Markree Castle Wedding RTE My Big Day Home or Away.

My Big Day: Home or Away is the RTE wedding series and I was lucky enough to shoot the Markree Castle episode. The couple in question were Brenda and Liam along with their two beautiful children Roisin & Suzi. Tara Fay put me in touch with the couple as they were looking for a very relaxed, natural and candid photography approach to their wedding day.

The wedding took place at Markree Castle. An amazing place. In fact, photos do not do it justice. You really have to go and get a feel for the scale of the narrow rooms with high ceilings. The Chapel itself is spectacular and the entrance hall has to be one of the most impressive entrances to any Irish Castle I’ve seen.

The cameras were going to be very prominent on the day and even though the CoCo Productions film crew wanted to stay low-key I thought it would be great to bring their presence into the story of the day. They popped up everywhere and anywhere, I thought the boom looked hilarious so I tried to include where possible. There were some set-ups for the camera too but even they were fun. Brenda and Liam for the large part just got on with the day, it was impressive to see how they were able to switch off and forget they were being filmed for TV. They mingled with their guests while I captured the events as discreetly as possible.

We had to quickly scramble to get the family photos right at the end of the drinks reception. The handiest usable spot was the smoking area! Like I said before, it is a very pretty castle!

I stayed late to photograph the speeches and dancing. The speeches were hilarious at times and very poignant with Liam needing a little love to get through a particularly tough piece on his late mother. You get a really great insight into the couple’s personalities, I really enjoy them.

The dancing kicked off and I stayed on to shoot the madness for about a half-hour then it was time to go. Tara is one of the hardest working wedding planners I know and sure enough, she and Bruce were still pottering away in the background as I was leaving. It wasn’t all show for the cameras! They really put a shift in and deserve a lot of praise.

After delivering the slideshow, Breda told me: “I would like to say a massive thank you for being a part of our day. It was like we had known you for years! Everything went so well and you were a big part of that.”

Delighted to be part of it all too!