married man and woman hugging on cliffs of Moher in Ireland
Wedding at Cliffs of Moher

CLIFFS OF MOHER

Great day at Cliffs of Moher wedding in Doolin Hotel with Sinead and Patrick. They love and happiness can be easily seen in below photos. I can not describe how easy it was to fit into this wedding their laid back manners makes you feel like you know them for a long time. That makes photographing much more comfortable. It was amazing to hear ” we don’t mind Darek “:) on most of my questions. Sinead happily take shoes off and went up the hill for some photos it shows their strong connection to nature. I can not forget to mention this amazing dress completed with even more amazing flower crown Sinead wear. Just out of this world. Simple and beautiful. Ceremony in a marque at Doolin Hotel grounds following drink reception in the same place makes all-day super cool. We managed to slip out for quick paint of Guinness and ..chips yes chips into the local pub. It was great to get away for a few moments and get even more photos in a nice old pub nearby.

From couples: Darek we cannot thank you enough for how kind and relaxed you were – it really made the day for us!!! Thanks from the bottom of our hearts. I can only add it was a pleasure to witness your amazing ceremony and be along with you that day.

HOW DID YOU PICK YOUR WEDDING VENUE: HOTEL DOOLIN

For Cliffs of Moher wedding, we looked into a few ‘Pinterest perfect’ venues in other parts of the country but nothing compared to the warm welcome we got at Hotel Doolin and the natural festival style you got in their garden and marquee. We liked that they could host the whole day from ceremony to midnight feasts and into the next day BBQ. Having lived in the UK since I left for Edinburgh in 2005 It was tricky to decide where we would want to get married. But the draw was back home to the beautiful County Clare where I grew up. It was the perfect opportunity to get our friends and Paddy’s family over to share the country that we have both grown to love.  We wanted a relaxed, easy-going wedding so wanted to find a venue that reflected this. Hay bale seating & dividing wall for the ceremony: Supplied by Hotel Doolin

THAME AND DECOR

It was important to us to have family and friends involved here where possible, although this was tricky since we were planning the wedding from the UK. But we were lucky enough to have some lovely long time family friends to make a few things; the cakes – a traditional fruit cake and the legendary chocolate biscuit cake that made the cut for nearly every party we had growing up and to this day; the beautiful table numbers by my cool ‘arty’ aunt; the ring bag for warming of the rings crocheted by my ‘English mammy’ and detail added by my actual mammy as we chatted about life the night before the wedding. My lovely sister sang ‘How long will I love you’ by Ellie Goulding acoustic with the harpist Elaine, and readings were read by a close friend, our mothers and an Irish blessing was read by a neighbour at the end of the ceremony. My aunt sam stood up to say a few off the cuff words about us both which were really special.

The overwhelming realisation when standing hand in hand with Paddy at the Cliffs of Moher wedding ceremony that everyone there was rooting for us and feeling so energised from their smiles. From that moment on, we didn’t worry about a single thing.

I had planned to make much more than I could, in the end we only had the time to provide a few touches rather than creating the whole thing from scratch. Being quite a creative, it was hard to not manage to ‘create’ the whole day ourselves, but it turned out that being able to let go a bit provided us with the most perfect day and reflected ‘us’ so well without all the stress. As a lesson learned, my advice to other brides and grooms would be to just try to let go of the stresses over the very minor details, and trust in the day to shape itself, because its means you can really enjoy the end result and put the energy into the things that really count.

LOVE STORY

We were linked always by our mutual friend Ursula; I lived above her at halls in our first year at University in Edinburgh, and she worked with Patrick in a bar and then went on to live with him in a flatshare the following year. It was only 4 years later that we actually met on a night out; Ursula had been telling us about who she was moving in with and said that one of the guys was out with his friends so we should go meet them. We managed to find them and Ursula introduced me to ‘Paddy’, we had a little boogy and managed to accidentally smash our faces into each other…due to our impressive dance moves. He left to go back to his friends but I couldn’t stop thinking about him and his sparkly eyes and ridiculous dance moves, so with an overwhelming force of nature (or whatever you want to call drink induced confidence) I snuck away and found him, tapped him on his shoulder and when he turned around I kissed him straight away! No words, just a kiss, and then I walked away again! The next day I was mortified but I still had a feeling that I did the right thing and had the good kind of butterflies in my tummy.

A couple of weeks later after I returned from a uni trip to Berlin, I checked Facebook (back in the days when you had to wait to get home to check you Facebook!) and Paddy had sent me a friend request…another kiss at a party and a cosy first date at the Edinburgh Christmas market and the rest is history!

Paddy’s words: We took a trip to Denmark for our 6th anniversary of us getting together; since on our first date we had been to the Christmas Market in Edinburgh and our combined love of all things Scandinavian, we knew we had to visit the Tivoli Christmas Market in Copenhagen. After the Christmas market mooch, we ended up at a trendy waterside street food market, complete with great music, drinks and open fires inside. I had been planning to ask Sinead to marry me on the trip but to my dismay, she had made a couple of jokey comments about expecting a proposal on the run to the trip and again earlier in the day, so I had put off the moment of popping the question until she was least expecting it. A couple of hours into the night a huge storm, with gale-force winds battering the city, had arrived and one of the guys working the bar advised that the trains and subway were all closed down because of this and that people should make their way home before it got much worse. As we left I knew it was now or never. With the wind howling, I suggested to Sinead that we walk over to the bank of the river again and she looked at me like I had gone mad. I managed to convince her that it was a good idea, and when she turned back from the water I was down on one knee. I succeeded in surprising her! We then made our way back through the storm to the apartment we were staying in, windswept and wet but happy!

BEST SUPPLIERS AT THE WEDDING IN CLIFFS OF MOHER

Dress:  Bespoke dress from Jenny Lessin Bridal in London

Bridesmaids dress: Niamh O’Neill 

Shoes: Hōgal grey suede pumps

Flowers: Daisy Days Flowers by Shirley

Groom(smen)’s suits: Groom – Moss Bros ‘Tailor Me’ service in Donegal

Accessories: Pearl Earrings gifted from my mother, Fox Cufflinks were a gift from Patricks grandfather 

Cake: Made by family and friends; Traditional fruit cake made by a neighbour and iced in simple style by her cake decorator friend, White chocolate biscuit cake made by a family friend. Cakes topped with flowers by florist

Stationery: Printable Rustic Wedding Invitation and Wedding Suite in the ‘Anne & Oliver’ Range by ‘The Printable Shop’ on Esty. Custom designed online and printed in Bath, the UK by local independent printers called Lovestruck

Makeup: Niamh Cavanagh 

Hair: Bridget Haren

Wedding Bands: Tadgh O’Flynn Jewellers

Ceremony Music: Elaine Hogan

DJ/ Reception Music: Bespoke Music Solutions

Stylist: Louise Eustace from Grace Events

Table numbers; Handmade calligraphy numbers by my Aunt, natural wooden holder by Louise (Grace Events)

Ring Bag/ pouch for warming of the rings: Crocheted by close family friend and detail added by my mam the night before while we were chatting about life

Humanist Celebrant: Bridget Carlin