Sarah and Alex

It’s time to revisit a wedding that I put up a little sneak peek to a while back. Even as far as sneak peeks go – it was a pretty long one.

Well, this is going to get completly out of hand now because this blog post is going to be a monster.
So I’m warning you now – go and grab yourself a coffee and let the page load completely - then get ready to scroll for Ireland…

This blog post will revisit the amazing wedding of Sarah and Alex from back in mid-June. Their original blog post was ‘A sneak peek at Alex and Sarah’s outdoor extravaganza!‘.

Here’s what I wrote back then..

“As soon as I arrived up with Sarah and took one look at the outside of the house I knew this was going to be one magical wedding. A giant marquee was in the field opposite the home of her Uncle David. He had kindly given up his beautiful house and gardens to host this beautiful wedding.
Decorations were scattered through the garden with seating plans hung from the trees with pink and silver ribbons, love hearts hanging from gate posts, little white love birds were perched inside vintage bird cages, there were pink and white paper lanterns, bunting stretched from tree to tree, umbrellas stabbed into the ground in case of rain, a chalkboard to write and record a personal message to Alex and Sarah…. the list goes on and on.”

But anyway, that’s for later – so we’ll start with the fellas. They got ready in a lovely little house they had hired for the weekend in Glaslough Village. Glaslough is on a little backroad that runs between Monaghan and Emmyvale. It’s a quant little town with just a few shops, a pub and a castle. Sure what else do you need?

Windsor knot? The four armed knot is where it's at.

Mammy’s boy.

Once the ties were tied and shoes shined it was off to the local for a swift half. With Glaslough being such a small litte village, it seemed that half the wedding party were already here quenching their thirsts on this cracking June day.

The pub had a little snug that the guys and one token girl gathered in for their last little group talk – but the seriousness didn’t last for long. As soon as we went back outside Alex turned to the lads – “Right lads, take the shoes off… and get down like this – Sorry Dave, you must have seen this a million times…” – Nope.

So, this is where I left the guys and drove  just a few hundred yards to were Sarah would be getting ready. I parked in the field alongside the massive marquee tent and walked across the laneway toward the house. This is when my jaw dropped and I had to immediately start to photograph – everything. It was just a wedding photographer’s dream.

Inside our beautiful bride was sitting at the window, facing out onto the gorgeous garden below as Claire the makeup artist had what I can only assume, was a very easy job.

Proud parents in waiting.

Sarah’s walk down the stairs was greeted with gushes and awe. It really was like something from the movies with light streaming in from the windows as she seemed to simply glide down the staircase.

Outside, champagne was opened and tissues were exchanged between the ladies for those all too probable tears. Then it was off to the church. By foot.

Here comes the bride!

The church was gorgeous inside and out. With loads of light and lovely little bunches of flowers tied on with pink and white ribbon lining the aisles. Very tasteful and was perfectly in tune with everything that was back in the garden.

Alex shows his first sign of nerves… or excitement. Hard to know which

The signing of the register was one of the more different signings I’ve experienced. Normally the church musican will sing or play something to keep the crowd happy while pen is put to paper to make things legal. However, this was a little different because the bridesmaid took to the microphone and two of Alex’s mates, one on keyboard and one on trombone kicked off with the most amazing version of ‘Feeling Good’ by Nina Simone. For a moment I forgot I was in a church and thought that I was at some really cool intiamte concert with a front row seat. Just how close did I get? This close!

They were just incredible. Goose pimply good. I have a video snippet and if I get the okay – I’ll post it.

I tried this shot before and thought I’d give it another crack.

No need for wedding cars here. Everything was just a walk away.

Group shots don’t have to be boring.

Aside from the garden being perfectly maintained with all kinds of flowers and trees it was also beautifully decorated with lovely garden furniture, glass lanterns, little vases of flowers, not to mention all of the things that you’ll already have seen in the photos above.

Sarah’s brother gives a written apology for fluffing his lines in the church.

Someone has just seen that he’s going to get to sit beside that cute girl he’s had his eye on!

After a few relaxing hours in the garden listening to the band and drinking up all the pimms and champagne you could wish for, it was time for people to make their way across the little lane from the garden to the field where the marquee awaited them. Here’s what was waiting to greet them.

So while the guests took their seats Sarah and Alex had a few minutes to be with each other. I stayed close by to capture a few intimate moments.

It was a short wait though as they soon made their entrance. I loved how some people used the little ribbons from the name tags as wristbands. Very cute.

Sarah’s dad works the crowd before he even begins his speech!

As the light began to fade the candles inside the bridecages soon began to glow and the room began to get even more pretty.

As Croc Dundee would say – “That’s not a knife… that’s a knife!”

Sarah and Alex hired The Best Men as their wedding band and I have to say, they were excellent. The floor was filled in an instant!

Outside the rain began to fall but that no longer mattered. Everyone had the most incredible day and and now was the time to be dancing indoors. As I made my way out of the marquee that evening little paper lanterns had been lit at the entrance and umbrellas had been stabbed into the ground – yet another beautiful touch to what was a truly wonderful wedding.

As I was putting my things in the car I looked to my right and knew I had to take one final picture. This was it.

Thanks you so, so much to Alex and Sarah for having me there on their day. It was just utterly incredible and I’m sure will be an inspiration to others to just what you can do to make your day that extra special. I know I didn’t write a lot this time around but I feel that the images tell the true story of the day. In all honestly, words just can’t describe it.