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!!”

Marj and David married amongst friends and family in Marj’s hometown of Whitehead before heading down the road to the beautiful Larchfield Estate outside Lisburn for their wedding reception later in the day. We had a great time, even with a few heavy rain showers. No matter what, there are always great moments with great people. Here are some of my favourites.

Oh and Marj sent me these lovely words after seeing her pictures:
“Dear Dylan,
I just wanted to pop you a note saying thank you so so much for our photos! We really are so delighted with them.
I love the way you captured the energy and emotion of the day so beautifully. How you got some of those shots is beyond me….as Dave’s mum said, she didn’t even know her photo had been taken!”

It’s always a pleasure to work in Larchfield Estate outside Lisburn. The gardens are stunning and the barn has a real rich authentic feel.

Before the wedding day Rachel bought Ben a beautiful bass guitar as a surprise gift and on the morning of the wedding her brother David and I sneaked round and left it sitting on the porch, rang the doorbell and then run off to hide behind the bushes. Oh the fun!

After seeing his reaction I’m sure he couldn’t wait to see her at the church. Needless to say, Rachel looked stunning and their day was just full of lovely moments. Amongst the highlights for me was Rachel’s Father’s speech – really heartfelt and it set Ben up for a lovely follow act!

After seeing their photographs online Rachel sent me these lovely words:
“There was so much love all around us on the day of the wedding and you worked really hard at trying to include everyone in our special moments – thank you for that!
…Thank you for all those moments, some that we didn’t even notice, that you have frozen in time for us to look at often; for that we can’t thank you enough.”

Here’s just a few of my personal favourites from their day.

At the beginning of the month I had the pleasure of covering Cathy and Connor’s wedding at the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel outside Bangor in County Down.

Cathy and Connor were wonderful to work with and really understood what it is I do with my photography. As Cartier Bresson once remarked “To photograph is hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality.”

Cathy senty me a lovely email after seeing her photographs online:
“We are overwhelmed with the photos Dylan, they are beautiful! Honestly we are over the moon with them; you are amazing at capturing the moment and there are so many of the photos that among all the excitement & bustle….you have caught us in our own little world celebrating! These are my absolute favourites!”

After Donegal I was back at the beautiful setting of Phantom House and the Great Hall in Galgorm Manor Resort and Spa for Gary and Emma Jane’s wedding.

It was lovely to see many of Laura and Colin‘s friends also at this wedding and of course Margaret and Conor whose wedding I had the pleasure of photographing almost two years ago up at Belfast Castle.

EJ and Gary were an absolute pleasure to photograph and I’m very lucky to have such wonderful clients. The ceremony was very emotional with the registrar’s voice almost breaking at the end – what a joy to be there and make photographs. I received a lovely message from them just a couple of days ago.

“Just another thank you for taking such great pictures. We really wanted someone who would capture the day and all those small moments that go by so quickly especially those that we missed. It was fantastic to be able to look at the pictures when we were on our honeymoon and remember what a fantastic day we had with our friends and family. Emma Jane cries when she watches the slideshow and my hayfever flares up something terrible…”