A+K from FloridaAdventure Elopement at the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
Cliffs of Moher
Ireland - August 2023
Above: Elopement Film of A&K by Il était un Pixel in Ireland, 2023
Below: Photos by Il était un Pixel
A & K live in Florida, and they contacted me a full year ahead with a delicious hesitation: an elopement in Ireland, or in the Italian Dolomites? Ireland won for the loveliest of reasons: the Cliffs of Moher are the landscape of the bride's favorite film, The Princess Bride, and marrying inside the scenery of the film of your heart is the kind of reason that admits no argument.
The scout the day before
Their two-week European trip opened with this elopement, and we did things in the right order: the day before, the three of us walked the cliffs to scout, compared the viewpoints, and chose together the exact spot where the ceremony would happen. That is my method everywhere, but it counts double in a landscape of this scale: the next day, there were no decisions left to make, only a moment to live.
The day: a castle, the cliffs, a sunset
Preparations happened in their Airbnb, set beside a magnificent castle at the sea's edge, a thoroughly Irish opening act: the dress hanging against the window, the castle in the frame, and that soft grey Irish light that flatters getting-ready images better than any full sun. Then the ceremony, at the top of the cliffs: no officiant, nobody but the two of them, vows and rings exchanged facing the Atlantic with the wind for a witness. Photographing two people alone at the edge of two hundred meters of drop, telling each other the essential, is the absolute core of this profession, and it does not wear out. We photographed through to the last light of sunset on the walls of rock.
Why an elopement: her words, not mine
In the client review she left, published on this page, the bride tells the road herself: a classic wedding planned across several American states, high prices, mounting stress, until it became too much, and they chose an elopement instead. I will not paraphrase further: her testimony says it all, and it echoes what many couples feel just before they take this step.
Then the dress went back into the suitcase, and their honeymoon began: two weeks of road trip across Ireland, the elopement as the opening chapter of a larger adventure. It is the structure I recommend to every couple eloping far from home: the ceremony as the overture, the journey as the reward.
Wedding Team
Photo/Video: Il était un Pixel, Jérémie
Venue: Doonagore Castle
Gown: Custom made
he review that says it best
I will add one thing about that client review, since it lives on this page: what moves me in it is not the compliment but the arc. A couple who nearly lost their wedding to logistics and cost found their way back to what the day was for, two people and a promise, and chose a clifftop over a ballroom. Her words describe the relief better than I could, and they are the reason I keep pointing hesitating couples to this gallery first.
"I tried to plan a wedding. We took a whole road trip across 4 different states touring venues and everything! But the process was incredibly stressful. Between finances, outlandish pricing, getting people on the same page, all the decisions, the pressure of the perfect day and making everyone else happy...it became too much. It should be a fun, happy, exciting time! It should feel like a fairytale.
So we just decided to lean into that aspect and elope instead We ran off to the Cliffs of Moher (...) It was intimate, it was memorable, it was meaningful, and it was about us! Which is how it should be
Shout out to our amazing photographer/videographer Jérémie Sangaré (…) If anyone else is toying with the idea of eloping overseas, especially in Iceland, Dolomites, or Norway, I can't recommend Jérémie enough!!"
- Amber, 2023
What Moher asks of you
A field note for couples these cliffs are calling: Moher must be earned. The wind is a force you compose with (a veil becomes a character in its own right), the evening light is the softest and most beautiful, and the prior scout is not optional. Well prepared, these cliffs deliver one of the most spectacular vow settings in Europe, and one of the rare ones where the weather, whatever it does, always plays on your side: the sun there is golden, and the mist is mythological.
And for your elopement?
If the big landscape is calling, Ireland, the Dolomites, Norway, this is the heart of my elopement work: the dedicated page and my travel dates are the right doors in.