Rock of Cashel Elopement by Livia Figueiredo Photography

Our beautiful couple today travelled all the way from Maryland, USA to elope in Ireland, we’re delighted to share their story and beautiful photos captured by Livia Figueiredo Photography.

After meeting on a dating website Elizabeth and Kevin met in a local bar. “We met at a very dirty bar on a Monday night, so it was almost empty and we were able to talk for a long time. Kevin seemed like he would be a good friend so we didn’t kiss that night. It took a couple more dates to realise I wanted to be more than friends. I knew he was the one for me three weeks in. It felt like there just wasn’t enough time in the world to spend with him. We were together as much as we could be even living an hour away from each other. We moved in together 10 months later,” explained Elizabeth.

After a relaxed proposal in St. Louis, Missouri during a huge work convention the couple began planning their perfect wedding.

“I asked Kevin if he wanted to get married at our local city hall or in Ireland. He immediately picked Ireland. Ireland is very special to me because my grandparents passed away a few years back and they love everything about Ireland and their heritage. It made me feel closer to them. I also picked my Grandmother’s birthday as our wedding date,” said Elizabeth.

“It took a lot of research and email communication to get married in another country. I originally wanted to get married at a castle. My favourite is the Blarney Castle. However, you cannot get married there, but you can take pictures. I found that to be the case at several other places that we liked. So we decided that we would get married at the Registrar’s Office in Cork and then go over to the Blarney Castle for pictures. We would also stop at other sites along the way back up to Dublin,” she added.

The day before their wedding, Storm Ophelia hit and this impacted on their Big Day.

“Blarney Castle had to close for the day for repairs, so we had to make up a Plan B and the make-up artist could not call us or drive to us from where she was so I ended up doing my own make-up with the help of my mom and photographer,” said Elizabeth.

“The highlight of the trip was just being together taking all those photos. It was nice to just be newlyweds and have fun. Kevin hates getting his picture taken, but he did a great job. Our photos look straight out of a magazine, you can really see the love and excitement. I felt beautiful and really took in the fact that we were in Ireland. I did not take that for granted,” she said.

Elizabeth’s Advice

It is incredibly difficult to plan a wedding overseas, but we did it and we had an amazing time. If that’s what you want to do, just make sure you ask a lot of questions. They may have additional information that you did not know about, especially the hotels. They were all great. We told them we were getting married and they put us up in the Penthouse Suite! That was so exciting for both of us.

Planning our reception back home was much more stressful because there were so many people and logistics to deal with, let alone decorations and such. We did have a great time there as well. I think the key to your reception is the DJ! Everyone danced right until the end.