Castle Leslie Wedding Photographer | Jane and Jack

Jane & Jack, Castle Leslie

Every blog post I write starts the same way: I open the images and I choose the ones I love. The ones that show off the venue, the light, the moments I'm most proud of as a photographer.

This one is different.

The images you're about to see aren't my picks. They're Jane and Jack's. Every photograph in this post was chosen by the couple themselves when they sat down to select the images for their wedding album. I love doing it this way. It means I have to let go. I can't curate the day in my own image or cherry pick the frames that make me look good. What you're seeing is the wedding as they experienced it, the moments that mattered to them, the photographs that made them stop scrolling and say yes. To me, that's the most honest way to represent a day. And if you want to know what it's really like to have Annie and me photograph your wedding, that's the answer right here.

Jane and Jack got married on the 11th of November. They started their morning in the sea. They ended it on a dance floor in one of the most beautiful estates in Ireland. And in between, they had 200 of the people they love most with them for every moment of it.

The Morning: 40 Foot, Dún Laoghaire

Jack's morning didn't start with a suit.

It started at the 40 Foot in Dún Laoghaire, which happens to be about two minutes from where I live. A crisp November morning, calm water, and a group of lads with absolutely no obligation to jump into the Irish Sea on their mate's wedding day. They jumped anyway.

There was an unofficial competition underway. Who had the best dive. Nobody was keeping score but everybody was absolutely keeping score. The water was cold enough that nobody hung around once they were in, but that didn't matter. The energy was set for the day. Relaxed, a bit daft, genuinely joyful.

I photographed weddings for a long time before I got a morning like this one and I still love it every time it happens. There's something about a group of men at the sea on a wedding morning that cuts through all the noise of what a wedding day is supposed to look like and gets to the truth of it quickly. Jack surrounded by his friends. Cold air. Majestic dives. Laughter.

Meanwhile, Annie was across the city in Clonskeagh with Jane, her mum Micheline, her bridesmaids Hannah, Liz and Emmagh, and two little ones who would later steal scenes at the church. June Murtagh had arrived at six in the morning for hair, Nas Costello for makeup, and by the time I'd dried off and got myself together, the prep in Jane's family home was well underway.

Getting Ready: Jane's Family Home, Clonskeagh

There is a particular quality to the light and the feeling in a family home on a wedding morning. Not a hotel suite, not a hired venue, but the actual house someone grew up in. Micheline's presence in those rooms, the familiarity of it all, the wedding dress laid out somewhere Jane had probably done her homework as a teenager. Annie works these rooms beautifully. She has an instinct for the quiet moments alongside the busy ones and she doesn't miss much.

One of the great privileges of photographing with your partner is that you get two photographers who genuinely trust each other. Annie is one of the finest documentary wedding photographers in Ireland and having her beside me doesn't just mean a second camera angle. It means I have the mental freedom to be creative, to take my time, to wait for a moment without worrying that something is being missed somewhere else. It's a rare thing to have that kind of trust in a second photographer. It's an even rarer thing when that photographer also happens to be your wife.

The Ceremony: St Mary's Church, Knockbridge, Co Louth

The church at Knockbridge is a proper country parish church in Co Louth, and Fr Michael Sheil, a Jesuit priest from Clongowes Wood College and a family friend of Jack's, presided over the ceremony. From the moment it started, it had a lightness to it that you don't always get at a wedding Mass. There was giggling. Real, unself-conscious giggling from the couple and from the congregation around them. 200 people who were already happy and already relaxed and completely at ease with each other and with where they were.

The confetti throw on the walkway outside the church after the ceremony was everything a confetti throw should be. A little bit chaotic, a lot of colour, and Jack and Jane in the middle of it looking exactly like two people who couldn't quite believe they'd actually done it. November light outdoors is quiet and soft and it suits a moment like that very well.

The Drive North: Castle Leslie Estate, Monaghan

Castle Leslie Estate sits near Glaslough in County Monaghan, close to the border, about an hour and a half north of Dublin. It is one of those Irish venues that earns its reputation honestly. It's a working estate that has been in the Leslie family for centuries, with a main castle, lodge accommodation and grounds that seem to change character with every season.

We arrived in November light that I will not forget in a hurry. The kind of light that only exists in Ireland in autumn, when the year is turning and the colours are still hanging on. The lake was completely still. I remember standing at the edge of it and thinking about what it would have taken to have bad photographs here. The answer was: significant effort.

Jane and Jack had been fairly clear on the questionnaire that they weren't fussed about spending too much time at the lake, that they wanted to get back to their guests. I respected that entirely. We did the couple shoot in about fifteen minutes, which is honestly all you need when the light is doing the heavy lifting. We moved quickly, we didn't overthink it, and we got photographs by that lake that I think they will have on their walls for the rest of their lives.

If you're planning a Castle Leslie wedding and wondering how much time to give the couple shoot: trust the light more than the clock. When it's right, fifteen minutes is plenty. And on the right November afternoon at Castle Leslie, it is more than right.

The Drinks Reception

The champagne tower was waiting when they arrived.

Jane and Jack poured it together in front of their guests and there was something lovely about how unceremonious it was. They weren't trying to make it a moment. It just was one. The glasses stacked up, the champagne poured, and 200 people who hadn't seen each other since the ceremony made the kind of noise that tells you the party has properly started.

The drinks reception at Castle Leslie has a particular ease to it. The venue lends itself to this part of the day. People spread out, they find corners, they find each other. As a documentary photographer, the drinks reception is often where I earn my keep, because nobody is performing for a camera and everybody is genuinely themselves. Castle Leslie in November gave us golden rooms and good light and a crowd who needed very little encouragement.

The Speeches

Five speeches. Three before the starter, two after the main.

I don't know the specifics of what was said. I rarely do. What I can tell you is that the room moved. There were speeches that made people cry and speeches that made people howl. Paddy Lavelle, Jack's best man, is a naturally funny and charismatic person. I know this because Annie and I were also lucky enough to photograph Paddy and Emma's wedding and I have seen him in action before. He delivered.

The thing about speeches at a wedding like this one, with a crowd this warm and this ready to be in the moment with the people they love, is that the photographer's job is mostly just to stay out of the way and keep the camera quiet. I moved around the edges. I watched faces. I waited for the moments when someone forgot there was a photographer in the room, which is most of them, and I kept shooting.

The Evening: Dancing, Cake and Smash Hits

Jack's mum Kate made the wedding cake. I don't know what was in it but I know that a cake made by somebody's mum for their child's wedding carries something that no patisserie can replicate. The cake cut was warm and funny and very them.

Smash Hits took the floor and the night went the way it was always going to go. This was a young wedding, a crowd of people in their late twenties and thirties who had been waiting all day for this and had absolutely no intention of going home early. The floor filled up and stayed full. Jane, who her friends will tell you is one of the funniest people in any room, was right in the middle of it. The energy in that room at Castle Leslie that night was exactly the kind of energy that makes you grateful to be a photographer.

Annie and I don't shoot together as often as we'd like. Between our own schedules and the logistics of two photographers with two different sets of clients, it doesn't always line up. When it does, especially at a wedding like this one, with people we genuinely like and a venue that gives you something to work with at every turn, it's one of the best parts of this job. We stayed until the dancing was well and truly underway and left with full cards and a very good feeling about the day.

Jane and Jack: thank you. For trusting us with this one, for choosing us for your friends and your family over the years, and for being exactly the kind of people who make this work feel like a privilege rather than a job. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Castle Leslie, Co.Managhan.