Photographed the wedding of Emer and Réamonn at The Hardiman Hotel in Galway City. The wedding day started at the bridal prep which was held at the couple’s own house in Inverin, the Connemara side of county Galway on The Wild Atlantic Way. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side and there was a storm blowing in from sea with plenty of rain. Ah wind and rain two of the most enjoyable elements to cope with on a wedding day (not). 

Luckily for me their house was a modern architecturally designed home with plenty of natural light and while I would prefer more directional light there is a softness to the light that is produced on a rainy day flat albeit but soft nonetheless. A wedding day is not a controlled environment and you have to be able to adapt to the situations that are presented to you, after all does the title Professional Photographer not imply this. The only place you will get a controlled environment is in the photography studio not on location. 

So I worked with the natural light that was available to me and there were big windows upstairs for some bridal portraits of Emer, they were not long living in their home so it was an uncluttered from the different items that can be gathered when living in a home over a period of time. It was very easy to photograph Emer she was very natural in front of the camera even though she said she didn’t like have her picture taken. Downstairs it was also the same with plenty of natural light which was great for some additional family portraits.

Their wedding ceremony was a civil ceremony at The Hardiman Hotel and it was there I met Réamonn who was  also a very easy going natural person to be in the company of. The Hardiman Hotel is one of the best locations for a wedding ceremony whilst there is not natural light the light that is produced by the large chandeliers in the ballroom especially when shooting wide open with great bokeh and by adding a small pop of flash off the elegantly decorated walls really does produce some fabulous images.

It was a winter wedding and Emer and Réamonn didn’t want to spend to much time away from their guest so we decided to use the hotel for all of the wedding photographs and then popped across the road to get some images of Eyre Square in the background which was lit up for The Christmas Market.

Always enjoy photographing weddings at The Hardiman Hotel, it is such an iconic Galway wedding venue.