Your Elopement Experience
If you've landed here, I'm guessing a traditional wedding never really felt like you. Maybe the thought of hundreds of guests, endless opinions, and months of stressful planning sounds like your worst nightmare. Maybe you'd rather spend your budget on a flight to Europe and combine your wedding experience and honey-moon all in one!
I care just as much about how your day feels as how it looks. The couples I love working with most are the ones who want to actually experience their elopement day rather than just move through it, whether that's a lazy morning in a beautiful cottage before their ceremony, a boat tour in the Atlantic, a sea swim at sunrise, or simply wandering somewhere breathtaking with nowhere to be and no timeline to stick to. Anything slow, intentional, and genuinely yours is my kind of day!
Meet Your Elopement Photographer & Fairy God-Planner.
I'm Caragh, and I'm based in Northern Ireland, one hour from the Causeway Coast! I've spent 6 years helping couples, mostly travelling from the US, plan and photograph elopements in some of Ireland's most stunning landscapes. A huge part of what I do is making sure that planning from thousands of miles away feels as easy and exciting as it should be rather than overwhelming. If you're looking for someone who is just as invested in your whole experience as they are in your photos, I think we're a great fit!
What's Included When You Book With Me
Booking me for your elopement is a lot more than just having someone show up with a camera on the day! From the moment you enquire, I become your go-to for pretty much everything, the planning, the logistics, the recommendations, the coordination, and of course the photography itself. Here's what that actually looks like in practice:
The Welcome Questionnaire
As soon as you book, I'll send you a welcome questionnaire and this one is a little different to what you might expect! It's not just names and dates. I want to know how you met, how the proposal happened, your favourite things to do together, your individual styles, what your friends would say about you as a couple, and what story best sums the two of you up. The more I know about who you are together, the more connected I feel to you, and honestly the more creative I get. Some of my favourite images have come directly from something a couple mentioned in their questionnaire that I filed away and waited for the right moment to capture!
The Elopement Guide
Every couple I work with receives my elopement planning guide, a 48 page PDF packed with everything you could possibly need to plan your Ireland elopement from scratch. It covers what to wear and how to prepare for Irish weather, example timelines, how to include family in your day, how to tell your family you're eloping if you haven't yet, hundreds of activity ideas for every kind of couple whether you're more sea swim and kayak or slow morning and hot tub, and date night prompts to help you brainstorm ideas together. It's basically everything I know about elopements in Ireland in one place, tailored specifically for couples coming to elope here!
Vendor and Airbnb Recommendations
I'll share my personally curated list of vendors I know and trust in the area you're eloping, covering celebrants, florists, hair and makeup artists, videographers, and more. I'll also share my favourite Airbnb recommendations because where you stay matters so much more than most couples realise! For locations outside of the Causeway Coast I'll take a few days to curate a list specifically for you rather than sending something generic, because the right vendors make an enormous difference to your overall experience!
The Pre-Elopement Questionnaire and Custom Timeline
About two months out from your elopement day I'll send a second questionnaire to gather all your vendor details, any specific requests, and everything else I need to start building your custom timeline. This gets sent to you via Google Doc so it's easy to access and update, and it covers everything from when to eat breakfast to what time golden hour hits at your location. I'll work around the light, the tides, busy tourist periods, guest logistics, dinner reservations, and any other moving parts to make sure your day flows as smoothly and unhurriedly as possible!
On the Day Coordination
On your elopement day my job is to make sure all that planning actually goes to plan! I'll be the point of contact for your vendors, keeping everything moving along and making sure nothing gets in the way of a good time. For Dunluce elopements especially, I'll be coordinating directly with the team on the ground so you never have to think about logistics for a single second of your day. You just show up and enjoy it!
The Elopement Emergency Kit
Okay this one doesn't sound like much but ask any of my past couples and they'll tell you it's saved the day more than once! I keep a box in the back of my car stocked with pretty much everything you could possibly need in an elopement emergency. Sewing kit, safety pins, stain remover, pain killers, blister plasters, safety pins, hair grips, the works. I've sewn couples into dresses on a cliff edge, It's fixed broken buttonholes minutes before ceremonies, and I've produced a safety pin at exactly the right moment more times than I can count. I also carry enough clear umbrellas for you and your guests, because clear umbrellas don't cast shadows on faces and actually look beautiful in photos, which is very important to me! And I always have a good supply of hand warmers because the weather on the Causeway Coast does not mess around!
