Sneak Peak – Karl and Maria

brave |brāv|
Ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage : a brave soldier | he put up a brave fight before losing.
or
Getting married outdoors in Ireland… in October. (See also Crazy and Mad)

That’s right. Karl and Maria got married outdoors in Ireland, just a couple of weeks ago. As brave, crazy or mad (a few other words spring to mind) as that may sound, in all honesty it was a stroke of genius because as you’ll see, it was utterly beautiful.

They choose the  Coolbawn Quay as the venue and they couldn’t have picked a better spot. It is utterly beautiful. I’ve told so many people about it since and they only way I can describe the place is that it’s like a movie set that Americans would build if they were told to recreate Ireland. It’s not a hotel as such, more of a village with little cottages. That’s right, when you stay at Coolbawn you don’t wander down the hall to your room and swipe it on some electronic reader to open your door. No, you walk through the little pretend village to your cottage and open it with a proper set of keys. How cute.

The outdoor bit I refer to was the ceremony. Held on the wooden decking, right on the edge of Lough Derg. It really is like no other wedding venue I’ve shot at in Ireland.

I’m not going to go into a massive speil about the day as this really is just a sneak peak but I have to just mention a couple of things.

- Karl and Maria are a super couple. So laid back and cool with it all.
- They’re also super creative. They had a whole load of cute little touches dotted here and there to make the day all the more memorable but my favourite of all was that they had designed a badge for each and every guest. Each badge was completly unique to that person! Now that is thinking about your guests! They even made one for me!

Pure Awesome – I want to wear it at every wedding

And you know what? Karl forgot to make one for himself – so he had to hand make it! How’s that for a totally unselfish attitude.
- I have been blessed with so many great couples but I have to say, hand on heart, I have never been so looked after by a couple in my life. As soon as I arrived at Coolbawn Karl gave me a guided tour, took me to the bar, bought me coffee, had a good chat about photography (he’s quite the photographer himself – no pressure then) with me before I finally had to tell him that’d I’d really better start taking some photographs.
- He even offered to repair my slow puncture!
- Oh and one last thing – Karl and Maria met at his car garage. He’s a mechanic and she was working in the office. It’s worth baring this in mind when you see a couple of shots later.

So – on with the shots. Thanks guys!