Debbie & Kais in Clonmel
Debbie and Kais came across my work on Facebook and once directed to www.philipbourke.com they contacted me right away to shoot their wedding, and there’s nothing I appreciate more than when a couple see my work and get excited by the potential in my photographs and make the call and get the booking wrapped up. Debbie called me and we had a chat about certain images that she liked, she spoke of the natural way I found images of not just married couples, but guests and all characters and aspects of a wedding day, and she was very enthusiastic about the relaxed nature and the overall pace of my work. I spoke to Debbie about the overall concept of shooting weddings in a documentary fashion and how each wedding can have its own unique set of images, and although the word unique is ridiculously overused as a buzz word Debbie definitely got a strong feel during our conversation and even more so once she viewed the wedding images on my website at www.philipbourke.com when we had our chat.
Their wedding was to be held in Clonmel, Debbie’s hometown, which meant that I got a chance to work outside of the Cork / Kerry / Limerick regions, as I quite often have over the last few years. It was a bright and fresh Autumnal day During October and there was a big turnout for Debbie & Kais’ wedding at the Church of St. Peter & Paul which was more or less full. And it is a big church, which is good for me since I like to move around and see what angles I find to create some images. Clonmel is now a cosmopolitan town and this was reflected in the group of guests and Debbie & Kais’ family members. The warm cosmopolitan feel was also felt with the arrangment of world flags which adorned the interior of the Church walls
Once the ceremony was done and everybody congregated outside the church, I whizzed about the crowd, finding and looking for opportunities to grab cool shots, and of course this is my favorite part of the day since it’s the moment when friends and family congratulate the newly married couple and everybody is excited, this is such a great time for intimate photographs, conversational photographs, simple fragmented snippets of whatever I see and like, and to simply capture the buzz of the day from my point of view. The neat thing about being a documentary wedding photography is being ready for anything to happen or finidng those pictures you know will be one offs, to move through a crowd to create and find images whether subtle or dynamic, they all build a story of a particular day.
The newly married couple, with a couple of hundred people in tow, then moved onto the Hotel Minella to mingle during drinks reception before sitting down to enjoy their meal before topping it off with the cake that Kais made himself!
Many thanks to Debbie & Kais for choosing me as their wedding photographer, you made my job a dream on the day by being totally relaxed, as were their friends & families, which allowed me to do what I do best. I hope to see you in Clonmel sometime in the near future.
