Galgorm Wedding Photographer: Holly and Matt, Ballymena

Holly was about to walk out the door of the Charles Lanyon Residence when the call came to move the ceremony indoors.

It had been touch and go all day. The gold chairs were set out in the courtyard in rows, facing a lace welcome sign with their names on it. Then it rained. Then it stopped. Then it started again. Galgorm pushed the start back ten minutes to give the sky one last chance and the rain did not take it. So Holly, in her dress, with her dad waiting for her, made the decision herself. Inside. Grand. Let's go.

I have photographed plenty of couples who would have been thrown by that. Holly and Matt were not thrown by anything, all day. I was their Galgorm wedding photographer on Saturday 8 August 2026 and I am not sure I have ever worked with a more relaxed pair. Staff carried the chairs in through the rain, the ceremony moved to the stone room under the fairy lights and nobody, least of all the two of them, seemed to mind.

Galgorm Resort sits on the River Maine just outside Ballymena in Co. Antrim and this was my first wedding there. It is a big, generous place and the whole day happened inside its grounds, which I always love. No cars, no clock watching, just a slow drift from one corner of the estate to the next.

Getting ready at the Charles Lanyon Residence

Holly got ready in the Charles Lanyon Residence with her mum Aine, her sisters Lillie and Robyn and her friend Katie. Dominique Harris did hair, Catherine McKeown did makeup and Lillie did Holly's face herself, which tells you something about the sisters.

At some point a framed copy of the Irish Gazette appeared, a mock front page announcing Holly and Matthew's celebrity wedding of the year. Holly, her mum and her auntie passed it around the room and were in bits laughing at it. I still do not know who made it. Whoever you are, well done.

Aine opened the champagne. The dress went on. Then Eugene came in to see his daughter and stood in the doorway for a second before he said anything. That one is in black and white because it needed to be.

Matt was across the grounds in the Cottage with Davey, Paddy, Eoin and Eamo, in a white dinner jacket that I thought was a brave call and turned out to be exactly right.

Kyle, Ella and a trumpet

When I asked Holly on the questionnaire what she was most looking forward to seeing photographed, she did not say the dress or the first dance. She said the page boy and the flower girl.

Kyle turned up with a trumpet. Ella turned up with a doll and no intention of walking anywhere slowly. When her moment came she ran the full length of the aisle straight past everyone, while Kyle and his trumpet took a more considered route. Nothing behind it, just kids being kids, and Holly was right. They were the best thing to point a camera at all day.

The ceremony in the stone room

Matt's brother Chris married them. He told me beforehand that the ceremony would be seven minutes long and I assumed he was exaggerating. He was not.

Holly and Matt did not want to stand at the top of a room being looked at for half an hour. They wanted two readings, the vows, a kiss and out. Chris was warm and funny and kept it moving, and the readings had the pair of them laughing in their seats before they had even stood up.

The room did them a favour. Stone walls, a low ceiling strung with fairy lights, grey light through a single window and 120 people packed in close. An outdoor ceremony would have been lovely. This was better, and I would say that even if the sun had come out.

Eugene walked her in. Chris said his bit. They lit a candle, swapped rings and kissed. Matt threw both arms in the air on the way back down the aisle like a man who had just won something. Which, in fairness, he had.

Drinks in the rain and a gap in it

The rain hung around for the drinks reception, so the courtyard filled with Galgorm umbrellas, which from the balcony above looked like a photograph before I had even lifted the camera. A string quartet played through it.

Then we got a gap. Ten minutes down by the River Maine where the water runs brown and fast over the rocks, then a walk back through the gardens under the lamp posts. I do not do long portrait sessions and Holly and Matt did not want one. We were back with the guests before the drinks went warm. That is more or less how I work everywhere, and if you want to know why, I have written about it in what a candid wedding photographer does all day.

I also shot part of the day on film, which Holly and Matt added to their package. The film frames are scattered through this post and you will know them when you see them. Grain, softer colour, a bit of blur on the dance floor. I have written before about why I photograph weddings on film and this gallery is the best argument for it I have made in a while.

Speeches before dinner

Speeches went before the meal, which I will always argue for when couples ask me about the shape of a wedding day. Eugene spoke first for Holly's side. Then Matt stood up with a microphone, in his braces, and gave one of the best groom's speeches I have heard. He is a natural at it. Quick and funny, then sweet about Holly in a way that had her hands over her face. Davey followed as best man and did what best men do.

The ballroom at Galgorm has a wall of windows looking straight into the trees, so all of that happened in soft green light with a single white rose in a glass on every table.

Chandeliers in the trees

After dinner the light finally did something. Galgorm hangs chandeliers from the trees along the river path and at dusk they come on. Holly and Matt walked out for five minutes and the house behind them turned gold.

The Suitcase Sessions and a very early shoulder lift

The Suitcase Sessions played. First dance at half nine, with a dip in the middle of it that Holly did not see coming. Then the room went.

I have photographed hundreds of weddings and the pattern is always the same. The bride and groom end up on someone's shoulders eventually, usually well past eleven, usually to the last song. Holly and Matt were both up on shoulders by the third song. Separately. On opposite sides of the floor. I have not seen it happen that early before and I am not sure I will again.

On film

The last few frames here are the film ones. Holly in the gothic doorway of the residence. The bridesmaids in black. Kyle in a chair with a trumpet in his mouth. A first dance that is mostly light and movement. This is the side of the day that digital does not quite get, and it is why I keep a film camera on my shoulder.

Thank you

Holly and Matt, thank you. You made a call about the rain in the doorway of your room, in your dress, and never looked back, and that set the tone for the whole day. Being your Galgorm wedding photographer was a pleasure, and Ballymena is not as far from Dún Laoghaire as I thought.

I am a Dublin wedding photographer by postcode, but if you are getting married at Galgorm or anywhere in Co. Antrim and want your day photographed like this, unposed and unstaged and paying attention, get in touch. My packages include the film add on Holly and Matt went for.