Ireland 2014

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GOING TO THE CHAPEL

Finally, the day which brought us to Ireland in the first place. The day Lisa and Ger were to be married.

I started the day off easy, taking a walk up to the Shelbourne road and then over to Thomond park. I turned left at the park which led me over Thomond Bridge to St. John’s Castle. After going around the castle, I headed back to the walk way along the Shannon River to the Shannon Bridge. I crossed the bridge back to the North side of the river, followed the Callahan Strand to the Strand Hotel. I think of this as the easy walk.

I had another lovely breakfast in the river room, looking out on the sunrise over the Shannon as I consumed yet another round of rashers, Irish sausage and copious amounts of toast. The only downside was listening to the yammering of the Americans getting ready to depart on their Globus tour bus. They really need to put those people in their own pen.

I dropped off the laundry, mostly mine, at the Arthur’s Quay laundry and grabbed a copy of the Limerick Leader for my parents. They had opted to dine in their room again, probably not getting up until well after 9.

Originally, I was going to try and squeeze in the opening of a Kung Fu School off of Williams Street. I was curious how they approached the martial arts here in Limerick. Probably the same as everywhere else.

But the school started their ceremony at 11 and the wedding started at 1:30. Sure there was enough time in there to do both. If you are a crazy person. I decided not to be that crazy person. Although the decision could have gone either way right up until the end.

The wedding took place at St. Joseph’s Church on the top of O’Connell street. The church was familiar to me since it was on the street where my Irish girlfriend used to live.

We arrived early and the parking gods were on my side for a change. I got a real parking spot, something of a rarity in Limerick right across from the church. I only had to make one almost legal u-turn to acquire it.

For the wedding, I played camera boy, running around taking pictures and trying not to get in the professional photographers way. I cajoled the women running the church to give me the key to the balcony so I could get some overhead shots. I told the professional about my access but she never availed herself of the opportunity. I’m sure there was nothing she liked better than another person running around shooting her wedding.

The bride and groom arrived in style in what looked like a 1940’s Roll Royce. All the ladies in attendance wore their finest clothes complete with odd little hats that you might find at the races at Epsom Downs.

I took way too many pictures of the flower girl who was dressed in white and had fairy wings on and carried a wand. The only problem was this little girl wanted nothing to do with getting her picture taken.

I was doing a lot of running from the front of the church to the choir loft since I had two cameras working shooting video. It only took one loud slamming of the choir loft door to realize I need to very softly close that door.

It was a catholic wedding, complete with mass. There were two readings from the bible along with a sermon by the priest. There was a lengthy pause while the bridal party exited stage left to sign the official wedding documents. The mass was conducted by Brendan’s cousin. The priest cousin, I think his name was Richard, announced that this was one of the first weddings he had conducted that came with a note from Pope Francis.

They didn’t do a lot of things you find in the american weddings. The focus was on the mass rather than the wedding. Maybe I was running around too much, but I don’t remember the exchange of vows or the sharing of rings. The big kiss went by fast. The only real similarity was the candle business where they use the two candles to light the one.

For the walk out of the church, they exited under an arch of raised Hurely’s, the stick used to play Hurling. Looking back, this made what happened at the reception much clearer.

There was a lot of milling around post wedding taking photos in the side garden. Again, my job was to stay out of the professional’s way.

The reception was held at our hotel, The Strand, downstairs in the Shannon Room. I would have loved for it to have been upstairs in the City View room but the party was much too big.

There was a bit of time between the end of the wedding and the start of the wedding so I took the opportunity to run across the bridge to get my mother some more of her 100% pure Cranberry Juice that I was unable to get on the morning laundry. I don’t think anybody recognized me in my street clothes as I moved through the lobby of the hotel.

The hotel had set up a nice arrival ceremony complete with champagne. Some of the guests were going to mock the groom since the wedding was listed as the Bradshaw Wedding on the TV monitors.

The Rolls arrived. Pictures were taken. Everyone cheered. I think some people just checking into the hotel thought the champagne reception was for everyone and availed themselves of the drinks.

I would like to say that if you are going to have a wedding could you at least turn on a few lights for the photographer? I’m getting really tired of trying to shoot these events in the dark. Everything was beautifully decorated and you could almost see it in the candle light.

The most light came from the giant projection screen were the All Ireland Hurling Championship aired. To be fair, Lisa had planned her wedding around the sporting events like all good brides do, but the first go-around of the finals had ended in a tie. Rules necessitated complete new games rather than over time periods. But the second had ended in a tie,too, so they needed to play a third match.

Now, they play them on consecutive weeks which meant the third game should have been played the week before in Croke Park. Unfortunately, the annual US college American Football game was scheduled for that week which meant the Hurling finals had to be pushed back another week. Ergo, the Hurling Finals were on during the wedding.

I figured they would turn off the game once the Newlyweds arrived. I figured wrong. The game stayed on until Kilkenny beat Tipperary by one point. The largely pro-Tipperary crowd was disappointed.

The only thing holding up the entrance of the happy couple was an elderly couple who I knew intimately, coming in ahead of them. They were very my patient as my parents found their way to their table.

The affair in the Shannon Room was quite elegant. White table clothes, covered chairs and a royal looking head table with candelabras at each end.

The serving of the food was quite the production number. Each person at the head table had their own waiter deliver their first course under a silver cover. In unison the covers were removed and the waiters marched away.

I figured this production was going to be reserved for only the head table but they did this for everyone. Despite the pageantry, the food was served quite quickly. The dramatic reveal was done for every course of the meal.

I missed a few reveals running around filming. Oddly, the official photographer was not in evidence during the reception. I was the only person filming the cake cutting. Yes, I mounted the GoPro to the table for some POV shots.

My youth flashed before me at the table as I was surrounded by my parents friends including one very drunk one. I remembered countless times being in this situation back in the Seventies, complete with drunk.

It was a long day for my parents so they cut out while the band set up, the LOL’s, before the dancing started. I wanted to at least film the first dances but I was tired as well. I didn’t last much longer. I missed all the dances.