The Maryborough Hotel is a wedding venue I’ve shot at multiple times, and it’s one of my favourites. I photographed Aisling and Emmett’s wedding there before and wrote this blog about. Not only did Austin and Éamonn see that blog post but they liked it so much that they booked the venue because of that! I’d say the Maryborough owes me a drink for that! Haha!

This was such a fun wedding with a few little quirky differences. As always, I love to highlight my three favourite parts of the wedding (and a couple of honourable mentions):

1) Pre-Ceremony Drinks

Even though Austin and Éamonn didn’t want photos of them getting ready before the ceremony, they did ask me to come a little earlier to meet them in their hotel suite for something important. Both of them were getting ready together (no first look down the aisle here!) with their whole bridal party and immediate family. Just before heading down to the ceremony room, they took a moment and with their inner circle of friends and family, they did a round of shots. They offered one to me as well, but I wanted to take good photos for the day so I declined haha!

I love these photos, these kind of shots are always such a nice little highlight in the wedding gallery and they’re just so fun to capture as well!

2) Tears

The ceremony was beautiful. They’re friend became a proper officiant just so that she could marry the couple for this wedding. And it was an emotional one!

Not a dry set of eyes anywhere.

It clearly meant so much to Austin and Éamonn that they were getting married. They also had such a beautiful friend group and two families whom it meant a lot to as well.

I was able to capture all these lovely moments from laughter to tears and everything in between.

An Honourable Mention

I’m going to interrupt this set of three, by just highlighting a positive that I love about this venue, and that’s the garden for the couple shoot.

There are so many lovely spots all around the hotel from the entrance to the staircase to the manicured gardens... But as you can probably tell from my other couple shoots, I love the proper nature shots.

This forest on their property is just a hundred feet away from the ceremony room but it looks like we’ve hiked for hours. This is by far my favourite feature of the venue and I love the photos we were able to capture. Combined with the whole wedding taking place in the same location, which means no travel time and really maximising the time with your guests, it’s amazing.

3) Sweetheart Table

I believe this was my first wedding that I photographed that had a sweetheart table, and honestly, I love that! (For those who don’t know, a sweetheart table is a table just for the couple with no one else sitting with them). It absolutely suited the couple so well.

They were so focused on each other that I caught them feeding each other desserts, just so smitten with each other. Later on they went from table to table to mingle with their guests but were very happy with each other’s company at their own table.

Another Honourable Mention

There was also the opportunity to leave the couple some recorded voice messages via this telephone box. I really wished I had had this at my wedding!

I could see that the messages were so heartfelt and emotional... At first. And then funnier and less serious as the night went on! Haha! I would love to hear those messages.

Dancing!

In the evening we had DJ Swill taking over the dance floor. Austin and Éamonn didn’t do the traditional first dance, for them it was more like hitting the club. I love how couples are able to personalize their big day however they like it. So everyone just flooded the dance floor in unison.

I love being able to capture the dancing at a wedding! It’s such a fun way to end the day and personally, I think it adds a lot to the wedding gallery. Seeing your friends going wild, that one uncle tearing it up or a niece experiencing one of her first dances, they’re lovely memories to look back upon.

Contact

This is definitely a wedding venue I’d love to re-visit! So if you are looking for a wedding photographer for your big day, and we fit your vibe, then get in touch with us here via email.

You can also check out this wedding to see what it’s like when my wife Nic is along for the ride as a second shooter. And if you’re new to us, here’s a short introduction to who we are.

We look forward to hearing from you!