Want to see what a destination wedding in Ireland looks like? Johanna and Graham’s The Millhouse wedding in Slane had everything I love about photographing weddings in Ireland: incredible people, sideways rain, flying veils, happy tears and one of the best dance floors I’ve ever photographed.
Johanna and Graham got married on a Monday. A MONDAY.
And honestly, after spending three days celebrating with their friends and family in Ireland, I think they might actually be onto something.
Johanna is Swedish, Graham is half Irish and half American, and together they somehow convinced their favourite people from all over the world to travel to the little village of Slane, Ireland, for one hell of a wedding weekend at The Millhouse.
And when I say one hell of a weekend, I mean it. There was a welcome party in Dublin on Saturday, a ridiculously fun welcome dinner on Sunday and the actual wedding on Monday. Because apparently one day of celebrating simply wasn’t going to cut it.
Now, you need to know something about these two. Johanna is basically laughter in human form. She’s loud, warm, funny, completely genuine and has the kind of energy that makes everyone around her feel like they’ve known her forever. Graham is a little quieter, blushes easily and looks at Johanna like she’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him. Which, to be fair, I think he might be right about.
And together with a guest list that was VERY ready to party, they gave us one of the most ridiculously fun weddings we’ve ever photographed.
There was Irish rain. A lot of Irish rain. There were flying veils, inside jokes, happy tears, Swedish candy, questionable dance moves and a dance floor so good we ended up working an extra hour because we genuinely couldn’t bring ourselves to leave.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with Sunday!
By Sunday evening, the wedding weekend was already VERY much underway.
Johanna and Graham had started the celebrations with a welcome party in Dublin on Saturday, and on Sunday everyone gathered at The Millhouse for dinner, drinks and what was supposedly the slightly calmer night before the actual wedding.
Spoiler: It was not calm.
There were Aperol Spritzes, speeches, people standing up and waving napkins in the air and Johanna and Graham very clearly living their absolute best lives. We ate what might genuinely have been the best béarnaise sauce I’ve ever had and spent the first part of the evening outside in the garden.
And then Ireland happened. The sky opened and the rain came down so hard that the entire party had to move inside.
Honestly, the perfect introduction to an Irish wedding weekend.
Johanna got an entire little house to herself for the morning, complete with a gorgeous two-storey loft, a yellow sofa and a huge painting of a crane that I became slightly obsessed with.
She got ready with her girls and her mum, with all the usual wedding morning chaos happening around her. And then came the gifts from Graham, a photo book, a camera and an incredibly beautiful letter that Johanna somehow managed to read without completely falling apart. (Well, almost.)
Meanwhile, Graham was getting ready inside The Millhouse with his best men. Bow ties, jackets, drinks, a lot of laughing and considerably less hairspray than on Johanna’s side of the morning.
Graham might be the slightly calmer half of these two, but surrounded by his favourite people and only a few hours away from marrying Johanna, there was absolutely no hiding how excited he was.
Before Graham got to see her, Johanna had a couple of other people to surprise first. She started with her bridesmaids, who reacted exactly as bridesmaids are supposed to react: tears, huge smiles and absolutely no attempt whatsoever to keep it together.
Then came a first look with her dad and brother, which somehow managed to make the morning even more emotional. A few tears, a lot of hugs, and then it was time to put on those incredible shoes and go find Graham.
Of course, by the time it was Graham’s turn, it was absolutely pouring outside.
So we moved the first look indoors, with Graham waiting at the top of the stairs in the ceremony room while Johanna quietly appeared underneat him.
And then he turned around. The way Graham looked at her, and then walked down those stairs towards her, was just ridiculously lovely. For a couple of minutes, the sideways Irish rain could do whatever the hell it wanted, because in that room, the sun was shining. (Ohhhh so cheeeesy but I love it.)
If you’re getting married in Ireland, you might as well REALLY get married in Ireland. Dark blue skies, ridiculously green hills, old ruins and weather that changed approximately every thirty seconds. We had veils flying off, umbrellas turning inside out and several emergency runs for cover when the rain came sideways again.
And our bride and groom? They laughed through the entire thing.
Because apparently losing your veil twice to the Irish wind is funny when you’re having the best day of your life. And honestly, looking at these photographs, I wouldn’t have wanted perfect weather anyway.
With the Irish weather still doing its thing outside, everyone gathered inside for Johanna and Graham’s humanist ceremony.
The room was packed with friends and family who had travelled from all over the world to be there, and Graham’s sister gave a beautiful speech during the ceremony. There were tears. There was laughter. There were more tears immediately followed by more laughter.
Which, for these two, felt exactly right. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, Johanna and Graham actually got married.
