Galgorm Resort Wedding Photography Northern Ireland

Leanne and Ben’s New Year’s Eve wedding in Northern Ireland at The Galgorm

My first visit to The Galgorm Resort & Spa and my first wedding in Northern Ireland! I can’t imagine a more brilliant couple than Leanne and Ben to take that short flight over to Belfast for, and spend the day capturing such a brilliant wedding for such a tremendous couple! They actually live a few miles away from me in Manchester but Leanne is from Northern Ireland so made a very special trip home to get married at The Galgorm Resort on New Year’s Eve! Even more special as their son Jack was able to watch his mum and dad get married – although arguably Jack stole the show on more than one occasion – who wouldn’t want to dance the new year in at a wedding wearing your pyjamas?! Such a super cool little guy!

I arrived at The Galgorm the night before Leanne and Ben’s wedding and was instantly captured by the vibe of the place – the next morning I had a walk around to get an idea of where we could wander off to for portraits although Leanne had been very clear that she wanted portraits by the river so that was always going to be our plan A!

Then I drove across Belfast to find Leanne and her bridesmaids at her dad Jim’s house. One of the proudest and most emotional father of the bride’s I’ve ever met. We bonded over a mutual love of Manchester United but he mainly stayed out of the way during the morning preparations as I could tell he was having to keep his emotions in check. Leanne and her girls laughed their way through the morning and were picked up by a Rolls Royce and Mercedes to make the journey back across Northern Ireland to The Galgorm Resort where Ben was waiting equally nervously at the top of the aisle in the Phantom House at The Galgorm for his bride, Leanne.

There’s often this moment that I really notice the nerves suddenly disappear as soon as the couple are reunited at the top of the aisle and this was definitely true for Leanne and Ben as they were chuckling to each other within seconds of being reunited. Although not at a church, their wedding ceremony was a religious one and they had a priest they knew well who made it a very personal and lovely service for them.

After the ceremony we didn’t have much daylight to play with, but we made it to the riverside for some portraits and left just as dusk turned to darkness and the rain started to fall. Being a New Year’s Eve wedding, you could feel the party vibe all day long and after dinner and speeches the party really started. Leanne and Ben had the brilliant Collective Wedding Band Northern Ireland to play all night long as everyone counted down to midnight.

At midnight the wedding party all let off confetti cannons to create another unforgettable moment for Leanne and Ben at the end of an unforgettable day. Such a pleasure for me to be part of it and you can see some of my favourite photos from Leanne and Ben’s Northern Ireland wedding at The Galgorm below…