Laura and Ryan's WedFest Farm Wedding in Wicklow
Laura plans weddings for a living. She is a coordinator at Powerscourt Hotel and was at Brook Lodge before that, which means she has run more wedding days than most people will ever sit through. So when it came to her own, she could have booked anywhere in the country. She and her family built a venue from nothing instead, on the family farm in Co. Wicklow.
The ceremony was in her local church at Ballinatone. Everything after happened on the farm, in a barn the couple christened Wed Fest. As a Wicklow wedding photographer I have stood in a lot of lovely rooms. I had never walked into one a whole community made by hand.
I work as a documentary wedding photographer, so I stay out of the way and let the day happen. This day made that easy. There was always something real going on in front of the camera.
The morning
Laura got ready at her parents' home with the calm of someone who knows exactly how a wedding morning is meant to run. Ryan got ready in the cabin beside the farm with his groomsmen. If you ever want to see what a relaxed morning looks like, this is roughly how it goes, and Laura had it down to a fine art.
Rain came through early. For a day built around an outdoor festival feel, that first hour carried a bit of tension. Irish weather does what Irish weather does. By early afternoon the sky gave up and cleared.
Annie and I drove up to the barn that morning expecting something nice. We were not ready for what was waiting inside. You could see straight away that the entire local community had a hand in it, and that was the part that stayed with both of us.
The ceremony at Ballinatone
Ballinatone Church, two o'clock. Reverend Suzanne Harris led the ceremony and the music was handled start to finish by family.
The moment I keep coming back to is Laura's entrance. Ryan turned to watch her come up the aisle and lost the battle with himself completely. There is a full run of frames where he is trying to hold it together and failing at every step, and I would not swap those for any posed shot you could name.
Then the dog. One of their dogs carried the rings, a huge soft thing who took the aisle entirely at his own pace, stopping off for pets on the way up. He handed the rings over and then decided he was not going anywhere. He had to be gently ushered back out. The whole church was laughing.
Wed Fest
By the time we moved to the farm the sun was out and the festival the couple had pictured for months had finally arrived. The barn was the thing. The table candles had been hand painted one by one, every table different. Cloth panels hung around the space, each one painted by the family to mark something from Laura and Ryan's lives. Laura's bouquet came from Fussy Peacock.
The standout for me was the stage. It would host the band Anna's Number later, and the family had built it from old pallets they burned by hand for the colour, then fronted the whole thing with a wall of CDs. It looked like something off the main field at Féile.
The portraits
I do not direct people, so portraits with Laura and Ryan were really just a walk. We drove to the forest where the two of them like to walk. It was grey for most of it. For about five minutes the sun broke clean through the trees and dropped a hard bright spotlight onto the path. We put Laura and Ryan into it and worked fast. Laura's dress had long flowing sleeves and the light caught every bit of movement in them. We made the most dramatic frames of the whole day in that short window, of the two of them and of Laura on her own. It reminded me of another small Wicklow wedding I shot in the trees, where the light did exactly what it wanted and we just chased it.
Laura is mad about her horses and we went down to them first. Watching her with them told you more about her than any speech could.
The evening
Back in the barn the room filled and the night turned loud in the best way. Speeches came after the meal. Anna's Number took the CD wall stage and the dance floor did the rest.
What stayed with me was how much of the day was made by the people in the room. The bunting was an auntie's work. The cake was Laura's sister Chloe. The video was a brother in law with a home camcorder. Nearly every part of it was built by someone who loved them.
Thank you
Laura told us early on that she knew the day she met Annie and me that she wanted us there. We have known her a long time through her work, and getting to photograph her own wedding, the one she built rather than booked, is something I will hold onto. Thank you Laura and Ryan for trusting us with it. It is one of my favourites in years and I mean that.
If you are planning a wedding in Wicklow and want it photographed the way it actually felt, you can find me here. You can also browse more relaxed Wicklow weddings while you are at it.