We're delighted to be sharing details of a gorgeous and intimate Celtic wedding that's both steeped in tradition and ingeniously contemporary! Michelle and Richard returned from their home in Edinburgh to tie the (Celtic) knot in Temple House in Michelle's native homeland of Tubercurry, Co. Sligo. This couple have combined the best of all things Celtic to create a magical wedding that features lilac hoop bouquets, deep purple and grey Scottish tartan, a Celtic handfasting and cracking wedding partyu style! We hope you enjoy this stunning and unique Irish wedding, captured by Pawel Szustak, as much as we did!
We asked the lovely couple how they met, and Michelle tells us that it happened "many moons ago" in Edinburgh! The couple have been living together in Leith, Edinburgh, for ten years. She tells us they met "after a few too many shandies on a night out in the Cowgate. We've been side by side ever since." The proposal happened on Michelle's 30th birthday, while the couple were on a cruise holiday in Iceland. We're told there were, "tears, shock, laughter and an accidentally spilled bottle of water in Michelle’s crotch!"
The gorgeous wedding dress was Claire Pettibone's Kristene gown, which came from Bliss Studios, in Edinburgh. 
The couple decided to come back to Michelle's home for their big day and they just adored Temple House when they viewed it! "Temple House is so beautiful!" Michelle says. "It's really close to my family home and my grandparents' house, where my Dad and Grandad used to do work on the house for the Perceval family, who own it. It made the perfect sense to avail of such an incredible property right on the doorstep and to also support local businesses after such an tough year on the hospitality sector."
We asked Michelle and Richard for their advice for other engaged couples, and they said, "Stay true to yourselves, it can be really hard to remember that this is your day. Live and breathe every moment of the day that you have planned and don’t take anything too seriously. This truly will be the most special day, surrounded by your loved ones. Soak up all that energy in the lead up and on the day."
They add, "We stayed true to ourselves, it was the perfect West of Ireland meets Scotland on holidays-kind of vibe. A very Celtic affair with rain showers, hearty laughter, booze and electric energy."
The biggest challenge that this couple had to overcome in planning their wedding was Covid-19. "Planning a pandemic wedding is intense and incredibly stressful, but we made it and we persevered together," they tell us. "We could not have done it without each other's support and in the knowing that this was all happening as the beginning of the next chapter of our lives together."
How magical is the outdoor ceremony space at Temple House!?
The couple tell us that their highlight was, "just having the best people in the world make the effort to join us on our special day under such unusual circumstances and travels restrictions, it meant to world to us. Being allowed to have up to 50 guests was the most special gift, we cannot tell you how stressful the lead-up was, finding out we could have more than 25 guests 10 days before the wedding was elating!"
At this point, we've got to say a huge thank you to Pawel Szustak Photography for sharing this beautiful Celtic wedding and, of course, to Michelle and Richard for giving us an insight to their big day! There are more photos to obsess over in the gallery below!
