Sally & Damian : Irish Eyes & Sparkler Lines - An International Love Story

I fell in love with Damian at the end of our Pacific Coast Highway road trip from San Francisco to San Diego. It might have even been before that trip –I was in love with the idea that this handsome man would take a chance like this, that could really be amazing or horrible and go on vacation with a girl he had only met twice. We started out the trip as polite friends and we ended as so much more.  He and I both had an eerie sense of calm that life was unfolding as it should. The trip was technically our first date, I had butterflies. (I still feel butterflies.)  Someone joked at that San Diego wedding that Damian and I would get married. We laughed like it was a silly thing to say even though I thought to myself that it was probably true. It was a trip like I had never had before.  I was prepared to leave it in California but I couldn’t imagine going on a date with anyone else after what we had experienced. How could anything top the Napa Valley wine train, Hiking to a waterfall in Big Sur – camping where the redwoods meet the ocean, Exploring Alcatraz, riding bikes over the golden gate bridge? I didn’t know what to do next. I’d leave it to my mom and sisters to ask the hard questions! Damian loved my family and answered all the questions in the right way. We were sitting at the end of the dock at the beach house, there was just hours before his flight back to Edinburgh. To my surpise, Damian asked when he could see me again, how could we make this work? I think it was then that I fell in love with him. I loved him for believing that our road trip didn’t have to end. He suggested meeting in Paris in October when he would be there for work. Well, I didn’t need to be asked twice to go to Paris. I quickly agreed and we decided that we would take this seriously and try to make it work somehow.  On the way to the airport, he called the airline and changed his flights so he could stay with me longer. I knew then that this was it. We did Paris in October, he came to NJ for Thanksgiving, I went to Edinburgh for NYE, then he came back in April to celebrate his birthday in Cape May and Atlantic City. In June we went back to San Francisco, this time for his friend’s wedding in San Francisco. This time we went north instead of south. Damian proposed at Mumm Vineyard  in Napa Valley about 9 months after we started dating. We had hired a limo to take us from winery to winery. He asked me to walk into the vines away from our friends when he got down on one knee. We celebrated our way through a few more vineyards and tastings followed by a delicious dinner in downtown Napa and cigars, more Champagne on the wraparound porch of our bed and breakfast (the same one as our ‘first date’ the year before), and made phone calls home to share our good news. That day was probably the best day of my life second only to our wedding day; both days we danced and laughed and drank good wine, and ate good food and the happy day seemed to go on and on! :-)”

Our personalized ceremony where Celia told our love story, and we had a handfasting ceremony with a tartan scarf that we used for my sisters, Damian’s brother, and my grandparents to fasten our hands together to symbolize our commitment to each other. We did a handfasting ritual with a Tartan to honor Damian’s Irish heritage and his living in Scotland for 11 years before moving to the US to be with me. Handfasting is an ancient Celtic tradition whereby the partners literally join hands to symbolize the agreement between them. An old fashioned hand shake to bind two people before Christian marriage vows. Each cord meant something such as wisdom, passion, renewal, magic, mystery, peace and purity, richness, strength and love.

We honored our mothers with roses during the ceremony for raising us to be the people we are today. Our mothers have  taught them us so much and loved us so unconditionally so as we created our own family, we wanted to do something special for them.

My dad walked me down the aisle to  Elvis Love me Tender. My father is such an important person in my life and Damian has all the qualities I always admired in my father. I loved seeing my dad and Damian both tear up as my dad ‘gave me’ to Damian.

We also broke glass at the end of our ceremony to symbolize the fragility of life, things would never be the same but will be different and better than before. The custom of breaking a glass is an old one and it has many meanings:  seriousness of marriage and that the vows of marriage cannot be reversed, the glass should be the last thing to break between them. The permanence of the broken glass represents a permanent change in the lives of this couple, as well.  Just as glasses are broken and cannot ever be exactly the same as they once were, their lives will never be quite the same. The innumerable pieces of the glass should be a reminder of the innumerable ways we will love each other in the future.

The music on our day was so important to me. We had an amazing band, Mission Dance. We took Dance lessons and danced our first dance, a Rumba to Elvis’  Now or Never and Swing to Elvis’ Burning Love. That dance was so much fun and we loved the lessons we took leading up to the wedding!

Taking our first look pictures in the biosphere pool and on the resort’s life size chess board was so much fun and just got the day off to such a joyful start.

We loved sneaking out of the reception through the kitchen with our amazing photographer to capture some sunset pictures by the infinity pool!

The champagne was flowing big time and I think everyone really enjoyed the toasts at the start of the wedding.

We had a painter at the wedding to paint the scene as he saw it. Martin Hardy was able to perfectly capture a dance scene from our wedding, with Damian & I at the center mid dance turn, and all of our immediate family and guests sprinkled in the frame. It is a gorgeous piece of art we will always treasure that nor hangs in our living room.

We will never forget the energy and magnetic happiness in the room as the night neared to a close during the song Loch Lommond. The band learned this Scottish song dating from 1841 just for us. In Scotland the song is often the final piece of music played during a party and people join hands and dance in a large circle formation. Many of our 175  guests joined hands in a huge circle and danced to Loch Lommond not wanting the party to end! Damian & I ended up in the center of the circle and felt so much love and joy at that moment that we have been feeling ever since, especially now as I am pregnant with our first baby.

After the final song, you (ie: she means me) did a terrific job of assembling our 175 guests into an aisle formation where we had sparklers to light our way out of the wedding and into our married life. We ran up and down the aisle under the light of the sparklers and again felt surrounded by so much love and good wishes along with the occasional sizzle from the sparkler ash! It was an amazing feeling.

We went on a mini moon to Boston and Cape Cod that summer and in December 2015  took our honeymoon to Thailand where we explored a beautiful country neither of us had been to before. We explored temples in Bangkok, tasted our way food markets, cooking classes and local culture in Chiang Mai, hiked through the forests and learned to care for elephants while staying at a rescue center called Elephant Nature Park, and finally flew to the islands for some R& R on the gorgeous islands of Phuket and Koh Phi Phi. It was the perfect mix of adventure and relaxation and a great kick off to our life together.”