Real Weddings Magazine - Issue #27-F20-DIGITAL - The Best Wedding Vendors in Sacramento, Tahoe and throughout Northern California are all here

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CATHARINE
& ANDREW
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
KATHRYN WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY
Catharine met Andrew while the pair shared a house
with nine other young professionals in Moseley, a suburb
of Birmingham, England. But it was not love at
first sight.
“Andrew was the last of the 10 people to move
in,” shares Catharine. “By this time I was really bored
of the process and fed up with having to get to know
new people. So I really didn’t try very hard and barely
even spoke to him!” But after several nights out and a
few house parties, they finally connected. They dated,
trying to unsuccessfully hide their romance from the
housemates, before moving to London together.
After five years, Catharine says she had pretty
much given up on Andrew ever proposing. “We traveled
to some amazing places, with plenty of opportunity
for incredible proposals,” she says, “So when we
took a totally normal trip back to Ireland in October
2018 to visit his parents, I thought nothing of it.” Andrew
took her to his favorite place, Kinnagoe Bay, and
popped the question with an engagement ring he
designed himself.
The couple decided to get married in Catharine’s
California hometown over the coming Easter holiday.
With less than six months to plan, they originally
agreed on a more intimate wedding. “We realized
how many people wanted to celebrate our union with
us,” says Catharine. “Our guest list swelled to 60 and
caused a British and Irish invasion into the small town
of Nevada City.”
With so many out-of-town guests, they invited everyone
to a wine reception at the Nevada City Winery
to help break the ice. “It took away the stress of our
parents and friends meeting each other for the first
time and the next day at the wedding everyone was
already old friends,” shares the bride.
A warm spring day greeted the couple at The Stone
House on their wedding day. The late afternoon ceremony
included passages from John Muir, an Irish
blessing and a sand ceremony. “Andrew collected sand
from Kinnagoe Bay, and I collected sand from Santa
Cruz where I went to university,” explains Catharine.
“We poured our individual vessels of sand into a new
bottle engraved with ‘better together.’” As a wedding
gift, Catharine gave Andrew an oil painting of Kinnagoe
Bay by local Irish artist Tanya McColgan.
The ceremony was followed by a big family-style
dinner, full of touching speeches, laughter and dancing.
One such touching speech came from the bride’s father,
“My dad gave a lovely speech, which was planned.
He talked, with humor, about what it was like going
through all the stages of raising me. He ended with a
great line, ‘As far as I can tell, Andrew and I have three
things in common: Drinking, Gambling and Redheads.’
And the whole place was crying with laugher. But
what wasn’t planned and ended up being a beautiful
surprise was when Andrew’s dad also gave a speech!
It was really special hearing his perspective on when
Andrew and I started to get together and how they
knew, before Andrew did, that I was the one for him.”
The groom reflects back on the evening, “The most
fun was the celebrations into the night. That memory is
less clear though, which might have something to do
with those California IPAs.” OO —Darren Elms
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