Slieve Donard Wedding | Sarah + Mark

Sarah & Mark got married and had their wedding at the Slieve Donard Resort & Spa on the 5th of June. Like so many couples getting married this year they had to change their original plans because of restrictions put in place because of the Covid pandemic. For Sarah & Mark this meant not only a change of wedding date but a change of pretty much everything related to their wedding including the venue. Perhaps Sarah & Mark need to look at changing careers to being wedding planners because they planned and executed their wedding within only an 8-week timeframe, which is pretty amazing.

On the morning of the wedding, we met up with Sarah and her bridesmaids at her Mum and Dad’s home in Greenisland to photograph everyone getting ready. It was a pretty relaxed morning as the girls got ready. As the time went on and it got closer to being time to leave Sarah did say that she was starting to feel a little nervous but it seemed more like excitement than nerves to us. It was an emotional morning for Sarah’s Mum and Dad too. It was easy to see how proud they are of their daughter and as Sarah made her way down the stairs for her parents to see her in her dress for the first time, it all got a bit much for Sarah’s Dad who had to make a quick exit into another room.

Slieve Donard Wedding Photos

On arriving at the Slieve Donard we met up with Mark who was as calm as you like, at that point anyway. Unfortunately, Sarah’s wedding car arrived quite late due to some very busy traffic and the longer he waited the more nervous Mark got. By the time Sarah arrived, he looked a nervous wreck. All those nerves were quickly forgotten though as soon Sarah made her way down the aisle.We were super excited to be a Newcastle wedding photographer for the day.

We want to give a special shout out to Sarah & Mark’s officiant on the day John Foley. John is a humanist celebrant and the ceremony was beautiful, he spoke about how Sarah & Mark met as well as sharing a few funny anecdotes about them both. There was plenty of giggles and emotional moments throughout. John is also one of the best officiants we have seen at a wedding for ensuring that the wedding photographers have plenty of room to work in which made photographing the ceremony an absolute pleasure for us.

Slieve Donard Wedding Photography

After the ceremony we made our way over to Tollymore Forest Park with Sarah & Mark for their bride & groom portraits. We had a lot less time than we would normally have as everything was running so late and the guys were keen to get back to the venue to have as much time as possible with their guests. We made the most of the time we did have though and Tollymore is always a great location to use.

Once back at the Slieve Donard we grabbed a few family photos at the front of the hotel before heading inside for the speeches. Everyone’s speeches went really well and as a special treat for Mark Sarah had arranged a special video message from former Liverpool F.C player Phil Thompson.

If you are reading this because you are looking for some inspiration for your own wedding at this venue, you might also like to have a look at this other wedding we photographed there as well. Slieve Donard wedding