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Avril's Birthday - Event Photographer Cork /  by Jan

Happy Birthday!

Celebrating Avril’s birthday was a big occasion, and her partner, Stephen, pulled out all the stops! Booking ‘The Mirror Room’ at the River Lee Hotel, just above their ‘Lookout Room’. It’s located right on the river Lee with it’s own balcony and huge windows letting in so much sunlight. A gorgeous spot! Decorated really nicely as well.

This is my best attempt at a paparazzi shot of the couple walking into the venue!

Paparazzi

This is my best attempt at a paparazzi shot of the couple walking into the venue!

Now we won’t say which birthday Avril was celebrating, but check out this beautiful ‘Happy Birthday’ flower wall. We had a lot of fun using this as a backdrop for some fun group photos, and even a little couple shoot, which poor Avril and Stephen had to do in front of all their friends. It would come to no surprise that there was a good amount of heckling coming from the crowd! But they soldiered on and did a fantastic job!

To cover the entertainment side of things, we had a pair of singers belting out some amazing tunes and a magician who was mystifying groups of guests with his tricks. I still can’t figure out where those coins came from or went to!

Having the magician there was a really fun intro for everyone to get comfortable and skip the formal hellos. It was a great idea to have him there and had all guests so engaged with his act. Well done to him!

Dancing the Night Away

But finally we get to my favourite part of the night! The dancing! As you can probably tell from these photos, I had a lot of fun photographing these ‘action’ shots. With this heavier editing style, I was going for a really specific look. These photos clearly look very different to the very clean and vibrant photos from the beginning of the night. I wouldn’t do this style with necessarily every group, but everyone here was so fun and in such a party mood, that I was confident it was appropriate.

My Favourites

Out of all the dancing photos, the shots of Avril and Stephen dancing together are my favourites. They look so intimate at times, as if they’re the only two people in the world. I love that vibe that these photos give off. Very cute!

This is a great time to congratulate Stephen for stepping out of his comfort zone to dance, which he wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t have “encouraged” him to go on the dance floor for this photo opportunity. Haha!

A long night of good company, drink, food and dancing and singing. What more could you want? A very successful night!

If you would like to book me to photograph your event, say hello here and we can chat about pricing and availability and all about your event plans!

And if you’d prefer a portrait shoot instead, I also offer the following types of photography:

• Couples Photography in Cork

• Wedding Photography in Cork

• Family Portrait Photography in Cork

• and more!

A&E - Wedding Photography at the Maryborough Hotel /  by Jan

I enjoyed photographing this wedding so much, I split it up into two blog posts. So, click here if you want to see the wedding preparation photos of the bride and groom beforehand. They’re lovely photos that were so much fun to photograph with the architecture of the hotel. I’m such a sucker for tall windows! Haha!

With this wedding, I had a second shooter with me, Nic, who was a fantastic addition to the day. She was able to capture extra photos of the ceremony from another angle, which added so much to the final results of the photos. Having a second shooter might not be in everybody’s budget, but I would heavily recommend couples using this option!

Usually when I write these wedding blogs, I hone in on my three favourite parts or aspects of the wedding. And with this wedding, I will continue that tradition.

Reason 1 - Magic

I think one of my favourite parts of the wedding was the setting: the Orangery at The Maryborough. For those who don’t know, the Orangery in Cork is a venue with expansive glass walls, lush greenery, and cascading natural light. It’s a fantastic wedding venue as it let’s in so much light and has a magical botanical look to it.

It almost looks like the couple had a destination wedding with how exotic the Orangery looks. I am not aware of any other wedding venue in Cork that looks like that – and would recommend it for its views of the greenery and gardens outside

Reason 2 – Heart

Heart

“…my second favourite part of the wedding was the best man’s speech during the ceremony.”

