Husband and wife photographers from Cork are like two peas in a (tri)pod 

Irene on Ray

I met Ray in 2002 when I started a job in a shop on Coburg Street called Color Foto. 

The store was a photo lab where they printed pictures using handprinting techniques. 

I collected work from the shop he worked in at the time, McSweeny’s photoshop. 

I called in every morning and afternoon for around eight months collecting and dropping off work we developed for them. 

We used to have the odd chat but nothing major. 

Then Color Foto closed down and I thought nothing more about Ray. 

We used to bump into each other on Patrick Street the odd time but he said I was a snob and passed him on!

I got a phone call in late 2002 from the owner of McSweeny’s offering me a job in the Merchants Quay branch and I accepted. 

I started working there shortly after and my manager was Ray.

We hit it off straight away. We just clicked immediately. He was so hilarious and had a fantastic personality. 

Ray was one of the most laid-back people I had ever met. 

On a work night out I told him straight out that he was the one for me and he asked me out to dinner.

We went to an Italian in Douglas. Here we chatted for hours. That was when I knew for definite that we were made for each other. 

He asked me to go to his sister’s wedding shortly after that and I did. 

The funny thing is the photographer took a family picture at the wedding and I refused to get into it in case we broke up. We still laugh about it 18 years later.

After meeting Ray, I now truly believe in fate. 

I was supposed to go to Tralee to study microbiology, but I took a year out to work and I loved the working environment, so I never pursued the college route. Ray was thinking of emigrating to Spain before I got offered the job in McSweenys but never went.

After our first date we were inseparable, and we are still always together. 

We moved in together in 2005 and went to live in Riverstick to help Ray pursue his dream of swimming the English Channel which he achieved in 2006.

In Christmas 2006 Ray proposed. The poor man, I thought he was going to collapse. We got married in 2008 in Springfort Hall in Mallow. 

This year is our 15 year wedding anniversary.

In March 2010 our beautiful son Rhys came into our lives making our family complete. We are still as happy today. 

We have a wonderful happy home and we have built a fantastic wedding photography business together in Douglas.

Ray is still as laid back now as he was back then, and I couldn’t have picked someone more perfect for me because I’m the total opposite to him.

One of my favorite quotes from weddings is “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind” by Bernard Baruch.

Ray on Irene

My first encounter with Irene was when I worked in a famous photoshop on Marlboro Street. 

Irene was working in a photography lab on Coburg Street and she used to call in to collect professional films to be developed.

She would call in the mornings and breeze in like a breath of fresh air, always looking beautiful with her make-up done to perfection. 

Her handbag was a sling across her body and she had a fringe cut. All she had to do was say “morning” and I was speechless. 

This went on for about a year or so. I used to salute her on Patrick Street but it was one-way traffic. I told myself I had no chance. 

She was way out of my league. Then Irene finished work in the lab and came to work where I was working.

We both ended up in the second shop in Merchants Quay, working together side by side. She was in a different league.

Unknown to me — because I’m slow in the uptake — I was head over heels for Irene. She is addictive. Things began to develop.

We went for a meal together in Douglas one summer evening. It was unreal to be out with this specimen.

We were going strong and moved in together

We haven’t left each other’s side in almost 20 years. We got married in 2008 and have a beautiful son Rhys who is 13. 

We have our own wedding photography business now and it’s down to Irene. Anyone that meets Irene is infected by the addiction.

And still to this day she is out of my league.