A Dublin City Hall and Medley Wedding | Síona & James

Sep 17

9 min read

Some weddings connect naturally with stories I have photographed before, and Síona and James’s Dublin wedding was one of those. Two years earlier, Síona had stood beside her childhood friend Joey as his groomswoman when he married Molly in Trinity College Chapel. James had an important job that day too, driving the lads to the ceremony in his father’s 1987 Opel Kadett. It was the same car that had brought James’s mother to hospital when she was about to have him, so it carried a lot more history than your average wedding car. This time it was Síona and James getting married, and Joey had a completely different role to play. He would be standing at the top of Dublin City Hall as their celebrant.

Pedestrians moving around Síona and James during their Dublin wedding portraits

A Wedding Morning at The Leinster

Síona and the girls spent the morning getting ready at The Leinster in Dublin city centre. Hair and makeup were underway when I arrived, but it was never just the bridesmaids moving through the room. Síona’s brother and his girlfriend popped in, as did Molly and Joey, and it gave the morning that easy feeling where close friends and family come and go without everything becoming too organised.

Síona’s sister Aine, who was also one of her bridesmaids, is a graphic designer and brought her own creative touch to the day by taking Polaroids as everything unfolded. I always like seeing another version of a wedding being recorded alongside my own. Those little instant photographs became part of the day themselves, passed around, looked at and gathered together as the hours went by.

Before leaving for City Hall, we had arranged for Síona to meet her dad in The Collins Club on the ground floor of The Leinster. It is a very cool, red-toned room and a brilliant setting for a first look. This was the first time her dad saw her fully ready in her wedding dress, and his reaction made it a lovely moment to photograph. Síona had chosen a gold dress rather than a traditional white wedding dress, and it suited her completely.

Siona waiting on her dad for the first look

The Realness of a Wedding Morning

James and the lads were getting ready in another room at The Leinster. The best man was still writing his speech, James was ironing his shirt and his dad was there with him. That is the realness of a wedding morning. Not everything is finished or perfectly arranged before I arrive, and it does not need to be. These ordinary pieces of the morning often become some of the photographs that bring people straight back to how the day actually felt.

James is a mechanic by trade and completely car mad. His dad is a panel beater, and vintage cars have always been a big part of their family life. I have vintage cars myself, so it is something James and I have in common. Even the socks that morning fitted the story. James was holding two packets filled with different coloured socks, each pair carrying its own little car design.

Once he was ready, James walked out through the front door of The Leinster in his black tuxedo looking like James Bond.

James looking like James Bond leaving the Leinster for his wedding ceremony

Five Minutes With the Lads on Fleet Street

James and the lads did not want a long formal session or to be pulled around the city for photographs, and they did not need one. I brought James and his three groomsmen outside for about five minutes, using Fleet Street and the area around Medley as our backdrop. That was enough time to give them a good set of photographs while keeping the whole thing casual. Fleet Street was busy, people were passing and Dublin was carrying on around us. Rather than trying to remove all of that from the pictures, I used it. There was already a story happening on the street, so my job was simply to place the lads within it and let them be themselves.

Getting Around a Dublin City Wedding

The logistics of a city-centre wedding make a huge difference to how smoothly the photography works. I pack as lightly as possible because there can be a lot of moving quickly between locations, everyone, including the bridesmaids, travelled together from The Leinster to Dublin City Hall in the same minibus taxi. I travelled with them, and when we arrived I moved ahead so I could be inside and ready before Síona entered. It saved time and meant Síona did not have to wait around while I looked for parking or carried unnecessary equipment across the city. For me, good planning is not about controlling a wedding day. It is about removing the little problems that might interrupt it.

Bride and family leaving the hotel in a taxi for their City hall wedding ceremony

A Personal Ceremony at Dublin City Hall

Dublin City Hall was packed with family and friends when Síona arrived. Her brother, her sister and one friend provided the music together, and her dad walked her up the aisle.

Pat Clark looked after the legal side of the marriage, while Joey led the personal part of the ceremony. Pat is someone I meet at weddings in different parts of Ireland. It might be once a year, once every second year or sometimes even three years between meetings, but I am always glad to see him. We always have a chat and catch up from wherever we left off the last time. Joey is a teacher, so he is no stranger to standing in front of a room, but this was very different. He was speaking at the wedding of someone he had known since childhood.

What he said could only have come from that friendship. It was personal and emotional without ever feeling rehearsed. Nobody could have handed him a generic ceremony script and created the same feeling. He knew Síona, he knew James and he spoke from the heart. He absolutely pulled it off.

Molly had written her own poem for Síona and James and stood in front of everyone to read it. It was beautiful and added another part of their shared history to the ceremony. Friends also gave readings, and both mothers came forward to light the two outer candles. City Hall is a grand building, but it was those very personal contributions that made the ceremony feel intimate.

Molly reading her original poem during the wedding ceremony

Once the ceremony was over, I took the family photographs inside City Hall. Before every wedding, I get the details of one person from each side of the couple who knows the families well. I liaise with those two people before everyone leaves the ceremony, and they help pull the right people together. It means we can usually complete the family photographs in about ten minutes. Everyone is then free to make their own way to the reception, have a drink and enjoy themselves without wondering when they might be called back for photographs later.

Grafton Street Flowers and a Dublin Taxi

With the family photographs finished, Síona and James walked through the city with me for a short portrait session. We made our way towards Grafton Street and stopped at the flower stalls, one of those details that immediately places a photograph in Dublin. I positioned them among the flowers and allowed pedestrians to keep moving through the frame. People passing close to the camera created a little blur and movement around them while Síona and James remained still. The picture felt busy, colourful and unmistakably Dublin.

We did not close off streets or turn the portraits into a production.

