Aideen & Patrick

A Christmas wedding in East Cork. Aideen and Patrick were married in their local church, then on to Castlemartyr Resort, where the tree was lit at the door and frost still sat on the lawns. The vintage Rolls came up the long drive with the manor house waiting at the end of it, and the two of them stepped out onto the red carpet to a welcome from family and friends. Big house, big welcome, and a day that never stopped moving.

Castlemartyr gives you 220 acres to work with, and we used a good share of it. The parterre gardens with their box hedging and old yews, the ruins of the 800-year-old castle standing in the trees beyond the golf course, the lake with a swan on it and bare woodland reflected in the water. Weddings at this time of year give you something the summer ones can't, with early light, bare trees and colour that comes from the decorations rather than the gardens.