Norman & Jessica's Destination Wedding + Photography Adventure (Part 7)

As we were busy getting ready for The Original Wedding Soiree bridal show tomorrow, I was thinking what better way to get prepared for talking to excited engaged couples than to think back to our own wedding last spring, and the adventure honeymoon road trip that followed.. {For you late-comers: we decided to take the wedding dress and all the camera gear with us to do our own wedding photos as we drove around Ireland! Here's Part 1 - The Proposal, Part 2 - The Wardrobe, Part 3 - The Adventure Begins, Part 4 - The Ceremony, Part 5 - The Awesome Place We Went for Lunch After the Ceremony, Part 6 - Dublin - The Honeymoon Begins}

So - after kissing Dublin goodbye, we were on our way..

Part 7 - Cork to Killarney


In Cork we stayed above the Bru Bar Pub, which happened to be hosting a very lively stag party when we arrived at about 7pm. Once we fought our way through the crowd and up the stairs we were amazed to find how quiet our room was. After making a quick dinner of chicken penne and a salad, we went for a lovely walk out in the rain through downtown Cork. After all the driving, it was nice to get out and stretch our legs.. but of course it wasn't long until we found ourselves seated once again - this time in the greatest little pub I've ever been in. There was nothing special about it, which was part of what made it so awesome. Just a place full of old tables and chairs where friends had gathered for a drink and a laugh. We sat at the very back wall and enjoyed the fact that we were there, in that weird way where you anticipate something for so long that you can barely believe it once you are finally doing it :)

The next morning, Norman wrote our initials in the condensation on the window in our room (which later became part of our wall art canvas)..

After breakfast, we went for another walk around the town - this time with daylight and no rain - it is exactly as lovely as you imagine :)

This is the best road sign I have seen in my whole life!

Down by the river there were these huge inflatable, tire-covered fenders (bumpers for big ships)

Our next stop was Clonakilty beach, which had these amazing rocks (actually, pretty much the whole of Ireland has amazing rocks - Norman still can't believe I need so many pictures of them ;)

Our rings, hanging out with some barnacles..

Here's the thing about beaches in Ireland - they are empty. Stunningly beautiful, and empty. (Also a bit cold and windy, but perfect for walking along..)

We drove down to Mizen head, which I think must be the windiest place in the world. There was only one other person there when we got to the end - a Croatian guy who was touring around Ireland on his motorcycle - we spoke to him for a while about the great things we had all been seeing, and then wished each other happy journeys and were back on our way to Killarney..

Killarney, if you ever get the chance to go, has one of the most magical national parks ever invented by nature :) We found a place to pull the car over for some wedding pictures near this picturesque bridge - the tricky part was that it was so windy that the clouds were flying by and the light kept changing from the time I would click the shutter (on timer) to the time it actually took the picture! Norman took a few shots of me with the most beautiful light in the world, and then we set up the tripod to do one together..

It started to pour rain not long after this shot, so we were back in the car and on our way to the next adventure!

Stayed tuned for our visit to the stunning "Ladies View" lookout.. {click here!}

xo Jessica + Norman

{Getting married? We don't only shoot our own wedding in Ireland - we would love to photograph yours too... wherever it is! Email us now to set up a consultation :)  }

Photography: Jessica Lin Photography

Dress: Cabaret Vintage

Headband: Oh Dina!

Bracelet: Response Clothing

Norman & Jessica's Destination Wedding + Photography Adventure (Part 4)

(my apologies to my sister and anyone else who was impatiently waiting so long for this next post, but we have been really busy the last few weeks with what those of us in the business call "work" haha..)

Missed the beginning? Here's where it all started: Part 1 - The Proposal, Part 2 - The Wardrobe, Part 3 - The Adventure Begins

And now...

Part 4 - The Ceremony


May 5th, 2011 - the day we got married :)
We woke up at 6am. This (as any of you who know me probably already know) would be painful enough for me in Toronto. But in Belfast, two days after arriving, 6am still felt a lot like 1am. So if we look a bit tired, that's why ;)

Luckily for me, Elaine is a professional make-up consultant and had very kindly offered to do my hair and make-up the morning of the wedding. Unluckily for her, that meant she was also up at 6am.. (nobody was awake enough at this point to operate a camera, so there are no pictures of the getting ready  chaos!) Joe & Elaine organized a lovely and simple breakfast of croissants and OJ which I ate mainly because I had bullied my sister into eating on her wedding day back in February so I thought I'd better follow my own advice!

Ready at last, we piled into the car and headed to Belfast City Center, picking up Norman's best friend Ian (and our photographer for the day) on our way. We parked close to the City Hall at Norman's cousin Keith's place of business, and Keith was good enough to give the five of us a lift to the front gates of City Hall (after teasing me about trying to get into the driver's seat - I was half awake and still not adjusted yet to the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road haha..)

The funny thing is, even after almost 10 years of shooting other people's weddings, I still had the nervous butterfly stomach heading to our own.. I sort of loved that :)

Speaking of shooting other people's weddings, I would like to take a moment to appreciate what Ian did for us. I've shot photographers' weddings before, and it's about 5 times the pressure of shooting anyone else's. And Ian, although he has been photographing for many years, does not normally photograph weddings. So I know what a huge favour we were asking of him by handing him the camera for our special day, and I think he did such a fantastic job :)

Anyways, here we are: the incredibly impressive Belfast City Hall..

