Natalya and Frazer tied the knot on September 12th in Carraig Woods, Banbridge, surrounded by the wild beauty of the forest. This wasn’t a traditional wedding. It was an outdoor woodland ceremony that reflected their personalities, choices, and love for doing things their own way.

Their wedding brought together heartfelt Celtic traditions, a vintage tractor entrance, and the natural drama of sunshine breaking through woodland trees after a heavy downpour.

For anyone searching for a photographer for an alternative wedding or wanting to plan an outdoor ceremony, this Banbridge wedding shows how magical and personal such a day can be.

Capturing Emotion Over Tradition

We have been looking forward to this one so much since the guys first got in touch with us about photographing their wedding. It’s always nice to shoot something different and Natalya and Frazer very much had an alternative style wedding, with everything on the day done their way, rather than going with normal wedding traditions. We have always loved outdoor wedding ceremonies, having had one ourselves. It is safe to say that Carraig woods is a bit of the beaten track, the guys had to contact Google to have it added to Google Maps before their wedding so that everyone could find it. This is not a wedding venue, and you won’t find it in any wedding magazine or blog, it is private land owned by a family friend of the couple.

While we have photographed lots of outdoor weddings including in forests before, those were in the grounds of a wedding venue rather than in an actual wild woodland. We love being able to shoot different styles of weddings, so this one was right up our street.

We arrived early as knew that the location might be difficult to find, and we arrived at just the wrong time. On stepping out of the car the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down with extremely heavy rain. With a walk through the wood to get to the ceremony location, we were completely soaked through by the time we found it. Off course not long after we found it, the rain cleared and the sun came out, just as guests started to arrive.

Forest Wedding in Northern Ireland

While the strong dappled lighting caused by the high sun shining through the tree’s made photography difficult, we are sure that Natalya, Frazer and their guests were over the moon that the rain cleared for the entire length of the ceremony. Natalya and Frazer made quite the entrance on arriving to say, “I Do”, on a vintage tractor driven by Natayla’s Dad. They also dispensed with wedding tradition and walked down the aisle together.

The ceremony itself was absolutely beautiful, their Humanist celebrant Ciara told their story up until now and also included a traditional Celtic handfasting ceremony, and the drinking of the quaich. With just their nearest and dearest watching on and with the breathtaking forest location, it was very special.

After the ceremony we shot some stuff with their family and friends before getting to shoot some bride and groom portraits with Natalya and Frazer. We had only just started off on our walk around the woods with the guys when the heavy rain made an unwelcome return and we had to take shelter. After trying to wait the rain out for a little while, in the end we decided to just go for it. Not long after the rain stopped, and the sun came out for a while, allowing us to ditch the umbrellas.

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Tommy and Laurene, Pure Photo N.I.