Chapter 10 #2
She catches me looking. ‘I’m only five-foot-one and my Jimmy’s six-foot-three so I need the heels.
However, I was crippled. Couldn’t even dance, so Jimmy ran back and grabbed my flippers.
Now, normally I don’t get out of bed for less than a million euro!
’ She struts a few steps comically swinging her ample hips left to right. The crowd all laugh.
‘Go Ka-te! Go Ka-te! Go Ka-te!’ someone chants as they click their fingers and Kate keeps strutting in a circle then stops beside the bride.
‘Of course you can take our pictures, how exciting.’ The bride playfully juts her hip to move Kate out of her way.
‘Move it, Ashley Graham. I’m Aisling by the way and this here is my .
. .’ Aisling indicates to the crowd who all start to perform some sort of drum roll action, on top of the big barrels, on window ledges, on the red castle door.
‘. . . husband, Aaron!’ A huge roar startles me.
‘Sorry, it’s a tradition around Heartwell village that the first time one of us introduces our husband or wife as such it’s a big deal,’ Aisling explains, still radiating happiness from her every pore.
I’m completely taken aback. This must be what a community feels like.
This closeness. A feeling of true belonging, almost like one big family.
It’s the kind of thing I read about in books as a kid and always hankered for – a place where kids grew up together and stayed into adulthood.
It’s amazing to me. I’m suddenly envious. I want this.
‘Brilliant,’ I say, trying to focus on the job at hand, ‘so if I can just get some shots of you guys as you were? I don’t want you to pose, I want it to be authentic, natural, real.
’ I fix the long strap of the camera around my neck and adjust it, flick the key light on. ‘Just pretend I’m not here.’
‘Like J-Lo, wha’? All natural, my arse!’ Kate yells, shakes her backside and they all erupt. Again, I feel a silly longing to be a part of a community like this.
‘Jenny from the Block, Kate from the Well!’ another voice screeches.
‘I will have to ask you all to sign release forms which enables me to use your images, our conversation, the pictures in the magazine if my photo editors choose to use them?’ I pull the pages from my satchel, hand them out.
‘No bother at all.’ Aaron takes them from me, his hands like shovels I notice. His laughter lines crinkle as I click on my Dictaphone to record.
‘How did it feel today to celebrate your marriage at Castlemoon?’ I want to get them at their freshest and in real time. Real emotions in the moment.
‘Like we have a special power,’ Aisling says, leaning in close to the hand-held device, beaming from ear to ear. She lifts Aaron’s hand, still in hers.
‘Unbreakable,’ Aaron shouts.
‘But seriously, we know just how lucky we are. I couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else,’ she says dreamily, before she stops herself.
‘Kate . . .’ She looks to the smaller woman in the purple dress and flip-flops while reaching her spare hand to her.
Kate takes it but her eyes darken a little with a sudden downturn of her mouth.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Kate says with a toss of her wrist, but there’s a distinct look of longing on her face.
‘Not all of us are this lucky. We all want to marry in Castlemoon, but not all of us can. Like all the others that have gone before us, we know marriage isn’t all chilled wine and yellow roses, it’s about compromise, respect, loyalty, and a life-long companion.
Support. Looks fade, skin creases, energy dips but love remains the same.
’ Aisling looks like a magazine cover as snowflakes fall around her, sticking to her hair.
I’m not feeling the cold myself my adrenaline is so high as I click away.
‘I first met Aaron in Castlemoon when we were kids at a communion party. We grew up together and, like Esther and Michael, we hope to grow old together.’ Before I can ask who Esther and Michael are, I swiftly put the Dictaphone in my bag, so that I can capture more pictures.
Then, I pluck it back out again and start recording.
‘But it’s fierce expensive to marry here now. As Ais says we’re very lucky, my construction business is booming so we have the money. We’ll get the blessings.’
‘And what exactly are those blessings?’ I ask from behind the camera, zooming in.
‘The blessing of longevity. Of not giving up on a marriage. The blessing of a lasting union. All those who married here before us worked very hard at their unions, my mam and dad, Aisling’s mam and dad .
. .’ Aaron lets go of his wife’s hand as he says the word dad, then pulls her close to him, his arm snug around her slim waist. ‘And Aisling’s grandparents, we’re very lucky.
’ The newlyweds look at one another like star-crossed lovers.
‘I am one hundred percent using that quote.’ I smile so widely.
‘Work away.’ Aaron smiles back.
‘And you, Kate?’ I’m drawn to her reaction. I need to know her story. What her sad reaction was all about.
‘Me? Oh, I just wish we could afford to get married here,’ Kate says moving her feet in and out of her flip-flops. ‘But we can’t and although it really does break my heart, I’ll be grand. Sorry to be maudlin. Don’t mind me, that’s the gin talking. Shut up, Kate!’ she chastises herself.
‘Ah don’t, Kate, we’ll have a great knees-up out at your aunt’s hotel next weekend.’ The tall, thin man with the fiery red hair squeezes in behind her, drapes his arms around her shoulders from behind. Jimmy, I’m guessing.