Síona and James walking through Dublin city centre after their wedding

Nothing around us had been set up for a wedding shoot. I arrived knowing the area, watched how people were moving through it and began to understand its pace. It is almost like a dance: I pick up the rhythm of what is happening around me and photograph at that same pace. When it was time to move on, the lads hailed a taxi for the bride and groom, giving us another small piece of city life to add to the story.

Dublin City Hall newlyweds travelling through the city by taxi

A Stop at Kehoe’s

Síona and James then stopped at Kehoe’s, just off Grafton Street, and settled into their usual seat in the snug inside the door. It was also a location with a connection to the wedding I had photographed two years earlier. After their Trinity College ceremony, Molly and Joey had gone into Kehoe’s with their wedding party, including Síona as Joey’s groomswoman. There was no need to manufacture anything in the pub. Síona and James had a drink, sat together in a place they genuinely liked and took a breather before heading back to Medley. Those are often the easiest photographs of the day because the couple are doing something that already feels normal to them.

A Relaxed Drinks Reception at Medley

Medley is in the old Irish Times building on Fleet Street, right in the middle of Dublin. It has its own character and feels completely different from a traditional hotel wedding. Guests can move easily between the main room and the street outside, and that suited the relaxed way Síona and James wanted the afternoon to feel. The drinks reception suited Síona and James perfectly. People gathered in small groups, some chatting inside and others spilling out onto the street. There were plenty of drinks, plenty of characters and no shortage of small moments happening around the room. A brilliant solo musician played during the reception, using his voice and guitar along with a loop station and foot-operated percussion. He was building the songs live in front of everyone and creating the sound and energy of a full band on his own. A magician was also moving among the guests performing close-up tricks, so there was always something happening without the afternoon ever feeling overly structured.

I used the area around Medley for a few quick guest portraits too. Bowe’s Bar across the way made a great Dublin backdrop, while the shutters of a nearby car park gave us something completely different. Aine and her partner came outside for five or ten minutes and we made a few cool street portraits without taking them away from the reception for long. Back inside, Síona’s dad, a schoolteacher, gave his speech. Like the ceremony earlier in City Hall, the reception felt personal because so many of the people closest to Síona and James were involved throughout the day.

Why Dublin City Weddings Work So Well

City weddings like this are becoming increasingly popular, and it is easy to understand why. Dublin City Hall gives couples a beautiful and historic ceremony setting, while venues such as Medley offer a more relaxed alternative to the traditional hotel wedding.

Many couples searching for a Dublin restaurant wedding are looking for this same kind of atmosphere: good food, a central location and a reception that feels more personal than a traditional hotel ballroom. Dublin has some brilliant restaurant wedding venues, private dining spaces and alternative reception venues, with Medley offering that relaxed city-centre feeling on a larger scale.

For me, Dublin is a dream to photograph. The architecture is incredible, people stream through the different streets and something new is happening every few seconds. Images begin to develop in front of you without needing to manufacture them. That fits completely with how I work because I become absorbed in everything happening around me. I notice the street, the light, the buildings and the way people move. I tend to see everything in pictures, and Dublin puts opportunities in front of me every minute.

The key is not to turn the photography into a tour of Dublin. Síona and James still had plenty of time with their guests because every portrait session was kept short and close to where they were already going. Five minutes with the lads, a walk through the city, a quiet drink in Kehoe’s and a few quick photographs outside Medley were enough to tell that part of the story.

For me, that is what documentary wedding photography should do. The photographs should show where you were, who was there and how the day actually felt, without the photography taking over the day itself.

Síona and James’s wedding was full of connections: old friends taking on new roles, familiar places revisited and another chapter in a story I had first photographed two years earlier. From the first look at The Leinster to Joey’s ceremony in City Hall, the flower stalls on Grafton Street, a pint in Kehoe’s and the reception at Medley, it felt like a Dublin wedding from beginning to end.

Síona later left me this lovely review:

“He blended seamlessly into the day, making everyone feel comfortable while capturing every special moment so naturally. We are completely obsessed with our photos! Looking back through them has been so special, especially seeing all the little moments we missed on the day itself.”

Planning a Dublin City Hall or Medley Wedding?

I’m Keith Sullivan of Infokus Wedding Photography. I photograph weddings throughout Dublin and across Ireland in a natural, relaxed and unobtrusive way. If you are planning a wedding at Dublin City Hall, Medley or elsewhere in Dublin city centre, you can view my wedding packages, see more of my wedding photography, or get in touch.

You can also read the connected story of Molly and Joey’s Trinity College and Bellingham Castle wedding, where Síona was Joey’s groomswoman and James arrived with the family Opel Kadett.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can we take wedding photographs after a Dublin City Hall ceremony?

There is no single route that every couple needs to follow. Dublin gives you options in every direction, from the architecture around City Hall to Grafton Street, its traditional flower stalls, South Anne Street, old pubs and quieter side streets. The best locations are the ones that suit the couple and fit naturally into their journey to the reception. Often, an unplanned moment on the street will create a better photograph than travelling across the city for a famous backdrop.

Do Dublin city weddings require a long portrait session?

No. With good planning, portraits can be taken in several short sessions as the couple moves between the ceremony and reception. This keeps the photography relaxed and leaves more time for guests.

Is Medley suitable for a relaxed Dublin wedding reception?

Yes. Medley’s open layout, exposed brickwork and history as part of the old Irish Times building give it a distinctive city-centre atmosphere. It works especially well for couples who want something different from a traditional hotel ballroom.

How do you plan photography for a Dublin city-centre wedding?

Good logistics matter, but the day should never feel over-planned. I travel light, learn the route in advance and arrange the family photographs so the right people can be gathered quickly. Once the day begins, I watch its pace and work within it. That allows me to capture the city as it really is while leaving the couple free to enjoy their wedding.