Bealtaine ’25 she wrote a letter to a man she hadn’t met yet.
Bealtaine ’26 she married him.
The letter she threw in the Bealtaine fire
A year before this wedding, Candy went to the Bealtaine fire festival — the old Irish festival of beginnings, light, threshold — and wrote a letter. The letter was addressed to a partner she hadn't met yet. She described him line by line. Someone who'd be her quiet. Her rest. Her shelter. Her companion. She threw the letter in the fire. She told the fire — and herself — that by the next Bealtaine, she'd be married to him.
In August she met James on Tinder. They chatted for a week. On their first date she looked at him, didn't wait for hello, and kissed him. They both knew. They told each other, later, that they'd both known that first night.
He proposed on Halloween. She jumped on him again. The date was the only thing they didn't need to discuss: Bealtaine. May 2nd, 2026 — exactly one year, to the day, from her letter.
A DIY Wicklow forest wedding that felt like a film
The wedding was almost entirely DIY and somehow still felt like a film. The morning began with a handfasting ceremony in Massy's Woods, that beautiful tangle of forest just south of Dublin — bilingual, in Portuguese and English, conducted by their wonderful celebrant Kamila Simplicio. Hands tied with a ribbon. Words said into the trees. A small circle of people who'd been chosen, not invited.
The civil ceremony followed at Arklow Bay Hotel — the legal piece, the signing, the registrar, the two witnesses. The kind of ceremony I love photographing because the formal part of the day is, in its own way, just as cinematic as the woods were. The light is different, the room is different, but the look on the couple's faces is the same. This is happening. This is real now.
Dinner and a long, loud party. The Trips playing late, Candy singing to James in front of everyone, Karen's cake gone in about twelve minutes (anyone who's catered a wedding will laugh; nobody else will believe it). The hours blurred. The DIY held together. The film of the day kept making itself.
The sentence I'll keep for the rest of my life
James was a little wary about a photographer following him around. A lot of grooms are. The camera, for someone who isn't used to it, can feel like one more thing performing the day at you. I gave him space. I worked the edges. I waited for the moments he wasn't braced for.
By the end of the day James was telling me — telling everyone — that I'd been capturing exactly their love. That I'd seen moments and angles others wouldn't have. That sentence belongs to him now. I'll keep it in my pocket for the rest of my life.
If you're planning a Wicklow forest wedding, a handfasting, or a Bealtaine ceremony of your own — and you want a queer-friendly Dublin wedding photographer who'll disappear into the trees and come back with the day exactly as it happened — that's the work I love most.
Coverage · Full-day photo, Wicklow + Dublin
Ceremony · Handfasting at Massy's Woods + civil at Arklow Bay Hotel
Celebrant · Kamila Simplicio · @kamilasimplicio.celebrant
Film partner · Oak and Oak · @oakandoak (Arthur Janowiski)
Band · The Trips