‘It’s not the same as marrying at Castlemoon though, that’s all I’m telling Maggie here. We all know that. Name me one couple in Heartwell village that got married in the castle and are now divorced?’ Kate turns to look up at Jimmy, her two hands out wide.
‘None.’ Jimmy shrugs.
‘None, exactly. Not one! Plenty who married elsewhere are divorced or separated but I believe the castle holds some magic that keeps couples together. We all do. I think it’s the magic of the true love that Esther and Michael have.
They were the first to hold their wedding reception in Castlemoon, and they sprinkled some kind of permanent love potion.
I’ll be the only child in my family not to marry here, but sure look it.
’ Kate’s tone abruptly lightens at the end and it doesn’t take a genius to work out she is trying to distract Jimmy from her fears.
She stands on her tippy toes as he bends down and she plants a kiss on his lips.
‘Of course we will be grand, Jimmy, don’t mind me.
I’d marry you in a stable, it’s just the beautiful day we’ve all shared here at the castle, makin’ me loose lipped.
Next thing you’ll all be calling me Mary,’ she says, but her eyes well up all the same.
‘And the gin, nothin’ wrong with that.’ Jimmy laughs, playfully rolls his eyes to the crowd then gently wipes her tears with his thumbs and kisses her again.
‘So, you truly believe in the everlasting marriage folklore?’ I ask Kate, intrigued.
‘We all do!’ a voice from the back shouts.
‘It’s not folklore, it’s a fact!’ Aaron says with a sharp nod of his head as murmurs of agreement ring out again behind him from the young crowd.
‘Aeis-a-ling! Aar-hon! Lar from the post office is wanting to sing “Fairytale of New York” for you, he’s up at the microphone.
’ A pregnant woman with the most beautiful French accent arrives beside them.
She looks like elegance personified in her black maternity smock, a white side hat and red pumps.
‘Okay! Sorry! Go! Just quickly let me take these pictures, just all talk as you were, take the selfies and all that, I just want to capture it all.’ I set the lens of the camera up to my eye, peering through to frame them.
And in fairness to them all, not one of them plays it up for the camera.
A very true bunch of people. Very rare in this day and age.
‘Come on! Mary has to do the Kirsty McColl part and she needs get back inside to the kitchen. The next batch of mushroom vol-au-vents and the sausage rolls are ready. The afters people have all arrived now. They’ll need sustenance soon.’ Another voice fades off from the back.
I continue to snap away, circling the group, thankfully seeing through the lens what I saw inside in the Sweet Orange Room moments ago, through that Venetian window earlier: something magical.
The sparkling night stars above in the clear back sky, the falling snow in front of the two towering turrets of the magnificent castle, the tenderness, the happiness, the wizardry of this love and this place, the wonderful sense of a community celebrating one of their own – I capture it all.
Then, with my head bent and one eye squeezed shut, I spot him from the viewfinder.
Dan.
Leaning against the castle door, one leg bent behind him, watching on quietly.
I twist the focus pull, zoom in. Again, my heart accelerates like a rapid drumbeat.
I can feel it pounding in my chest. God, but he is drop dead gorgeous.
I click, take a quick shot of him. He seems to sense me looking over and he stares down the lens, but those chestnut brown eyes that I almost drown in are filled with sadness.
I take a sharp intake of breath. What has happened to this man? Why sometimes does he look so sad?
‘Oh! Thank you everyone!’ I spurt, jump back to the moment. I pull the camera down by my side, as they all shout back, ‘No bother’, ‘Yer welcome, Maggie’, and head inside, out of the cold.
‘Plenty of food on the way, do drop in if you feel like it, you’re most welcome,’ Aisling calls back over her lace-covered shoulder to me. Dan is swallowed up in the crowd as Jimmy wraps his arm around Dan’s shoulders and pulls him inside.
‘Thank you,’ I call back watching the bride and groom leave hand in hand.
What must it be like to love someone that much, and for it to be reciprocated?
I put the lens cap back on the camera. Yes, I’m sworn off love but this day has me all discombobulated.
I try to imagine what it would be like to make a vow to someone to be with each other for life, and truly believe we will keep it.
To feel that loved and respected? I’m far more moved than I expected to be.
I take another quick look at the camera, clicking across to see my shots and they are great.
Oh my God, I think. My work will appear in the June edition of Ultimate Locations Wedding Magazine. Who knows, I might even get to see my very own cover on a magazine stand? Isn’t that amazing? It’s a dream come true. I’m so, so lucky. So blessed.
As the snow continues to fall, I take a second and perch on the low grey stone wall.
The noise from the wedding is intoxicating.
Is there a better sound in the world than the laughter of people?
Still, I can’t help but see Dan’s dark eyes in my mind’s eye.
Then, my stomach rumbles and it sounds like distant thunder, so I shake him off and head back inside to scoff my steak.
Despite my happiness about how my article is coming along, I can’t stop thinking about Kate and her utter disappointment at not being able to marry at Castlemoon. I wish there was something I could do to help.