DESTINATION WEDDINGS IRELAND
We have been so fortunate to work with incredibly beautiful couples, over the years; couples who have gone on to become life-long friends of ours. Juliana and Ryan are such a couple and we are delighted to be able to share their thoughts about their fairytale wedding at Ashford Castle in Ireland. It was such a privilege to create this stunning experience for these two very special people.
JULIANA
Hailing from Pacific Palisades, California, Juliana began her career as an actress and professional dancer as a co-founder of Boom Kat Dance Theatre. After working in performing arts for several years, she rediscovered a childhood love of illustration, and founded the design house Good Juju Ink. Outside of work, she is likely to be seen dancing with friends, wishing Downton Abbey would come back, or eating some delicious cheese with family!
RYAN
Originally from Los Angeles, Ryan lives in San Francisco with Juliana and their cat, Wallace. He works on the Business Operations team at Glassdoor, while also working with Juliana to grow Good Juju Ink. He loves sports and nature, and he especially loves capturing nature’s beauty through photography. He also loves to travel, as evidenced by the fact that he and Juliana got married on another continent!HOW DID YOU FIRST MEET?
Ryan: Believe it or not, we met when we were three years old, as we grew up across the street from one another! According to our nannies, we LOVED playing as toddlers, and there are several pictures of us together as little children. However, we attended different schools, so we didn’t see too much of each other as we grew up. Fast forward many years. After returning back to my home city of Los Angeles after graduating from university, I reconnected with Juliana at a mutual friend’s birthday party. We went on a first date, which led to a second date, a third date, and ultimately our dream wedding at Ashford Castle!TELL US ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT?
Ryan: As I mentioned in my vows, there is nothing better than surprising and delighting Juliana. From the very beginning of our relationship, I’ve taken so much joy in creating fun surprises for Juliana, including scavenger hunts on her birthday and holidays. Even though the scavenger hunts are sometimes silly, Juliana has always participated with such glee and levity. Therefore, when I thought about our engagement, it was obvious that I should create a fun, new scavenger hunt for her. Under the guise of our dating anniversary, I created a scavenger hunt that ultimately led Juliana to a gift sitting under a beautiful redwood tree in Woodside, California. Inside the gift was a framed picture of Juliana and me as toddlers. On the picture frame, I wrote “my girlfriend” on a piece of tape, along with “peel the tape.” When Juliana removed the tape, it revealed my intentions; inscribed on the picture frame were the words “my fiancée.” I knelt down on one knee and asked Juliana to marry me. And she said yes!
– Ryan
WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO GET MARRIED IN IRELAND?
Ryan: We had spent time in Ireland the year before we got engaged, and we fell in love with the country, the people, the history, and Ashford Castle, which would ultimately serve as our wedding venue. Juliana and I both thought it would be wonderful to have a destination wedding at a place where our guests could experience an absolutely magical weekend. In Juliana’s mind, she wanted people to feel as though they were in a fairy tale. Most of our guests had never visited Ireland prior to our wedding, and we knew that they would not be disappointed by their time in the Emerald Isle! We did an Internet search for “Wedding Planners Ireland” and Olivia Buckley International came up. We got in contact with Olivia straight away and knew that we had found our Irish wedding planner just a few minutes into our conversation!
WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE AN IRISH WEDDING PLANNER OVER AN AMERICAN WEDDING PLANNER, SEEING AS YOU ARE BOTH FROM THE US?
Ryan: Having an Irish wedding planner was absolutely, undoubtedly, the best decision we made. We needed a planner who was familiar with the venue and had the ability to turn our vision into a reality. Given the many moving pieces of our wedding weekend such as providing transportation for guests coming from around the world, coordinating with numerous vendors for our “activities day”, setting up our rehearsal dinner at Ryan’s Pub and meticulously crafting our fairytale wedding at Ashford Castle (including a backup plan in case of rain), we NEEDED a wedding planner who lived in Ireland and could make all of this happen. Olivia and her team were more than up for the task and pulled all of this off with such joy and apparent ease, (even when Olivia had to stay up late for phone calls between Killarney and California!)
