After some preparations we made our way out into the countryside to the Grange Meeting-House, which is the second oldest Quaker meetinghouse in Ireland.  George Fox even visited this meetinghouse at one point!  It was an overcast morning, and shortly after we arrived it began to sprinkle.  This was the first rain I had seen during my stay, which is apparently amazing as Northern Ireland usually gets a lot more rain this time of year.  Before Joy and her party arrived in the Rolls Royce, we waited around as folks showed up to the ivy-covered building.  Aidan and John anxiously waited (below):

Everyone made it inside (I love the building!) as Joy showed up (below).

Since traditional Quaker weddings are performed during a Quaker meeting for (mostly silent) worship, I wasn’t taking photos in the meeting for worship (with an intent for marriage).  It was great to get to enjoy my friends’ wedding.  Following the meeting we went over to the even older side of the meetinghouse to sign the marriage documents.

While the signing was going on, everyone stood around outside, having tea and various biscuits (what Americans would call cookies, though I prefer “biscuits” now), and having a grand time in general.

Aidan gave a nice display of the new ring before they made their way outside for the exit.

Soon, a few formals and the reception!

For today we’ll begin with the preparations on the big day.  I started the day at Joy’s house, so here are some detail shots as well as ones of Joy with her mum and sister.

I love the below shot of Joy’s earing.  The black and white really features the “bling” factor.  Very cool.

Joy’s little brother was really cool.  The below photo on the left shows him and his bear hanging out before the events unfolded.  He had no end of fun expressions and situations that made for great photo ops!

And to end the first post, above you can see the sweet Rolls Royce they rented.  It lacked no edge of coolness and class, and as you will see later it makes for a great addition in photos with a couple!

This is just a sneak peak of what’s too come.  As I prep for a week down at the coast I’m trying my hardest to get things done and posted here.  Here’s a shot of the newly weds at the grounds of the reception site, the Corick House.

That’s right folks.  It’s a steady pace I’m keeping at the Newark International Airport before the 2nd leg of my homeward journey.  Luckily I have the Brothers K to keep me company, and the chance for a decent internet connection to let me at the blog action once again.  The wedding last night went a wee bit late…and our return to Chris’ place in Lisburn was to the tune of 2am, with a 7:30 wake up call for the return flight.  We woke to typical Northern Ireland weather: gray skies and rain.  Luckily we only had a few intermittent showers yesterday that didn’t completely destroy the wedding day, and the day was a glorious and fun one indeed.  As we said, it was “good crack!” meaning good fun.  And it was.  From the traditional unprogrammed meeting for worship and marriage, to the Ceili dance that carried us late into the night (though sunset there was typically around 10:30!!!).  Brilliant.

But, prior to the wedding I had the chance to take a great trip up the northern coast with a good friend, Nigel, to both the Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, the Dunluce Castle, and pit stops for fish & chips and ice cream.  It was a brilliant day, complete with weather warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt, hike steep hills along the coast line, roll down the window to let the salty air coarse through the flanging fingers, and neither get too hot or cold.  On top of that Nigel let me drive his car, giving me my first opportunity to drive on the left side of the road!  Altough the Antrim coastline is amazing and world renowned, driving on the left side of the road had to be one of the major highlights of my trip!!!  If anyone knows me they know that I consider driving to be an art form, and take every chance I can to continue developing my love of the practice.  So, thanks Nigel, it was great!

And, now on to some photos from the trip:

Above you can see the rope bridge, which we walked across and looked below…

…and took a bit to enjoy the view of the Northern coast

I was surprised by how green and clear the water was.  I think I was assuming it would be similar to the Pacific, but was way off! (below)

Above is part of the Giant’s Causway.  The formations are from lava that tumbled into the sea, and there are similar formations across the sea on the coast of Scotland.  Thus it is believed the landmark was formed by a giant.  Below you can see the afore mentioned castle.  The story goes that (back in the day) a dinner party was being hosted one evening, when the folks in the dining room heard a rumble in the kitchen.  As it turned out, the floor gave way and the back half of the castle tumbled into the sea, leaving one cook in a window ledge overhanging the ocean while sharpening a knife.  Although the rest of the structure had given way, ht

For a free 5×7 of any of my photos, what song does the title of this post reference, who is the artist, and what town was it written in?

Here is the first installment!  Due to very low internet locations the posts are not as often as I thought they would have been, but that’s not to say that the time here has been without adventure!  We’ve had a great time so far touring Belfast, the eastern seaboard, climbing among some of the mountains, and connecting with friends not seen for quite some time.  The engagement session will be coming later, but it was one of the only no-cloud sunny days in Ireland (they said you can count the number of days this nice on one hand!).  However, the light was harsh (as all you photographers can imagine), so we worked with what we got!

Waiting for Bruce to pickup his rental car, the groom (Aidan) and I have a rest on the LEFT side of the road!

Above, we had a picnic before hiking around Silent Valley in the mountains, and directly before the engagement session.

Here we are sitting down to a great meal of Indian food at a Belfast restaurant called Indy.  This kicked off a small bachelor party for Aidan, of which a “clements-crawl” for coffee ensued directly after.

And tonight a took a walk up the CRAZY NARROW road to see the sight from the hill above Aidan’s house in Dundonald, just outside of Belfast.  It was beautiful, but I did have to cut the walk short as we had to head out.  I’ll post more soon!