Getting a sense of each and every couple’s personality through their wedding choices is one of the best things about working at Mrs2Be. We love today’s couple’s sense of mischief, as they chose Dublin Zoo as their wedding venue. Click through to see their day, as captured by Roger Kenny from The Portrait Room.
Emma and Patrick first met in 2001 through their college drama society. Patrick was studying for a Masters, while Emma was completing a BA. The pair became best friends after working on a number of productions together, and seven years into their friendship, romance blossomed.
“In 2008 we both began to realise that our feelings for each other had changed and we became a couple. This was far less surprising to other people than it was to us! I think that because we already knew each other so well, as soon as we decided that we were a couple we knew that it was for keeps,” explains Emma.
Another three years passed before Patrick decided to pop the question in the historic city of Bath.
“I love Jane Austen and Bath is the setting for some of her books, as well as the home of the Jane Austen museum. Patrick researched romantic places in the area and settled on Prior Park just outside Bath to propose, which came as a complete surprise to me! On the walk to Prior Park I complained bitterly about the steepness of the hill we were walking up, why we were going outside of Bath on our first day when we hadn’t seen Bath yet and so on ..
Prior Park was stunning and we walked back down through it to the Palladian Bridge, one of only four left in the world. It was a crispy morning, very quiet and still. On the middle of the bridge, Patrick kissed me and said that he brought me here to ask me to marry him. I promptly burst into tears and spent the next five minutes sobbing without giving him an answer!” says Emma.
When it came to planning their Humanist wedding ceremony, Emma and Patrick chose the unique location of the Haughton House at Dublin Zoo.
“As we were getting married in autumn it seemed appropriate to have autumnal colours in abundance. My family and friends were vital in the planning process and helped out immensely. My friend Sue Gallagher designed the invitations, table plan and ceremony booklets perfectly to my wishes, while my parents drove me around Dublin looking for candle jars – they were easy to source but not in big numbers! My brother and Dad collected the logs for the tables and cut them to the right lengths. My uncle’s friend worked in the forestry and spent an afternoon collecting chestnuts in a year when there was a shortage of chestnuts!” adds Emma.
Patrick’s favourite memory: “Too many to mention, but when I look back at Roger’s photos, I immediately remember the excitement I felt when Emma arrived, and the feeling that there was no need for nerves, that this was going to be fun as well as solemn.”
Emma’s favourite memory: “I loved the whole day but particularly the ceremony. I love the Zoo; it’s one of my favourite places in Dublin. We spent a lot of time working on the wording and the music for the Humanist ceremony, it was so relaxed and fun and I didn’t feel nervous at all. It made saying “I do” to Patrick the easiest thing in the world.”