Film Photography
For couples who love the look and feel of film, I offer film photography as an optional add on alongside digital. Shot on film and developed after your elopement day, it adds a beautiful timeless quality to a selection of your images that digital simply can't replicate. Just ask if this is something you're interested in and we can chat about adding it to your package!
Your Gallery
Your full gallery will be delivered within eight weeks of your elopement day via a beautiful online gallery. You'll be able to view, favourite, share, and download your full resolution images, as well as order prints and products directly if you'd like to. Previews can be sent one of two ways! I either send a few of the most important shots within 24 hours of your elopement day, so you can share immediately with your family, or I can spend a little more time and get a mini-gallery preview sent within a week! I love giving my couples a choice on how they view their memories. Some love to sit with their feelings and process their own memories before seeing photos of their day - others are so excited they can hardly wait and want to share their good news with family and friends as quickly as possible!
The Planning Process
Step One: Fill Out My Contact Form and Schedule a Call
The first thing we do is jump on a video call together, and honestly this is one of my favourite parts of the whole process! I know it can feel a little nerve wracking getting on a call with someone you've never met, especially when you're planning something as personal as your elopement from thousands of miles away. But I promise it's really relaxed and informal! We'll chat about your vision for the day, the locations you're drawn to, your timeline, any questions or worries you have, and just generally get a feel for whether we're a good fit for each other. By the end of the call you should feel really clear on exactly how everything works and excited about the next steps rather than overwhelmed by them. I want you to feel like you've just got off the phone with a friend who happens to know the area inside out!
Step Two: Book Your Date and Start Planning
Once you're booked in, the fun really begins! This is where I hand over everything I've put together over years of photographing elopements on the Causeway Coast and across Ireland. You'll receive my personal vendor recommendations, the ones I actually trust and have worked alongside myself, covering everything from celebrants and florists to hair and makeup artists. I'll share my favourite Airbnb recommendations, location scouting advice tailored to your vision, and my full elopement planning guide to help you get your head around everything from the legal stuff to what to pack.
Step Three: We Craft Your Perfect Day Together
This is where your elopement really starts to take shape! You'll be booking your vendors, sorting your travel and accommodation, and if I've done my job properly in step two, all of that should feel really manageable and even exciting rather than stressful! I'd really encourage you to book at least one activity during this stage too, something that's just for the two of you and has nothing to do with photos. A boat tour, a whiskey tasting, horse riding on the beach, or even something like scheduling time for a picnic or coffee stop, whatever feels most like you as a couple and will give you time to breathe.
Then at the four week mark we really start pulling everything together. I'll send you a detailed questionnaire to gather all the final information I need, from your vendor contacts and timings to your ceremony details and anything else that's important to you both. From there I build your completely custom timeline, communicating directly with your vendors where needed to make sure everything connects seamlessly. The number one priority at this stage is making sure there's plenty of buffer time built into your day so nothing feels rushed and you can actually be present and enjoy every single moment of it. By the time your elopement day arrives you should feel completely calm, completely prepared, and completely ready to just show up and enjoy it!
Step Four: You Have the Best Day of Your Life
This is the part I get to show up for, and honestly it never gets old! After all the planning, all the calls, all the timeline tweaking, this is where it all comes together and becomes something real. My job on your elopement day is to take care of absolutely everything behind the scenes so you never have to think about logistics or timing or what comes next. You just get to be completely present with each other and with the people you love!
I'll be there with you every step of the way, not as a director telling you where to stand and how to pose, but as someone who genuinely cares about how your day feels and is quietly capturing every real, beautiful, unscripted moment as it happens. The nervous laughter before the ceremony. The way you look at each other when you think nobody is watching. The small details you spent weeks thinking about. The big moments and all the tiny ones in between. I'll get all of it!
