Ballyseede Castle is a luxury wedding venue located just outside Tralee in Co. Kerry and it is a fantastic location for a wedding photographer in Kerry to find themselves working at. It was the perfect venue for Claire and Liam's Elegant Ballyseede Castle Black Tie Wedding.
Ballyseede Castle Civil Marriage Ceremonies
Ballyseede Castle dates from 1721, but it has been thoroughly modernised with the addition of a new accommodation wing and a beautiful orangery, a glass structure where you can have your drinks reception after your church wedding or a civil marriage ceremony. Humanist and Spiritualist wedding ceremonies can be held in the hotel’s original dining hall or outside in the manicured gardens. Ballyseede is one of the best outdoor wedding venues in southern Ireland.
Documentary Style Wedding Photography
My photographic style is a mixture of documentary and directed photography and my approach is to work out a timeline and a schedule with each couple that fits in with their vision for their day.
This Kerry wedding venue is big enough for the bridal party and the grooms party to get ready in the hotel without bumping into each other before the ceremony and there are lots of places to do a first look if the wedding couple want to do one.
At Claire and Liam’s wedding, I was able to move between the fun of the bridal prep to the guy’s pre-ceremony visit to the bar and back again. I could to photograph both teams getting ready and have time for more personal family portraits on both sides before the 2pm ceremony began.
I always schedule time before the ceremony the get these important legacy family photographs. Everybody looks their absolute best just before the ceremony begins and it saves lots of valuable socialising time at the drink’s reception in the afternoon.
Irish Wedding Ceremony Photography
During a wedding ceremony, whether in a church or a civil setting, I know where to position myself in advance of each element so as to capture the events as they unfold. There are no “take twos’ ! Claire and Liam had readings, a traditional hand fasting, an exchange of rings and the signing of the register before they rocked back down the aisle.
After the ceremony, everybody filed past and congratulated Claire and Liam and then made their way to the drinks reception. I gathered both families and we went into the front drawing room to the formal family photographs. These are possibly the most important and the boring photographs of the day for any wedding couple, but if you have everybody that you need in place, you can fly through these in 15 to 20 minutes.
Wedding Speeches and Wedding Sparklers
The next part of the day flew by! I took shots of the wedding guests in the orangery, dodged the showers to bring Claire and Liam out into the gardens for some couple photos, shot the wedding cake and the dining room and then photographed the wedding party having a quiet drink in the bar while the guests were being seated for dinner.
Claire and Liam were led through a cheering crowd into the dining room by a saxophonist. They decided to have their speeches before dinner was served so that the speakers could enjoy their meal.
After dinner, when it got dark, we gathered around 20 guests and did some wedding sparkler photographs followed by some creative night time photographs at the beautiful temple in the gardens.
After that, all that was left was to hit the dancefloor for the first dance and then get everybody to party on for the rest of the night.
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Claire and Liam's Elegant Ballyseede Castle Black Tie Wedding