Our vow renewal, 10 years of marriage.

What a fast week that was! Our vow renewal, then back to photograph a fabulous wedding and starting my Masters course in University all over the last 7 days! : )

On the 13th of September, we renewed our wedding vows in the algarve after 10 years of marriage.

We had a small ceremony which was beautiful and in 30 degree heat!
It was made even more special by those who added to it and spoke such beautiful words.

We would have loved to have so many more people with us but when we found the perfect venue, the amount of beds encouraged us to rein it in, which was probably for the best!

We incorporated a sand ceremony with sands brought from every country that our friends had joined us from (as far away as Sweden) and mixed it all together for them to take a bit home with them. Like the grains of sands mixed together that can never be separated, our lives are now joined in more ways than one and we all have beautiful memories to last a lifetime. There were many take-aways from the week and one for me was watching our friends, who had never met before form great new friendships with each other. Knowing that we had both chosen our friends well over the years and that together, they would form an even stronger bond and support network for us all.

Also my best friend and bridesmaid flying in the night before as she couldn’t join us for the week but still made it for the day itself. (Brownie points earned there LOL).

It was an amazing experience. Tuning into the beautiful place we had found that was exclusively for the 30 of us with 2 gorgeous pools to keep the kids busy. I highly recommend looking online for some amazing places to rent instead of only looking at hotels! We loved the exclusivity meaning we could hang out, sing karaoke, talk to 6am and enjoy every moment.

My dress was from my fabulous friend Romy who also did my make up. Romy Turner of Paradise Hair & Beauty https://www.instagram.com/paradisetralee/ is an amazing make up artist and educator. I would highly recommend her to brides or anyone wanting to learn the craft. She knew exactly what to do without even discussing it with her, I trusted her completely. She also had the added challenge of the heat and us sweating buckets 🙂 But my make up remained perfect, all day as I knew it would! 🙂

Romy’s husband John was our celebrant and he was amazing as we knew he would be. He did a meditation with me the night before so that I was completely focused on the day ahead. He spoke about love and life and being there for each other and I had to fight back the tears because of his amazing words. We were so grateful that he said yes to our mad request!

Hair was by Dave’s niece Emma who is great at doing her own hair so she got roped in to help! 🙂 Thank you Emma xxx

Then to the question that everyone asks a photographer, who did your photos?!

Our photos were by the amazing Garrett Walsh who is from Cork but living in the algarve. He was fantastic and the pics below speak for themselves! https://algarvephotography.com

That was one of my “must have’s” for the week. To hire a photographer to give us the opportunity to relax and enjoy it. Also to get some shots of us in front of the camera!!!

I know it is tough photographing a photographer, I have done it myself more than once. My only request to Garrett was to capture myself and Dave with our boys and to do what he does best. He was an absolute pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend him.

Thank you for all of the lovely messages and comments over the last week. While I know each person’s journey is individual, for us it was important to celebrate this milestone.

We have lost loved ones over the last few years and we have chosen to celebrate life at any opportunity we can!

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today!

With love,

Tara x