A wedding in the beautiful surroundings of Boyne Hill House Estate is like no other. With the stately house, hidden gardens, small river bridges, courtyards and a wonderful driveway that leads to all of the above, this is a place that makes weddings feel like magic and brides fell like princesses.
Maeve and Steve brought fun to the wedding like nobody else could. They welcomed me as if I was one of the family and made me feel right at home from the second I showed up at the brides house in the morning. Maeve was so laid back throughout the entire day, which made life a lot easier for me getting shots that were a lot more natural.
It was supposed to be an outdoor wedding, but let’s face it, this is Ireland and the weather forecast is questionable at the best of times. The venue had just finished setting up the beautiful grounds of the Boyne Hill House Estate and the bride was due to arrive any minute, until it happened, it rained! This outdoor wedding soon became an indoor wedding as the staff quickly moved candles, flowers, decorations and anything else they could grab and bring inside to the wedding hall. Usually it’s a bit traditional for the bride to be late, but in this case, she had an excuse passed the time at a local ‘cafe’ for half an hour while the staff at the lovely Meath wedding venue got everything prepared for an indoor wedding.
A short time passed and Maeve pulled up in her wedding car outside the main house, a lovely convertible sports car with the top down, because, yes, you guessed it, the sun was shining again. With her beautiful handmade loose bokeh in hand, she made her way through the secret tunnel from the main house to the ceremony room where her father was proudly waiting for her at the top of the stairs to walk her down the isle to give her away to Steve, who was waiting patiently by the alter at the other end of the room.
As ceremonies go, there was no real difference to any other, until it came to say “I do”, which I think Maeve forgot her lines at this point and instead said “defo”, which gave everyone a bit of a giggle because the celebrant couldn’t move on until he heard the words “I do”. So, after a giggle and a nudge from the celebrant we finally heard the right words. This is pretty much how the ceremony went from start to finish, lots of laughs, giggles and plenty of clapping.
With the ceremony over, it was time to get some groups photos, then take Maeve and Steve away for some portraits before the dinner call. We wandered around the grounds of Boyne Hill House stopping here and there for some couples portraits and a few fun shots too. There was definitely no shortage of places for photos on the grounds.
Next was break time, and time to taste some of the lovely flavours I had been smelling for some time from the BBQ the food was being cooked on in the courtyard. So with a quick 20 minute break, I ate like a king and replaced all my batteries, and memory cards to get ready for what came next. We were all brought out to the grounds in front of the main house where gifts were handed out and a fire display was about to start with a drummer and a fire dancer spinning fire around her like crazy, but with such skill and accuracy she didn’t burn herself or anyone else. It was an amazing show to say the least.
Next and last on my list of photos was the first dance. The band was set up and ready to play, the guests were all watered and happy and the bride and groom were waiting eagerly to be called to the dance floor. They danced with such elegance making it look so easy. After spending some time photographing Maeve and Steve and other guests enjoying themselves on the dancefloor it was time for me to pack up my gear and head home to backup all the photos to keep them safe. So I wished Maeve and Steve every happiness, said goodbye to all the awesome people I had met throughout the day and made my way to my car for my journey back to Athlone.
