Built for a wedding: Ballykealey House

Ballykealey House sits just outside Ballon in County Carlow, a few minutes off the road between Carlow town and Bunclody. It began as a large farmhouse. Then John James Lecky married Sarah Lucia Smith, and in 1830 he had the place rebuilt for her as a Tudor Revival manor, with Thomas Cobden, the architect of Carlow Cathedral, drawing the plans. The house started with a wedding, and nearly two hundred years on, that is still the thing it does best.

It is an exclusive-use venue, and that changes the feel of a day more than any single room could. There is no other function in the building, nobody drifting through the hall from a conference, and in the evening the bar is entirely yours. For a film it means a day that belongs to one set of people from the first cup of tea in the morning to the last song.

A house built for one wedding in 1830 still knows exactly how to hold one.

Four ways to say the words

Ballykealey gives you more ceremony choices than most houses its size, and each one films differently.

• The tulip tree. A hundred-year-old tulip tree stands on the lawn, one of the oldest in Ireland, and a ceremony beneath it has the house behind you and open sky above. In summer the canopy takes the glare off everyone's faces, which is a gift at a two o'clock ceremony.
• The fountain. Your guests sit in a circle around the fountain, so every face is turned towards you, and we can film from the edge of the ring without stepping into anyone's eyeline. It is the friendliest shape there is for a ceremony.
• The barnyard. Part of the original Lecky farmhouse, with old stone on every side. It gives the film a texture that a marquee never can.
• The woodland. Vows under the oaks, a little way from the house. It is the quietest of the four, and the one where the sound of the place, birdsong and the wind in the leaves, ends up in the film.

Indoors, the Oak Room and the Garden Suite take the ceremony if the sky says no. If you are marrying in church, Ballon and Rathoe are ten minutes away, which is short enough that the drive barely dents the afternoon. We have written about how each kind of ceremony changes the day.

The morning in the courtyard

Behind the house, the courtyard holds fifteen self-catering lodges and two suites, and with the twelve bedrooms in the manor, around a hundred guests can sleep on the estate. For the film, the morning is where that pays off. The lodges have an open-plan kitchen and living room, so getting ready happens in one bright space with the people you want around you, and nobody is driving in from a hotel twenty minutes away. We can be with both of you in the same morning without a car journey in between, which at many venues is the hardest hour of the day to cover.

One roof for the evening

Dinner, the speeches and the dancing all happen in the one room, which sounds like a small thing and is not. Nobody has to be moved after dessert, the band sets up while the tables are still full, and the evening keeps its momentum. Speeches in a room built for them also sound better, and we record three copies of every word regardless.

The food has a reputation of its own. The kitchen is a Good Food Ireland member, and it comes up in review after review from couples who married here.

Summer light at Ballykealey

Ciara and Danny married here in summer, and the teaser at the top of this page is theirs. A summer date in Carlow means sunset after nine, so the golden light arrives late in the evening, usually as the speeches are ending or the band is setting up. We'd ask for ten minutes then, down by the fountain or under the tulip tree with the house glowing behind you, and we'll tell you the exact time on the day once we've seen the sky.

What we'd say before you book

• Decide the ceremony spot last, not first. The tulip tree and the fountain are open to the sky, the woodland is sheltered, and the Oak Room is the fallback. Ask the team to walk you through the wet-weather plan before the morning, so the forecast is a detail rather than a worry.
• Fill the lodges with the people who matter in the morning. The courtyard makes the getting-ready hours easy to film and easy to enjoy. Put your parents and your wedding party there, and keep the manor bedrooms for the two of you.
• Keep the portraits short and close. The lawn, the fountain and the woodland are all a few minutes' walk from the drinks reception. Ten minutes after the ceremony and ten at golden hour is plenty.
• Have the dinner the night before. The house does a pre-wedding dinner in the Oak Room, and it is the best way for the two families to meet without the next day's nerves. You can see the difference the following morning in how relaxed everyone looks on film.

Ballykealey was built because somebody was getting married. Nearly two hundred years later, it is still what the house does best, and it shows in the film. If it is your venue, or sitting on your shortlist, we would be glad to talk through your plans.