On a more personal note, to the couple, my second favourite part of the wedding was the best man’s speech during the ceremony. He absolutely knocked it out of the park with what he said: it was a perfect balance of hilarious banter, that made everyone laugh, and heartfelt moments. That’s exactly the way it should be.

Reason 3 – A photographer’s obsession

And my third favourite thing, not that these are in any order at all, has to be the staircases! This is a wedding photographer’s dream. Both the indoor and main outdoor stairs that lead up to the main entrance. These staircases were great as they add height, interest, and architecture to the shoot.

It’s funny as well, both Aisling and Emmett are both relaxed and easy-going people, but the one demand Aisling did have was that we had to do the couple shoot on the staircase! In black and white! Haha, don’t worry Aisling, that was my thought too!

Thanks for letting me photograph your wedding!

Have a look here at my wedding photography packages for 2023/2024.

5-star Google Review

Aisling and Emmett clearly enjoyed the photos and the whole wedding day with us as well. They left me this lovely Google review:

“We used Save The Journey as our wedding photographer for our wedding in May. We have only great things to say about them.

From the first point of contact to the day of the wedding Jannik was so helpful, informative and overall just a lovely person to deal with.
On the day of the wedding Jannik and Nikki were fantastic, super professional while still making the whole experience fun and relaxed. We both said afterwards how much fun we had getting the couples photos taken!

We are absolutely thrilled with how our photos turned out, they are exactly what we had asked for! If you are considering using Save the Journey as your wedding photographer 100% go for it!! Thanks again for everything Jannik and Nikki! 😊”

If you’d like me to photograph your proposal, say hi to me here. I’d love to hear from you!

And remember, besides proposal photography, I also photograph the following:

• Adventure Couple Shoots in Cork

• Proposal Photography in Cork

• Event Photography in Cork

• and more!

Getting Ready - Wedding Preparations Photography /  by Jan

We find ourselves at the Maryborough Hotel in Douglas for a wedding. The weather is surprisingly good, compared to the last week or two, and later on in the day, we’ll actually have beautiful sunlight and our first taste of summer.

The wedding couple, Aisling and Emmet, are in their separate hotel rooms. Having stayed at the hotel since the previous night, they are having very different experiences right now. Aisling is nervously excited, drinking champagne with her girls, music is on in the background, with the make-up and hair stylist doing their rounds.

Emmet is bricking it. From his balcony they can see the room his future wife is in, but they can not see her. He gets out a bottle of whiskey, pours himself and his boys a bit of courage, and then himself a little bit more. Generous is the word I’m looking for, I think.

We’ll get to the rest of this wedding on another day with a follow up wedding post, but I wanted to focus in on just theses wedding preparation moments here, as I had such a great time photographing this part of the wedding. Getting those detail shots of the wedding ring, the wedding dress, and all the important bits for a wedding was such a joy. Aisling and the girls were so relaxed and fun, I managed to capture so many lovely little moments.

The room itself was gorgeous as well, and I took full advantage of those tall windows letting in so much natural light. It made for some fantastically dramatic and dreamy wedding photos. It was especially great for these mother and daughter moments.

And talking about the parents, what about when Aisling’s father got to see her in her wedding dress for the first time? What a moment! It’s so sweet.

As the bridal party is heading towards the ceremony which is in the Maryborough’s Orangery, a conservatory style wedding venue, here is Emmet seeing his bride for the first time!

Maryborough Hotel Wedding

“…here is Emmet seeing his bride for the first time!”

In the next blog post, you will get to see the full wedding ceremony, the wedding couple photo shoot and the afters! I will link it here once it has been posted. So make sure to come back in a couple of days to see those photos.

If you want to see more wedding photography blog posts, you can view those here, including the couple photo shoots I do in and around Cork.

Looking for a wedding photographer and wondering about different wedding packages? Please see these pages and give me a call with any questions or say hello here. We can chat about pricing/price list and availability and all about your wedding plans!

Edit: Here is the second blog post with the remaining wedding photos at the Maryborough Hotel.