Carriage Rooms at Montalto Wedding - Claire and Chris

Claire has the honour of not only living near us in Belfast, but growing up near me in Omagh! Of course, being an Omagh girl, she has impeccable style and taste... I absolutely adored her flowers, by our fabulous friend Hollie at Rosehip and Berry Floral Studio - especially the gorgeous Halloween-themed flowers and white pumpkins in the Church. And they also had our wonderful friends, the Rare Aul Stuff on musical duties all day - ceremony, reception and night! But as stylish and cool as everyone and everything was, their little boy, Conán, stole the show. 

After their ceremony in The Good-shepherd church in Belfast, we headed on to the amazing Carriage Rooms at Montalto. The weather was absolutely amazing, then awful... then amazing... then awful, again... then amazi-- you get the picture - pretty much a standard autumn day in Ireland. The rain didn't phase Claire and Chris, though - giggling as they ran from the car to the venue under the cover of umbrellas. This is how you do it! 

When the weather was good, we quickly grabbed Claire and Chris and dandered around the grounds of the Carriage Rooms with loads of gorgeous autumn colours to play with. It's really worth the weather risk of an autumn wedding to capture the riot of colour that you only get in those months. 

Clandeboye Lodge Wedding - Colette and Mark

We often talk about how relaxed and chilled our couples are, but even by the standard we're used to, Colette and Mark bring a whole new level of cool to the party. We're actually certain Mark is set to smoulder by default.

Their Autumn wedding took place in a church in Ballyhackamore where we're pretty sure the priest, Fr. McGrath, was younger than us - you know you've been a wedding photographer for a long time when the priests start to get younger than you. 

After the ceremony, on our way to their reception in Clandeboye lodge, we stopped off at the lovely Crawfordsburn Country park. Of course, Colette being as easy going as she is, didn't mind a trek into the muddy forest for her pics, nor did she complain about the cold down on the beach. But, you know, the best thing about a cold day in Crawfordsburn is that you get the beach to yourself! 

Carriage Rooms at Montalto Wedding - Alice and Gary

I challenge anyone to talk to Alice for five minutes without smiling. She's just one of those people that radiates infectious positivity. Even the ducks at Montalto wanted to hang out with her. Or, maybe it was Gary they were after - after all, he's pretty awesome too. 

We love photographing weddings in The Carriage Rooms at Montalto Estate. Alice and Gary had both their ceremony and reception there, making for a really chilled out day - I mean, it's hard to beat coming out of a ceremony, grabbing a cocktail and playing some lawn games on a glorious September day. Despite what they said, we still don't believe the group of English guests who claimed they knew how to play croquet. 

This is how you do a wedding. No dramas, just loads of fun and frolics with all of your friends and family. Oh, and sparklers… sparklers are good too.