Claire and James: 21st February 2009

I didn’t really have much time to take photos at the wedding but Ryan was on video duty for the day so we have some great moments captured on camera and will be uploading some of them very soon. I’ve borrowed a couple of photos from facebook of the beautiful bride and handsome groom, and of the two bridesmaids.

And just for the sake of comparison I thought you might like to see the toilet paper wedding dress we designed for Claire on the hen weekend back in January. Personally I think it stands up pretty well against the real thing.

It was great to catch up with all the hens again and one of my favourite moments was being on the dance floor with all the girls and finally getting to reveal to Claire the truth behind the “archery incident”, i.e. the day Claire thought she’d been shot at for real with a bow and arrow.

I think I’ve learned a lot more about Claire from spending so much time over the past few months with her close friends and family and that’s something I will treasure for the rest of my life. That’s one of the real beauties of weddings for me – getting everyone important in your life to gather round and to celebrate being connected to each other. And we certainly celebrated until the wee hours of the morning in Trim Castle Hotel that night. Great music, great company and an incredible couple.

As for James, I really feel like I’ve welcomed him into my own family if that makes sense, and it was really wonderful to get to know his family in the run up to the wedding.

The day after the wedding was just as much fun as the day itself. We all went over to the Conneely house, Paddy cooked up a storm, we relaxed, chatted and had a fantastic sing song with friends and family giving it their all. It was the perfect way to finish off the weekend and to send the newly-weds off on their travels.

Congratulations Claire and James!