We Did It!!!

After 8 years, we finally got married!

When we first started talking about a wedding in Ireland we decided to have a very simple wedding. So I bought a dress online and Andrew was going to wear the suit he already had. When the online dress finally arrived it turned out to be really ugly!! So onto plan B, it being April 30 (the busiest day for accountants and the day before we left) I got Mom to go shopping for me and we decided that if she found something she would call me and I would go out to meet her. So she called and she thought she found a dress. When I got to there I pulled a few dresses and fell in love with one. I think it is the complete opposite of what I thought I was looking for.

So because I had a beautiful dress, Andrew went and got a new shirt and tie.

Jim Slipp (an old partner from BDO) had sent an email of Ashford Castle to me when he found out we were getting married in Ireland. It has to be the most beautiful castle ever, but because we had decided to have a simple wedding we decided not to get married at a castle.

Two days before the wedding we decided that it would be nice to get a few professional pictures of us. So we found and booked a photographer. His name was Ik (pronounced "Ick"). Then we (me and Mom) decided it was a good idea to get someone to do my hair, because I am hair challenged.

Mom also suggested that we go to Ashford Castle for dinner and to spend one night... I had said no before, but she wore me down. Plus I would have felt a little awkward going to a pub in my dress, as this was the plan until now. So we booked a room at Ashford.

The day before the wedding Andrew was doing his laundry and decided he was going to wash his new white shirt. Unfortunately he also decided to wash his blue jeans with his shirt (I can't blame him, the day before my white tank top turned blue because I washed them with my jeans). So now Andrew has a blue-ish dress shirt. We laughed about it and just thought, oh well who cares (I think Andrew was secretly trying to look like Brian on his wedding day because Brian had a baby blue suit - gay or not gay?).

The morning of the wedding, we decided that I needed a bouquet, Andrew needed a flower for his suit and I needed a flower for my hair. So at 9:30am we went walking and we found a flower shop downtown Galway. 

After the flower shop stop, I went to go and get my hair done and picked up Andrew's (we thought we would try and get it dry cleaned to see if it would come out). The blue didn't come out. Then it hits me that his blue shirt is really going to look blue because I'm wearing a white dress. So when Jack came back from picking up the flowers at 2pm (wedding is at 4pm and I need 20 minutes to get into my dress at the hotel) Andrew and Jack went on a mission to get a white dress shirt. They ended up going to a suit store that Pierce Brosnan apparently shops at.

They made it back just in time to pick us up, drive to the hotel and gave me just enough time to get into my dress.

The whole time I was adamant that I was going to wear flip flops with my dress because nobody will ever see my shoes anyways so may as well be comfy. Right before the ceremony, Mom left to go and get Andrew and Jack into the ceremony room and I decided that if nobody is going to see my flip flops, nobody will notice if I don't wear them at all. So I left barefoot and walked down the isle to marry the man of my dreams.

After the ceremony, we had professional pictures taken and then we went to Ashford Castle to have dinner and where Andrew and I spent the night.

The day was perfect. I have been cold pretty much ever since we landed in Ireland and for the first time on May 20 the sun came out and the clouds disappeared. Naturally, Andrew and I were complaining about hot it was because now we were too hot. It was the nicest day we have had since we got here and it made it really for picture taking, etc.

Here a few pictures of Ashford and us on the grounds.

The B Team.

Me and Mom.

Drinks at in the Prince of Whales room at Ashford... a bride drinking Guinness (what they call Irish wine). Classy hey?

At the piano bar at Ashford. (When we were having supper a couple bought us a bottle of champagne and then another couple at the piano bar sent us glasses of wine)

Our room in Ashford Castle... it also happened to be the room Brad Pitt picked to stay in when he stayed at Ashford. Andrew said it was the closest he would ever get to sleeping with Brad Pitt - gay or not gay?

The bathroom.

The next day we decided to go for a walk on the grounds before Mom and Jack came to pick us up.

George V dinning room, where we had supper.

Inside the Castle.

Thanks so much Mom and Jack for coming to Ireland for our wedding and for making it really, really special.

Andrew and I have now decided that the best way to get free stuff is to wear our wedding gear. So we are now backpacking with my wedding dress and Andrew's suit (ok, we aren't really traveling with them, but we thought about it!).

The B Team has now left us, which means Andrew and I are now returning to roughing it. Two nights ago we stayed in Ashford Castle, then last night we stayed in a beautiful hotel, Mom and Jack leave and tonight Andrew and I are going to sleep in the Shannon Airport on the floor or on a couch if we are lucky.

Andrew and I will be leaving tomorrow morning for Rouen, France for a couple days then to Bayeux and then to Paris.