Mike & Cliona, Dromoland Castle, Ireland

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be a wedding photographer in beautiful British Columbia, and doubly so that I occasionally get to travel back to my homeland of Ireland to photograph a wedding there. BC has many wonderful venues, but one thing it lacks is castles! When it comes to the wow factor, you just can't beat a castle. Mike & Cliona celebrated their wedding at Dromoland Castle in County Clare. I often smile when people complain about how much it rains in Vancouver. I can tell you from years of experience that it rains a lot more in Ireland! So it felt like something of a miracle that for the two weeks surrounding Mike & Cliona's wedding it rained not once. Defintiely a good omen for a happy marriage.

In their own words:
"We did all the wedding stationery ourselves which meant we could have a theme and consistency that ran throughout the wedding. It was all based around purple ribbon. So it was on the mass booklets and we used it in the decorations in the church and for the reception and the cake, all the way through to the thank you cards. It was quite a bit of work but definitely worth it.
We also did all the flowers for the reception ourselves. We bought them in bulk from the flower market in Dublin, they looked amazing and gave the place our personal touch which was nice. We also had orchids on all the tables in the reception which isn't something I've seen anywhere else. We bought them all in the sale from Marks and Spencers after Christmas (you get some funny looks buying 50 Orchid plants in one go from M&S). Keeping them in bloom and healthy for two months was a bit stressful, but they looked amazing on the tables and giving them to friends and family after the reception was lovely. We kept a good few for ourselves and our house is still full of beautiful orchids that remind us of our special day."

Venue: Dromoland Castle
Flowers by: Lawless Flowers, Limerick
Dress by: David Felden
Kilts by: Geoffrey Tailor Highland Outfitters, Glasgow