Wedding Dress Shoot in the Cooley Mountains, Ireland
Violet and Nick are two perfect soulmates you read about in novels. Coming from two completely different backgrounds (Violet’s family is from Ukraine and Nick grew up in MIchigan) they found middle ground in Ireland – well, almost. Nick was doing his internship in Dublin for 3 months when a mutual friend introduced him to Violet but they never got a chance to meet before he had to leave back for the States! In this day and age the Internet sometimes makes impossible connections, so they added each other on Facebook and started chatting. They soon realised how well they clicked and talked online for almost 18 months every single day! Violet says they missed just 2 days, and she still remembers them!
When Nick finally made it back to Ireland Violet met him at the airport and they’ve been inseparable since. 2 years later they went on an annual heritage trip to Arranmore Island – Nick’s family had been one of the immigrants to leave Ireland during potato famine and settle in Michigan, so this place has a special significance for Nick. They were taking a picture together in the rain so Violet went to the camera to adjust the settings, only to turn around and see Nick standing on one knee! She says she had expected him to propose but definitely not when she was drenched and cold! Lost for words, she managed a nod, and the couple started planning their wedding.
With Nick having quite a large family in the States, they decided it was easier to have the celebrations in Michigan. Both young and crazy in love, they didn’t have a lot of money saved but wanted to have an amazing day with their friends and family so they had to get creative. They got in touch with the local church who let them use their communal space. Violet made her own veil, single-handedly baked a 4-tier cake the day before the wedding and put together Christmas-style bouquets for her and her bridesmaids while Nick decorated the venue with birch and cedar logs, lots of candles and even made a hockey-themed bar with beer flowing freely! The whole family helped cook the food for wedding reception. The only thing the couple didn’t anticipate was a crazy snow storm that decided to hit Michigan on their wedding day, so half the guests couldn’t make it to the wedding! Violet says she was still perfectly delighted with the day, and her only regret is not having a professional photographer to capture all the fun. So it made perfect sense to have their wedding portraits taken in Ireland, the country that brought them together and that also happened to not have all the snow! Perfect conditions for a wedding dress shoot.
We chose to do the session in the Cooley Mountains, where Violet and Nick are now raising their beautiful baby daughter. With the first hint of spring, the cherry blossoms were finally out and I was excited to put together a bouquet for the shoot – being a florist can be really fun for once! And so we were off for our wedding dress shoot, admiring the gorgeous scenery and scaring a few sheep – the perfect Irish pasttime!
