Our wedding story: ‘We shared our wedding with the Clifden lifeboat and our beloved dog Pippa’

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Clifden RNLI volunteer lifeboat crew recently scrambled into their kit for a special call-out on March 6th when they provided a guard of honour for two fellow crew members, Alan Pryce and Sinéad O’Sullivan, who married at St Joseph’s Church in Clifden.

Sinéad, who runs Matt O’Sullivan Auctioneers in the town, joined Clifden RNLI eight years ago and is the station’s only female crew member. Alan signed up aged 17 and works in Mannin Bay Salmon in Connemara. After the ceremony, the newlyweds stopped by their local, Tom King’s Bar in Clifden, where Sinéad pulled her husband his first pint as a married man.

After a visit to the RNLI station for photographs, they went on to Renvyle House Hotel where 200 guests waited.

Mothers Eileen O’Sullivan and Mary Pryce baked the cakes (featuring the couple in their full RNLI kit) while Sinéad’s sisters Sorcha (her twin and maid of honour) and Aveline (also a twin) supplied the flowers from their businesses, Connemara Florist in Clifden and Village Flowers in Moycullen.

In fact, the only part of the day not from Connemara was the bride’s Grace Kelly-inspired Oleg Cassini dress which she bought in New York the day after she and Sorcha ran the city’s marathon.

“We were really thrilled that we could share our wedding with two of our favourite things – the Clifden lifeboat and our beloved dog Pippa,” said Sinead.

After the wedding the couple enjoyed a quick mini-moon in Wicklow (naturally, they stopped by Arklow RNLI to admire its Trent all-weather lifeboat). They are now back in service and ready to answer the RNLI pagers.

Photographs: Wim Vanhengel, inlovephotography.ie

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