And suddenly, they were married!
Johanna and Graham disappeared inside The Millhouse for a minute while everyone else gathered outside to wait for them. The rain had even stopped, because apparently Ireland was willing to cooperate for approximately five minutes.
They came through the doors to a wall of cheers, waving arms and very excited friends. Except Johanna didn’t quite make it all the way through. The door closed behind them with her veil still firmly trapped inside.
Honestly, after having it blown off twice earlier in the day, the veil was clearly just trying to escape this wedding by any means necessary. Once we’d freed both Johanna and the veil, it was hugs, congratulations, bubbles and snacks all around.
We started with a few nice, sensible bridal party photographs. That lasted approximately three minutes.
Very quickly, the FRIENDS soundtrack became the inspiration and we had an entire group of people messing around by the fountain outside The Millhouse. At some point we even carried an ancient sofa outside, because apparently that seemed like a completely reasonable thing to do.
There was running, laughing, individual photos with all the bridesmaids and very little interest in behaving properly. Exactly my kind of bridal party.
And right on cue, the sun finally came out for the cake cutting. But honestly, the cake topper deserves most of the attention here. A tiny bride who looked suspiciously like Johanna, dragging a runaway Graham back by the collar? Accurate? I’ll let them decide.
Either way, sunshine, cake and a miniature Graham attempting to escape felt like a pretty excellent way to continue the afternoon.
With the sun apparently planning to stick around for a while, everyone stayed outside for cocktail hour. There were drinks, hugs, conversations and a whole collection of speeches that somehow managed to make people cry one minute and laugh their asses off the next.
And then someone started handing out Swedish candy, GENIUS!
Irish countryside, sunshine, emotional speeches and tiny bags of Swedish sweets. Johanna and Graham had basically managed to bring all their worlds together in one garden.
Before everyone came inside, we got a few minutes with the dinner room completely untouched. Johanna and Graham had kept everything light and soft, with pale blue hydrangeas, greenery and pastel details across the tables. The room itself is split across different levels, making it feel a little less like one enormous formal dining room and much more intimate.
And then the guests arrived! Johanna, Graham and their bridal party danced their way in wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, and from that point on the volume basically only went in one direction.
There were hilarious speeches, table games, people cheering across the room and several occasions where Johanna and Graham ended up standing on chairs or kissing underneath tables.
By the end of dinner, that perfectly arranged room from an hour earlier was long gone, exactly as it should be.
Once dinner was over, we snuck outside for one last little portrait session. The rain had finally given us a break, the sky was dark and The Millhouse was glowing behind us, so we played with fairy lights and all the warm little pockets of light around the grounds.
Completely different from the windswept, rainy portraits earlier in the day. Same Johanna and Graham though. Still laughing, still glowing.
And before we move on to what happened when this entire group hit the dance floor, I’ll let Johanna and Graham tell you what it was actually like having me there for all of it.
Not only is she an absolute legend when it comes to photography (quite obvious by scrolling though her portfolio), but she is also an amazing (and structured <3) human being. Even if it rains sideways and the wind is so strong that you lose you veil twice (yes, we got married in the most dramatic country on the planet, Ireland) – Martina will ensure that (1) your photos turn out AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL; and maybe most importantly (2) that you’re all ENJOYING EVERY SECOND while taking those pics!
So, if you have your wedding date set – make sure to lock in Martina asap. We can guarantee that if you do, you will be 100% satisfied. Period.
Technically, this looked like a sparkler exit, but in reality, everyone was just sending Johanna and Graham straight into the dance floor.
They ran through a tunnel of sparklers, headed inside for their first dance and somehow ended up playing the shoe game before a VERY large group of guests took over the stage and started singing.
”Give Me Hope Johanna, and Graham Too!”
Honestly, an absolute triumph! It was soooo good! And with that, the sensible part of the wedding was officially over.
I have photographed A LOT of wedding dance floors over the years, But THIS FUCKING DANCE FLOOR.
We had grandma absolutely owning it. We had bouquet tossing, breakdancing, Johanna and Graham being carried around on people’s shoulders and an entire room of people completely losing their minds. Every time I thought things couldn’t possibly get any more ridiculous, someone proved me wrong.
And the best part? EVERYONE was involved. Young, old, Swedish, Irish, American. Nobody was sitting politely in a corner waiting for an appropriate moment to leave. We were supposed to finish photographing an hour earlier, but we didn’t.
Because how the hell are you supposed to put your cameras away when THIS is happening right in front of you? I’ve photographed hundreds of weddings, and I can confidently say this was one of the most ridiculously epic wedding parties I’ve ever experienced.
Johanna and Graham, you absolute legends.