Ciara and Niels - The Kingsley Wedding Photographer

Oct 28

Written by Jan

Setting today’s scene: We’re in Churchtown, north Cork. We’re photographing this wedding together, the husband and wife super-duo that makes up Save the Journey; Jan and Nic.

Nic is with Ciara and the bridal party, while I photograph her jewellery and accessories. Soon I’ll be joining Niels at the church, to get photos of him, the flower decorations at the church and guests arriving. While Nic stays with Ciara and drives with her to the church.

Engagement Couple Shoot

But our story with Ciara and Niels started a full year before. When we photographed their engagement couple shoot. The last line of their 5-star Google review was very telling with hindsight, we just didn’t realize it at the time. It turns out they enjoyed the couple shoot so much that they asked us to photograph their wedding too!

5-star Google review for the engagement photo shoot:

“We had an engagement photoshoot with Jan and couldn’t be happier with the experience.
He was very flexible in arranging the dates, and when the weather turned out rainy on the day, he quickly suggested an alternative location that worked out beautifully.
Both Jan and his wife were fantastic in guiding us through the shoot, making us feel comfortable and natural throughout.
The results are amazing—we’re extremely happy with the photos and we're looking forward to work with them again in the future.”
- Niels

Back to Churchtown

We’re driving to Churchtown, it’s been raining so hard the last few days, but thanks to the child of Prague that Ciara’s mom put in the garden, it would turn out to be an entirely dry autumn day. That child of Prague did some very heavy lifting that day!

Although we were prepped for a wet day just in case, so the car was full of gear, our mobile studio setup, just in case everything was taking place indoors. It’s always better to be over-prepared but we were so thankful it stayed dry. Especially as it meant we could go ahead with the couple shoot at a gorgeous location!

We head inside the family home, an old dairy farm. It’s so lovely to see Ciara again! After a short catch-up, Nic wastes no time and is getting some lovely shots of the girls having their hair and make-up done. She was given a mission for the morning; to get some happy photos of Ciara’s gran, who takes photos way too seriously and always looks angry in them. Easy work for Nic, we had a large selection of laughing photos to choose from!

In the meanwhile, I had setup my own little space to photograph the detail shots. I absolutely loved their rings, they were very unique with their fingerprints engraved in them. I’ve never seen that before and thought it was so cool, so I made sure I really captured that as best as I could. We also had broches of grandparents who weren’t with us anymore. It’s always lovely to be able to carry that through the day.

So I had to make sure to capture all those details!

I then left Nic with the bridal party, and as they were having a blast getting ready, there was even time to recreate this childhood photo. I drove to the church to meet Niels and get all the shots of the church before Ciara arrived with Nic.

Mothers Helping at the Same Time

Amongst the photos of the church decorations which were all done by family and the candid moments of the guests arriving, I was able to capture a lovely moment of Niels getting some help from his mother. She was adjusting his boutonniere (flowers) to be perfect, which was such a cute coincidence, as it was at the exact same time that Ciara was getting help buttoning up her dress by her mother, back at the family home. Just two mothers who want their children looking their best!

For every wedding I always write about my three favourite things or moments:

1. Favourite Tradition

Niels is Belgian, and one of the Belgian traditions that they decided to incorporate was that Niels was walked down the aisle too. By his mother. I thought that was really special for him to have his moment too and for the two of them to have that lovely moment together.

Of course Ciara still was the centre of attention and had the more important walk down the aisle, but this is a tradition that I’d love for more nations to adopt!

2. Favourite Photo Opportunity

The ribbons!

All the guests got some ribbon shakers for a beautiful exit from the church. We lined up the friends and family in a makeshift tunnel and got these amazing shots. Not just of the couple but also the parents!

These moments are always really fun to look back on!

3. Favourite Shooting Location

We got access to the Blarney Castle for the couple shoot! We have The Kingsley to thank for that. They organized that for us, which Nic and I were delighted about, because we love that spot for couple shoots, and this one was no different. We got some incredible shots of the two that look so magical with the castle in the background.

Behind the Scenes

A short snippet of what happens behind the scenes of a wedding day shoot!

Honourable Mention: Dancing!

I think I’ve made it very clear that I love getting those dancing shots at the end of the night, and of course this was the case this time around too. It’s always fun to see the quiet and well-behaved uncles come out of their shell at night and absolutely going for it on the dance floor. Or the grannies with a sudden kick of energy going for the swing. There’s just so many fun and energetic photos to capture then! A real treat.

Google Review

Ciara and Niels had a great time too and left us this amazing 5-star Google review for the wedding photography!

“Working with Jan and Nic was an absolute dream!
After our engagement shoot with them last year, we felt so comfortable and knew right away they’d be the perfect fit for our wedding.
Fast forward to last month; they captured our wedding day beyond anything we could have imagined. They listened to every request, remained super flexible throughout the day, and effortlessly brought our vision to life.
To top it off, our photo gallery arrived just two weeks later, and we are completely in love with the results.
We’re so grateful to Jan and Nic for capturing these priceless memories so beautifully!”
- Ciara

Get in Touch!

So if you would like to book us for your wedding day, say hi to us here to enquire about availability and packages. We’d love to schedule a call with you to get to know you and see if we’d be a good fit.

Here you can see more recent weddings we have photographed.