Sarah Kelly is Store Manager at Darianna® Bridal & Tuxedo. After her now husband Tom proposed to her, she got busy planning her wedding. Like many brides, she quickly realized it wasn’t so easy to find the venue that met all their requirements.
On a whim, she typed a quick question into Google and the doors opened. Sarah wrote her story below and from the title you can probably guess, eloping in Ireland was the perfect option. Read on for some true inspiration!
The Engagement
When I first got engaged in July 2023, I thought that my now-husband and I would have such an easy time planning our dream wedding. I had been working in the bridal industry for a few years at that point, and I had been getting great advice and ideas from the brides I worked with. But much to my dismay, wedding planning is hard. Even when you work in the industry.
Our biggest hurdle was the very first task – finding a venue that could fit our 170 expected guests, felt like us, and that wouldn’t take up our whole wedding budget.
We got stuck on this step for over a year. Things were looking dark. In a moment of desperation sitting in the tuxedo area of the store, I googled “How to elope in Ireland,” and I struck gold.
“Why Ireland?” we always get asked. Because it’s where we got engaged!
It’s a remarkably beautiful island, Tom has a lot of family history and connections there, and it’s somewhere I knew I would be able to get my family to travel to.
The Company: Eloping In Ireland
With that impromptu Google search, I found a company called Eloping in Ireland that coordinates the:
- Venue
- Officiant
- Florals
- Photography
- Travel plans
In all honesty, sitting in the store looking at this website I got emotional. I finally felt hope that Tom and I would be able to have a fabulous wedding. After talking to our families, we decided that this was going to work.
I reached out to the company and things got moving quickly from there. Within weeks we had decided on a wedding date and venue, and we had also been connected with all of our vendors.
We chose an open-air stone church with ivy growing up some of the walls.
The church is part of Loughcrew Estate and was built in the 1600s. We had our ceremony in the family church of the last saint from Ireland. It is absolutely stunning and nothing like what we could find in the US.
The Legal Requirements Hurdle
The legal requirements of getting married are much easier to handle in the United States, so while planning this amazing Ireland wedding, we were also planning a small legal marriage ceremony with our closest friends and family to watch us officially get married.
We had this ceremony, which we lovingly referred to as ‘The Legalities’, on the same date as our Ireland ceremony but one year earlier – July 28, 2025. This was also the year we celebrated our 10-year dating anniversary, so it felt right to get legally married in 2025.
We had a small ceremony at the Playhouse Barn in New Hope, and we kept it intimate with 55 guests. Our college friend officiated the ceremony, my high school friend was our photographer, and my aunt and Tom’s best friends grew our wedding flowers. It was a really special way to include more people in our wedding without asking them to fly to Ireland. We ended the Legalities night with karaoke at Havana’s with our friends; we told them that whoever sang the first karaoke song would be singing our first dance song, and our officiant ran to sign up!
Eloping In Ireland: Planning Tools
Besides the elopement company, my biggest tool for planning my destination wedding was Google Maps and Google Streetview.
Because I wasn’t able to fly to Dublin to check out potential wedding dinner spots and hotel options, I spent hours looking at the city on Streetview, mapping distances, and reading reviews. I made Power Point presentations of hotel options, restaurant options for the Welcome Dinner, transportation companies, etc. and got feedback from Tom and our families. With lots of show-and-tell style conversations, we were able to build our dream wedding together.
Packing My Dress & Accessories
Packing my wedding dress and all my wedding-day accessories was something that I was a little worried about. Turns out, it was much easier than I imagined!
I wore Sarie by Madi Lane, an A-line gown with glitter tulle and lace appliques.
I knew that I wanted to have my wedding day supplies in my carry-on. There was no way I was going to put this in my checked bag and risk it getting lost. In my carry-on suitcase, I was able to pack my:
- wedding dress
- welcome dinner dress
- wedding purse
- jewelry
- veil
- ceremony items
In my backpack, I had my:
- wedding shoes
- welcome dinner shoes
- welcome dinner purse
And I had space to spare
Everything else for my two weeks in Europe was stuffed into my checked suitcase, along with items for the hotel welcome bags. With a quick steam in the hotel room, my wedding dress and veil were ready for the wedding!
Eloping In Ireland!
Our actual wedding day in Ireland was truly more perfect than I could have asked for.
It had been three years since we got engaged, and our wedding day was absolutely worth the wait. Tom and I had 10 of our closest family members with us to celebrate. We had stunning weather, incredible vendors, and so many loving vibes around us. Tom left the hotel room while I was getting hair and makeup done, and our families helped us coordinate a first look outside of the hotel.
We all took a party bus together from Dublin to our wedding venue in County Meath. All of our vendors met us there and the fun began!
It was a very strange feeling being in this breathtaking old church getting married. Three years since we got engaged in Ireland, it was surreal to be back in the country, wearing a wedding dress, looking down the aisle towards the altar. The harpist began playing and I started the walk down the aisle that I had been dreaming about for three years.
Irish Wedding Ceremony Traditions
We chose to incorporate some Irish wedding traditions for a symbolic ceremony to pay homage to the country we were in and Tom’s heritage. We did Irish traditions of a handfasting ceremony, loving cup ceremony, and our guests rang bells when we were announced as Mr. and Mrs.
Before I knew it, Tom and I were walking back down the aisle together to a harp rendition of ‘I’m Gonna Be (5,000 Miles)’ by The Proclaimers.
Our guests explored the grounds of the estate and visited the coffee shop while Tom and I spent time with our photographer and videographer. We walked all around the church and the grounds getting pictures that look straight from a fairytale.
Photography was our most important vendor because so many of our friends and family did not come to Ireland with us. These photos are how we get to share our special day with our people, and we are so in love with the results. We got a sneak peak back while we were still on our honeymoon!
The Reception Dinner
We party-bussed back into Dublin for dinner at Hawksmoor, an upscale steakhouse in an old bank building. Dark wood, moody lighting, and a gorgeous dome ceiling provided the perfect atmosphere for our wedding dinner. With delicious food served family-style, we spent hours talking and laughing with our guests. It felt really special to have meaningful time and conversations with the people who were the most influential in our lives and getting us to this point.
We enjoyed the night with some cocktails and strolling through the streets of Dublin back to our hotel. When we had finally gotten to the hotel, we knew that we had just had the most perfect wedding day!
Over the next two days we all went our separate ways. Some family members headed home, some went to explore other parts of Ireland. Tom and I went to Belgium for our honeymoon!
Looking back at our wedding day now that we are two months past it, there is not a single detail I would change. There are no regrets except that I didn’t find the elopement company sooner. Everything from the Welcome Dinner, to the ceremony add-ons, to the party bus, was worth all of the time we poured into planning this. We had a one-of-a-kind ceremony to honor 11 years of being together. It was genuinely reflective of who we are as a couple. We created lasting memories with our parents and siblings. And Tom and I finally had the wedding of our dreams.
Legal Process
American couples wishing to have a legal ceremony in Ireland, there is a legal process requiring much additional documentation. It is easier to obtain your legal marriage certificate in the United States and plan the way we did it. You do not need to worry about residency requirements, finding original documents, etc.
Once you have your marriage license, you can choose from multiple types of ceremonies such as those with religious elements or spiritual ceremonies. You can choose your location for an indoor or outdoor ceremony. Look at one of their historic castles or private estates, a forest clearing, or like we did – an old stone church.
Truth be told, if you are looking at European destinations for your wedding ceremony, make sure to consider getting married in Ireland!