Our Wedding Story: From Paddywagon Tours to Venice

Rachel Farndon and Tiernan Ennis Rachel, from New Zealand, and Tiernan, from Killiney, met in Killarney in 2012 where they both worked for Paddywagon Tours. After dating for three months, Rachel asked Tiernan if he would join her in the southern hemisphere.

"Amazingly he said that he would," she said. "But a few weeks after arriving in Auckland I was offered a job in Manila [with the NZ government]. I boarded a plane to Asia in April and Tiernan lived with my parents and brother in Auckland, seeing out his working holiday visa there."

Before Rachel left for a year, the couple exchanged rings. “It was more than a promise ring, but less than an engagement ring with the understanding that after the year was up I’d give him my ring back. He would then be able to propose with it at his leisure, should he want to.”

The day after Rachel arrived home and returned the ring, Tiernan proposed.

He returned to Ireland in April 2014 and Rachel followed him in June. They decided on a destination wedding and invited 16 family members – including their parents Lorcan Ennis and Patricia Connor and John and Debra Farndon – and witnesses.

“We chose Venice,” explains Rachel. “I tell people that it was because it was ‘half way’ between Ireland and New Zealand. And also we’re very bad at math. But really it was the first place we went on holiday together. There was something cyclical about that location.”

On 5th November 2015, they married in the Venetian City Hall. The ceremony was conducted in Italian with the help of a translator.

Afterwards, the newlyweds were ushered to gondolas for a tour around the Grand Canal.

The bride incorporated items from places she has lived – “I couldn’t get my hands on anything Bruneian” – like her shoes from Manila and dress from New Zealand along with photos of her parents and grandparents’ weddings she attached to the floral bouquet.

That evening, Rachel and Tiernan – who live in Belfast – met their guests for dinner in the Al Remer Tavern, a restaurant below the B&B they stayed in on their first trip to the city almost three years ago.

Photograph: Egiridas Scinskas, whitefashionphotographer.com

Sarah Geraghty