left for the drink’s reception. My thinking here is that it frees up time later in the day as you don’t need to be searching for people in the hotel while there are meeting friends and family.

I couldn’t have wished for better locations used in the following order was Spiddal Church both interior and exterior, coastline behind Spiddal church which is just stunning and dramatic. We even found a quiet country road before heading to The Connemara Coast Hotel one of the nicest wedding venues not only in Galway but in Ireland. There you also the coastline of the Wild Atlantic Way where you can’t but take stunning wedding images. It was early October the light was directional from the West which was perfect for the wedding photographs I wanted to capture. Pretty much worked with the available light for all the exterior bridal portraits. No need to use flash just use the natural light in the right way.

Just a brilliant day with great people and I’m very lucky to be a wedding photographer.

Thanks for having me.

Michael.