Cath & Shane

I celebrated my own wedding anniversary by photographing Cath & Shane's marriage at The Millhouse in Slane. I usually meet my Clients a couple of times before their big day, but as Cath & Shane live in London we communicated by Skype. Despite the grainy time-delayed on-screen images, I recognised both of them immediately.

It was my first time in this fantastic venue on the banks of the Boyne, and there were great backdrops everywhere I looked. Cath had given me a pretty specific brief - she wasn't keen on photographs using the derelict Mill Building, make up application or Groomsmen with pints. So inevitably, we had some shots on the old metal stairs, pints appeared in front of jazz musicians instead of groomsmen, and we had a hairdo in lieu of a makeup pic.

There was a cosmopolitan mix of Irish, South Africans, and a strong London delegation in attendance. Cath's Dad performed the marriage ceremony in a great room, after which everyone walked back acrosss the courtyard to the main house. With champagne corks popping, cool jazz from The Quartones, and delicate canapés doing the rounds, the atmosphere was very mellow. Shane's groomsman Shane (or Kav) is a dead ringer for Nicholas Cage, and apparently a bit of a legend with the ladies. I'm pretty sure he was coming out of the gents in the picture below though. The evening was rounded off with a fine set of speeches, the highlight being Cath's, as she moved not only herself, but a good proportion of the audience to tears.