And then a few weeks later your gallery lands in your inbox and you get to relive the whole thing all over again. That part never gets old either!
My Philosophy
Something I feel really strongly about, and something I try to communicate to every couple I work with, is that your elopement day should never feel like a photoshoot!
I know that sounds like a strange thing for a photographer to say! But there's a version of destination elopement photography that gets sold a lot, especially for Ireland, where the whole day is essentially built around getting the shot. You drive to a famous location, stand in front of it, try to avoid the crowds, get a few photos, then before you had a chance to admire the moment, you're rushing back to the car to make it to the next location before sunset. You go home with a beautiful images but hardly any real memories, and that's not what I want for my couples!
The images I'm most proud of, the ones that still stop me in my tracks or win awards, are never the ones where everything was perfectly planned and perfectly executed. They're the ones from the boat tour where my couple completely forgot I existed and just held onto each other as they basked in the sun during the hottest day of the year, prompting them to jump into the sea to cool off! The fireside moment in pyjamas before the day even officially began. The pub locals congratulating my couple and offering them a drink on them, and the musician offering to play a song for an impromptu first dance, or when during a hail storm the groom's umbrella snapped!
Those moments can't be manufactured. They can't be prompted or posed or planned into existence. They happen when couples are genuinely living their day, experiencing something real together, and feeling every single second of it. My job is just to make sure I'm there when they do, with my camera ready and my mouth shut! (Which is rare)!
This is why I build so much buffer time into every timeline I create. It's why I always encourage couples to include at least one activity in their day that has nothing to do with photography. It's why I love a two day elopement so much, because it gives us the space to actually breathe and let the day unfold rather than chasing it. And it's why I ask so many questions before we even start planning, because the more I understand about who you both are, the better I can create the conditions for your most genuine and beautiful moments to happen naturally!
I'm a photographer, yes. But on your elopement day I want to feel less like a photographer and more like a friend who happened to bring a camera. Someone who knows when to step in and when to disappear. Someone who is as invested in how your day feels as in how it looks!
Because at the end of the day, the photos are how you remember the feeling. But you have to feel it first!
Multi-Day Elopement Experiences
My most booked package is eight hours, which covers a lot of ground and works really beautifully for a lot of couples! But if you're dreaming of four or five locations in one day, eight hours can start to feel a little rushed. You find yourself watching the clock, rushing from one stunning location to the next, and before you know it the whole day starts to feel like one big photoshoot. Drive, get out, shoot, leave, drive, get out, shoot, leave.
Spreading the elopement across two days changes everything. It means we can visit five locations without any of them feeling like a quick stop. It means your morning isn't dictated by how many places we need to get to before sunset. It means you can actually slow down, look around, and let the reality of what you're doing sink in fully. It creates space for the kind of moments that can't be planned or prompted, and those are always the ones that end up being your favourites in the gallery!
But honestly one of my favourite reasons to book two days is something a lot of couples don't even think about until I mention it. Two days means you can have both! A day with your people and a day that's just the two of you!
I had one couple who got married at a beautiful church ruin with around 20 guests, cocktail hour, the whole celebration, and it was loud and joyful and full of the kind of laughter and happy tears you'd expect at a micro-wedding. Then the next day just the two of them, driving further south to a completely secluded beach in Cork, no schedule, no guests, and no agenda. Just a day to decompress and explore a new place together!
Another couple of mine eloped at Dunluce Castle with just their parents on day one, and then on day two we headed to Belfast together, went bar hopping around the city, and they got matching tattoos. You simply cannot do that in one day!
The order is entirely up to you and what feels right. Some couples want their ceremony to be completely private on day one and then celebrate with guests on day two. Others want the big emotional day with family first and then a slower, more intimate second day to decompress and just be together. There's no wrong way to do it and that flexibility is kind of the whole point!
If you're bringing guests to your elopement and wondering how to balance the celebration with the intimacy, two days might just be your answer!
If you've read this far and something about this feels right, I'd absolutely love to hear from you. Tell me about your plans, your people, and what you're dreaming of, and let's start building something really special together!
