Dublin City Centre Wedding Photographer | Evie and Max
Evie & Max, Long Hall, Dublin City centre
There is a particular kind of couple that walks toward you on Fade Street in the December sunshine with two small children, no entourage and absolutely no interest in fuss. That was Evie and Max. They hopped out of their taxi, kids in arms, and we went straight to work. No nerves. No ceremony about the ceremony. Just two people who knew exactly what they wanted from their day and were going to enjoy every minute of it.
I have photographed a lot of Dublin city centre weddings over the years and this one felt genuinely unlike anything else. The venues, the route through town, the Long Hall, the gear change from family lunch to proper night out — it all added up to something that felt very Dublin and very them.
Fade Street Studios
Fade Street Studios is not a traditional wedding venue. It is a photography studio that Evie and Max rented for their ceremony, and it was a brilliant choice. The space is all white with massive windows and on a bright December morning the light was extraordinary. Clean, open, full of winter sun. As a Dublin city centre wedding photographer, I am always chasing the light and this room gave me everything.
There was no entrance. No processional. At some point Terry the celebrant quietly asked everyone to sit down and they just did — Evie and Max included. The ceremony started the way the whole day would continue: without ceremony. Charlie, their three year old, had been given the rings. When the moment came he presented them to his parents with the gravity of someone who understood the assignment completely. Their daughter Sadie, just one year old, was there too, hanging off both of them at various points throughout. Nobody minded. That was the whole point.
Thirty eight people in a room full of light and that was it. Done. No fuss. Exactly as requested.
The Long Hall
Directly across the road from Fade Street Studios, on the corner of South Great George's Street, is the Long Hall. One of Dublin's oldest and most loved pubs. It is also where Evie and Max went on their first date.
After the ceremony we crossed the road together. The barman refused to charge them for their pints and they perched at the bar for a few quiet minutes, just the two of them, before we headed outside into the sun. Fade Street in December, mid afternoon, pints in hand, the city moving around them. The light was blasting off the buildings and we got some of the best shots of the day out there on the pavement. They have since printed and framed them.
What I did not plan was being photographed ourselves. A local street photographer spotted us working and captured the whole thing. We ended up on his Instagram feed in front of thousands of people. As a former street photographer myself I found that deeply satisfying. For anyone looking for a documentary wedding photographer in Dublin city centre, that kind of unexpected moment is exactly what this style of shooting is built for.
Nolita with the Families
From the Long Hall we made our way to Nolita just across the road for two hours with the families. This was the part of the day that was just for the inner circle. Evie and Max's parents, their siblings, the cousins, all the small children who clearly adore each other. There were impromptu speeches. There were pints. There was the easy noise of a very close family in a room together.
The moment I keep thinking about from Nolita was a photo we recreated. Evie has a childhood photo with her siblings where they are all lined up, each one sticking their head out from behind the other. We got the whole group together and did it again. A direct recreation, decades later. I love doing this at weddings when the opportunity presents itself — the older the original photo and the more gloriously of its era, the better. This one landed perfectly.
Around half three the kids headed home with their parents and grandparents and the day shifted.
Walking to the Iveagh Garden Hotel
Rather than hopping in a taxi Evie and Max walked with me from Nolita up through the city to the Iveagh Garden Hotel on Harcourt Street. December afternoon light in Dublin city, the two of them in their wedding clothes moving through the streets. It gave us another run of portraits that felt completely natural because they were completely natural. Nobody was posing. We were just walking.
The Iveagh Garden Hotel
If the afternoon was about family the evening was about friends. A hundred more people arrived at the Iveagh Garden Hotel from five o'clock and the atmosphere shifted completely. Work friends, college friends, childhood friends. The room went from warm and familial to something closer to a very good night out. There were no speeches, no first dance and no formal structure of any kind. Laurie Hartz, their soul singer, arrived at nine. The DJ followed at eleven.
By that point I was photographing something that felt more like a club night than a wedding reception and I mean that in the best possible way. Evie and Max had given their friends permission to have a brilliant evening and that is exactly what happened. The Iveagh Garden Hotel suited this perfectly. It is a Dublin venue that knows how to hold a party without getting in the way of one.
Evie and Max
A week after the wedding Evie sent me a note. She said they were stunned by the photos and that her only problem now was not being able to hang them all around the house. She also mentioned that I had managed to get Max with his eyes open, which she described as extremely rare.
She was not wrong. It did come up a few times. The Sony A9II shoots at twenty frames a second though so I was always going to beat him.
Thank you both for having me. You built a day that was entirely about the people you love, with no distraction and no noise. It was a privilege to follow you through it.
If you are planning a Dublin city centre wedding and want photography that works the same way — no posing, no staging, just honest pictures of a real day — you can get in touch here.