Norman and Joe waiting in the Wedding Chamber - I must say, they look pretty relaxed about the whole thing.. (at this point, I was down the hall with Elaine in the ladies room getting into my dress. Even though Norman had already seen me in the dress when we first found it at Cabaret, the girly part of me didn't want him to see me in it on this day until I was walking down the aisle)

I'm so glad Ian got a shot of this fantastic map they had out in the hall - the "Chart of Betrothal Bay" shows such important landmarks as "Introduction Cliffs" and "Big Brother Isle" on the "Male Route to Churchdoor".. they also have a spot marked "Kissmequick" ;)

Ready!

from here on in, the next bit was a bit of a blur...

Elaine helping me put on my grandmother's pearls... When she gave them to me just before we left, my mom told me that my grandfather had brought these back for my grandmother from Paris when he came home after the war. I loved the idea of bringing them back across the same ocean over half a century later to wear for my wedding day :) (I also love that my sister wore them on her wedding day too!)

I walked down the aisle to Blue Rodeo's "Lost Together". My first choice had been Journey, but Norman urged me to reconsider (haha) - in the end, this song was perfect :)

My cheeks hurt from smiling :) especially when I saw Norman wipe a tear from his eye.. 

first kiss :) with many more to follow..

How can you not dance to Billy Joel on your wedding day??

My awesome veil and fascinator are courtesy of Oh Dina! in Toronto (thanks Nicole!)

The four of us, plus Norman's cousin Cathy who surprised us by coming to the ceremony (Norman's mummy and Cathy's mummy were in the hospital at the same time to give birth to the two of them, so they are practically twins ;)  )

We went back to the stunning lobby to take some photos - we were the only wedding that day so we didn't have to worry about rushing, which was so nice..

I think this last image is my favourite :)

On Cathy's recommendation, we then went to the most fantastic restaurant I've ever seen - which I will show you in the next post! I promise it won't take as long as this one did ;)

xoxo Jessica & Norman

Photography: Ian Ritchie (a HUGE thank you to Ian!)

Dress: Cabaret Vintage, Toronto

Veil & Fascinator: Oh Dina!, Toronto

Shoes: Response Clothing, Toronto

Norman & Jessica's Destination Wedding + Photography Adventure (Part 2)

Missed Part 1? Check it out here

Part 2 - The Wardrobe

We both really loved this pale pink lacy number, but it would have needed a bit of altering (on a tight schedule!). Even though I hadn't planned on something super "bridal" I completely fell in love with The Bijou as soon as I tried her on :) And then once I found out I could sit down and still breath, it was decided - this was the dress for me!

I really can't say enough good things about our experience at Cabaret - the dresses are fantastic, the shop has a really amazing feel to it, and Tao and Elizabeth were awesome! 

The next stop for me was shoes. A few doors down from Cabaret, there's a great shop called Response. They always have really nice window displays, and I'd been in a few times. This time, I was at the absolute end of my faith in Queen West as a great place to buy shoes - I'd been in at least a dozen places and still hadn't found something that was pretty and comfortable enough to not kill myself walking in them. And then suddenly, there they were.

Not too high, not too plain - I loved them! I wore them around the shop for about 20 minutes while I was talking to Andrea (who was immensely helpful and very sweet) and couldn't believe how comfy they were :) Andrea suggested a soft gold polish for my toe nails to add a bit of fancy (I ended up going with Gosh #554 Gold) which was perfect.

While we were talking, I notice this fantastic five-strand bracelet that seemed destined to be paired with these shoes..and so my hunt for the perfect shoes and accessories was almost over :)

The last thing I wanted to have to complete the look was something beautiful to go in my hair. I had very fortunately met Nicole from Oh Dina! at the latest One of a Kind show in Toronto. I loved her stuff, and we had stayed in touch. She very generously offered to lend us a few pieces to go along for the adventure, so we headed out to her great studio in the west end to make the hard decision of which ones were my favourites (and which wouldn't get killed in a suitcase for a few weeks!). We ended up going with a lovely little birdcage veil, as well as a few colourful and feathery hair fascinators. The one that actually ended up being my favourite in the end though was this amazing feathery headband..

but more of that later ;)

Now, in case you're getting worried that poor Norman wasn't also having a blast choosing his outfit(s) - fear not. He already had his jeans picked out (no, I'm not kidding!) and a few trips to Value Village and to Exile in Kensington Market found him a pair of perfect shirts. One blue with french cuffs for the "Irishy" part, and a beautiful gold ruffled tuxedo shirt for the Spanish part. 

How awesome is this shirt?? Just wait until you see it on!

He planned to bring a couple of his Dad's ties, which I thought was a really nice touch. The one on the left has millions of tiny elephants with their trunks in the air, which I remember being told as a little kid was supposed to be good luck for some reason (yes, I love good luck wedding superstitions!)

I got Norman the tie in the middle because he loves blue and I loved the pattern and I wanted to get him something that wouldn't take up too much room in the suitcase ;)

This was the first pair of Canadian shoes that Norman bought, after being forced to jettison all his pairs of dress shoes at the airport in Belfast when he was moving here (too much weight in the luggage)..it somehow seemed perfect to me that he would be taking this pair back across the ocean to get married in :)

Our biggest challenge in all of this would turn out to be figuring out how to fit it all (including my wedding dress, shoes, tripod, light stand and umbrella, plus everything else we would need for the 4 week trip) into two suitcases, and how to make all of my camera gear fit into what they consider carry-on luggage. It was tight, and a bit stressful at times, but it all got there in the end..

Stay tuned for Part 3, where we will actually be leaving for our destination wedding adventure!

xox Jessica + Norman

Photography: Jessica + Norman, Jessica Lin Photography

Dress: Cabaret Vintage, Toronto
Shoes and Bracelet: Response Clothing, Toronto
Feather Headband: Oh Dina!