Emma and Eugene had their wedding ceremony in St Mary’s just outside Emma’s home village of Bellaghy before heading across to the Tullyglass Hotel in Ballymena for the reception. There was a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere at this wedding and a few heavy rain showers didn’t dampen the spirit of the day.

Here’s a few of my personal favourites from the day:

Hannah and Iain had their wedding ceremony and reception in the beautiful barn at Larchfield Estate and had a wonderful day relaxing out in the gardens before heading back into the main barn for speeches, dinner and the nightime celebrations.

I’d been looking forward to this wedding ever since Hannah and her sister came to see me last year – I knew it would be full of moments and Larchfield is one of my favourite venues to work in.

Photographing a ceremony in the barn in Larchfield throws up it’s own challenges in terms of lighting and space and I know that’s something that can worry some ministers in terms of what the photographer is going to do, but for me, the same principles apply as for the rest of the day.

It’s just as Henri Cartier-Bresson said – you have to “avoid making a commotion, just as you wouldn’t stir up the water before fishing. Don’t use a flash out of respect for the natural lighting, even when there isn’t any. If these rules aren’t followed, the photographer becomes unbearably obtrusive.”

Hannah and Iain were lovely to work with and it was nice to see a few familiar faces amongst the guests.

As ever, these are my favourite real life moments:

Hannah sent me these lovely words after seeing her pictures on honeymoon:
“Hi Dylan
Just saw the pictures on hotel’s laptop.. We are delighted with them- they are amazing, thank you so so much!! We are having a fantastic honeymoon and the days are flying in! Hope all’s well with you! Thanks again for everything, you were great to have there on the day and everything felt so relaxed;-)
Best wishes,
Hannah”

Cian and Diane tied the knot at the friendly Redrock Presbyterian Church just outside Armagh. Afterwards they received a blessing at Armagh Cathedral before heading up to Parkanaur Manor House for the wedding reception.

Needless to say, both the church in Redrock and the cathedral in Armagh are beautiful buildings to work in. Parkanaur Manor was superb also – well suited to my style of documentary capture. There’s a real warmth to this wedding venue and I can’t wait to be back there in the future.

The wedding day was very relaxed with a real international flavour to the guests. During the day I spoke with guests from Chicago, British Columbia and New Jersey. Always wonderful when people travel such distances to share a special day with family and friends.

I had a great day and I’d like to thank Diane and Cian for the opportunity to capture these moments.

Here’s a few of my favourite photographs as I continue the editing.

Diane and Cian sent me a lovely message after seeing these pictures on honeymoon:
“Dylan, we have just looked at the photos, absolutely fantastic. So excited already about seeing the rest when we are back from Morocco. Thank you so much.”

“To take photographs means to recognise – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second – both the fact itself and the rigorous organisation of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson

I just love that – I’d say it’s the guiding principle I take in to all of my weddings. September has been a very busy month for me so I’m hoping I can keep pace on this blog with all of the weddings I’ve been shooting lately.

On the 4th of September I was back in Coleraine for Aoibheann and Neil’s wedding ceremony in the wonderful Saint Malachys before heading back up to Aoibheann’s home for a lovely marquee wedding reception where the guests could relax and enjoy the day.

Here’s just a few of the fleeting moments I saw that day.

Aoibheann sent Caroline these lovely words after seeing her pictures online:
“Very many thanks for this – they are so wonderful and everyone has been commenting on how unique and beautiful all the shots are. Dylan has really captured the happiness and love of the day.”

Friday before last, Ciara and Francis brought me down from Belfast to photograph their wedding in Madden, County Armagh before we all headed up to their reception at the beautiful Slieve Russell Hotel over in County Cavan.

The wedding day was very relaxed with fabulous weather and was just full of great moments.

Ciara and Francis were a wonderful couple to photograph and with the Slieve Russell acting as a fabulous backdrop for wedding pictures I had a great day.

As ever, here are some my personal favourites.

Last Monday I had the pleasure of being with Kerry & Nigel as they tied the knot in Carlingford on a beautiful summers day.

Kerry and her bridesmaids got ready at the Four Seasons Hotel and then made the short walk up around the corner for the wedding ceremony. Again, the people at this wedding were really friendly and combined with the beautiful weather that made for a really lovely relaxed wedding day. With only a couple of formal type pictures to shoot Kerry and Nigel were happy to let me document the day in the way I felt it should be covered.

Here are just a few of my favourite photographs from their day.

As promised in my last post here’s just a few of my favourites from my wedding on Saturday.

Becky and Mark married at the beautiful Killowen Parish Church in Coleraine before heading down to Ballygally Castle on the Antrim Coast for their wedding reception. I’m very fortunate to have such lovely clients – these guys had been going out for ten years and the atmosphere on the day was just lovely. Becky’s three year old niece provided some great comedy moments and I’d like to thank Rebecca’s Mum and Dad, Sheila and James for the lovely welcome at their home in the morning – always helps me settle in to the day.

For the photographers out there, all images were taken with the incredible Nikon D3S and 24-70mm lens with the exception of the speeches where I used my telephoto 70-200mm for a bit of reach.

After seeing her pictures online for the first time Becky sent me this lovely email:
“I also just wanted to say a huge thank you – the pictures are amazing! And both my parents and Mark’s parents keep telling me how wonderful you were to work with on the day – I think we’ve managed to convert them to reportage photography!!”