Wedding of the Week: Shauna and Sam's thunderstorm wedding blew people away
Pictures: Cliffs Windswept Instagram Matt The Ballycotton’s @brooker_matt Posed Brooker, On Newlyweds
A status yellow thunderstorm warning and gale-force winds failed to dampen the fun as this bride and groom said “I do” — but a canine hurricane in the form of Shauna Barry and Sam Pearson’s pet pooch Tadhg was a force to be reckoned with.
The toy poodle Bedlington cross staged his arrival at the ceremony at a key moment.
“When our celebrant asked for the rings, our best man did worry everyone a little as he checked his pockets, and under his chair — seemingly unable to find them,” says Shauna, from Ballyduff Upper, Co Waterford.
Cue Tadhg’s grand entrance — decked out in a tux, with a ring box attached to his collar.
“Tadhg burst through the door and launched himself up the aisle directly at us,” says Shauna. The ringbearer caused delighted chaos.
“Tadhg got a little over-excited when he realised, besides Sam and myself, everyone else he had ever known and loved was also there so he got a fit of zoomies, trying to greet everyone he knew,” says Shauna.
The bride and groom, from Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, have been based in Ballintemple, Cork, since 2021. They were married in Sea Church, Ballycotton, Co Cork, by Jennifer O’Sullivan and held their reception in the five-star Castlemartyr Resort.
The bride looked elegant in a Pronovias gown; a family friend, Shirley Flynn, devised the décor; the bouquets and boutonnières were by Kay Murphy Flowers, Tallow, Co Waterford, and Kieran Casey Signs, Tallow, Co Waterford, created the mirror signage.
Violinist Ryan Parsons provided instrumental covers of the couple’s favourite songs during the ceremony and the drinks reception.
Lucy Kampff from Doggie Dawdles, a Cork-based dog behavioural therapist and trainer — and wedding chaperone — accompanied Tadhg to the ceremony.
Shauna and Sam’s witnesses were Alison Brennan (bridesmaid) and the groom’s brother Harry Pearson (best man), while Shauna’s sister Kate Barry and Sam’s brother Alex Pearson were also in the wedding party as bridesmaid and groomsman.
The newlyweds posed on Ballycotton’s windswept cliffs for a shoot led by photographer Matt Brooker, assisted by Anthony Todd, and Home of the Mind videography.
“We were nearly blown away — to get the shots we did was a miracle,” says the bride.
Shauna and Sam met in 2013 while studying to be pharmacists at the University of Sunderland.
“We didn’t start dating until after we graduated and were seeing more of each other at the company we both worked for in Newcastle,” she says.
Sam proposed in March 2023 while on a ski trip in Tignes in the French Alps. The bride, now a hospital pharmacist, and groom, who works in community pharmacy, headed back to Tignes for their honeymoon.
“It was our third trip together there and it was a five-year-anniversary, Valentine’s celebration, and honeymoon combined,” says Shauna.
“My first trip there was with my boyfriend, on my second I got a fiancé, and I made my third trip there this year with my husband.”
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