The glow in the old house at Killashee

Killashee began as a hunting lodge. The Moore family built it just outside Naas in 1861, a Victorian take on a Jacobean house, all steep gables, stone pinnacles and a tower. In 1927 they sold it to the La Sainte Union sisters, a French order, who ran it as a convent and boarding school, and in 1998 it was sold again and became the hotel it is today. Lauren and Seán's film opens from the air, which is the best way to see the whole story at once: the old house at the front, the hotel that grew up behind it, and parkland all round.

We filmed their wedding on a bright summer's day. They got ready in the hotel bedrooms and married in church, and the rest of the day came back to Killashee: drinks in the sun, portraits in the gardens, then dinner and dancing in the Thomson Suite. The part we keep coming back to happened in one room in the old house, in about ten minutes, just before Lauren left for the church.

For ten minutes before the church, that room did our job for us.

The room in the old house

It is one of the rooms in the original house that Killashee uses for ceremonies: teal walls with panels picked out in cream and gold, brass sconces, heavy gold drapes and old floorboards polished to a shine. It would be a handsome room on any day. With the sun in it, it glows. The light came through the tall windows and lay across the floor in long warm bars, and the boards bounced it back up, so it lit faces softly and from below in a way no lamp we own can match. The teal and the gold warmed it again. Lauren's veil spread across the floor and caught all of it.

When a room does that, the job is to stay out of its way. Lights off, camera back, and let the light and the people around her get on with the veil. Most of what you see in that part of the film is exactly what the room gave us.

It is also why we would tell any couple marrying here in summer to ask the wedding team for a room in the old house for the last half hour before you leave. Bedrooms are practical, comfortable and full of suitcases. The dress, the veil and the first time your family sees you deserve a room like this one.

Back from the church

Killashee suits a summer afternoon. The drinks reception spilled out into the sun, with a giant Connect Four on the lawn, the flower girls in charge of everything, and three singers in cherry-print dresses who had Lauren dancing before dinner.

For portraits we took the two of them through the formal gardens, along gravel paths between clipped box and past the white gazebo, with the gables of the old house behind them. Later the sun was low and gold, and the garden had the same glow as the room in the old house.

Dinner in the Thomson Suite

Dinner was in the Thomson Suite, under its arches and eight chandeliers. It takes 100 to 250 guests, and for us the best thing about it is that the dance floor is separate from the tables, with its own stage. The band has room, the floor fills quickly, and we can film the dancing without filming the backs of chairs.

Here is their day, start to finish.

Worth asking before you book

• Ask for a room in the old house. Bedrooms are for getting ready. The last half hour, the dress and the veil, looks far better in one of the old rooms, and on a sunny day the light does the rest.
• Thomson Suite or the Manor House? The Thomson Suite takes 100 to 250, with a minimum of 150 on a Friday or Saturday. The Manor House is for 40 to 80 guests, Sunday to Thursday only, and your guests take all twelve of its suites.
• Plan the day around the sun. Tell us your date and we'll tell you when the light turns gold, so the garden walk lands at the right time.
• Keep twenty minutes for the gardens. When the sun is low, the box hedges and the gazebo are the best-looking backdrop at Killashee.
• Say yes to the drone. The film opens with Killashee from the air, the clearest way to see the old house, the hotel and the parkland together.

And if you are still working out the budget, here is what a wedding videographer costs in Ireland.

Killashee has more than a century and a half of history and a ballroom for 250, and what we remember most is ten minutes of sunlight in a teal room. That happens a lot in our job. Plan the day around the light, and the rest has a way of looking after itself.