Our Wedding Story: A surprise trip to Paris and a picturesque proposal

 Sarah Moore and Darren Belton

On Saturday, April 23rd, 2016, oncology nurse Sarah and Darren, an accountant from Yorkshire, were married in the bride’s local church in Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, where her grandparents had married and where she had been baptised by the wedding celebrant, Fr Jim Cooley.

With little prospect of finding a permanent job as a nurse, Sarah, the daughter of Lucy and Cllr Jim Moore, moved to London in 2010 to work at St George’s Hospital in London.

Shortly after arriving, she went out with friends to their local pub where she and Darren met.

“We got on famously,” she says, “and I knew that I wanted to see him again. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Four years later, the couple was settling into their first home together and Darren had planned a surprise day out for Sarah’s birthday.

“London was roasting that summer so I secretly hoped it was a trip to the coast and Darren threw me off the scent with suggestions of going sailing.  However, when we arrived at St Pancras station I suspected something was up – off we went to Paris for the day!”

Dad’s permission

After lunch and a stroll, they were heading back towards the train station when Darren dropped to one knee on the Pont des Arcs.

“He was a proper gentleman by asking for my dad’s permission – that proved to be a challenge in itself as Dad didn’t answer his phone for ages to what he thought was a cold caller on an English number.”

With that taken care of, they started planning their wedding from London. “It wasn’t without its challenges,” says Sarah, “but I loved all the planning though.  I flew over to Dublin for days out bridesmaid-dress shopping and my mam was like our wedding agent here which made things so much easier.”

At the reception in the Ferrycarrig Hotel, the newlyweds took to the floor for their first dance to Come Fly With Me by Frank Sinatra.

“We did take a few dance lessons for our first dance . . . music is the one thing we don’t have in common so we chose a classic tune to learn together.”

A month before the wedding, Sarah moved home to start a job in Dublin and Darren joined her in May.

“We have just bought a house and Dublin is starting to feel more like home.  Through all of the stress of short-term renting and the upheaval of moving several times, being married has helped us feel secure even when we didn’t know if we would have somewhere to live the next month.”

Photographs: Susie Kelly, Candy Stripe Photography, http://www.candystripephotography.com