Our Wedding Story: A Swedish ceremony with an Irish soundtrack

Lari Candelay and Ariel von Rietberg

Lari was born in northern Germany to artist parents Jacques and Cordelia. In 1997, the family moved to Ireland – first to Kildare, then to Wicklow.

“Mosaics were exceptionally popular at the time, and they even painted the murals on the walls of Naas swimming pool together with fellow artist Kieran Behan. I was terribly proud of that and the lifeguards knew me as the little girl whose parents had painted the walls.”

Lari moved to Sweden in 2010 – followed by her parents and brother soon after – to study music for a year and, a few months later, met Ariel at a party in his home.

They were friends for four years and “just like that, we knew there was more”.

On September 19th, 2015, they were married in Stockholm by Ariel’s godfather – who had baptised and confirmed Ariel and married his parents Marie and Hans.

Afterwards the newlyweds and their 53 guests sailed through the Stockholm archipelago to Lidingö, an island connected to the city by bridge.

On the dinner menu at Elfviks Herrgård was lobster soup with pastry and wild boar marinated in red wine.

Lari’s father has a long-time love of traditional Irish music and taught his daughter to play the flute and tin whistle when she was seven. She and her mother also fell for the fiddle and, says the bride, “nothing will beat the feeling of playing a couple of tunes with my folks for our wedding guests”.

Photographer: Bryan Mulhall

Sarah Geraghty