Haley & Pat — An Intentional Elopement on Ireland’s Causeway Coast

When Pat got back to work after the honeymoon, his colleagues started asking questions about the photos.

Specifically, they wanted to know about the background. Whether it was real. Whether he and Haley had actually been standing in front of those cliffs, that castle, that light — or whether someone had put them there in post.

“People asked if we used a green screen,” Pat said. “I was like — no. We were really standing right there.”

Haley and Pat are from Georgetown, Massachusetts — small town north of Boston, both in construction, together eight years before they got married on September 24th, 2025. They eloped on Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast — ceremony above Dunluce Castle, portraits at Elephant Rock, Dunseverick, and Giants Causeway. A few weeks later, I got them on Zoom to talk through the whole thing.

Since your elopement, what moment has stayed with you the most?

Haley: Meeting farmer Sean right at the start really set the tone — everyone was so welcoming. And then just sitting in the car with him before I walked down the aisle. I was a little nervous, and that just grounded me. Being at Dunluce Castle and taking in the scenery — it felt like a real-life adventure. Like a fairytale, but one we were actually inside of.

Pat: There’s a photo from the ceremony — Haley and I both have our eyes closed. Our officiant Steve had asked everyone to take a moment of silence, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and just realize where you are and what you’re doing. I remember being in awe of the place and what we were doing. When I flip back to that photo now, it takes me right back to exactly what I was thinking in that moment.

What originally drew you to Ireland?

Pat: My grandfather — he’s on my cufflinks. He was very proud of his Irish heritage, always talked about it when we were kids. I’ve always had a love of Ireland through that connection. After Northern Ireland, we went south and brought photos of him and my grandmother from a trip they’d made fifteen or twenty years earlier. We tried to find the same spots and recreate those photos. We found one. We made a mistake on the other — it turned out to be four hours in the opposite direction.

Haley: My great-grandmother came over from Ireland. And then on one of our first dates, we were playing that game — where would you go, anywhere in the world? We both said Ireland. So when we started thinking about the elopement, I was like — why aren’t we just going? And for Pat it was an immediate yes.

Did Ireland feel like just a beautiful backdrop, or did it actually shape how the day felt?

Haley: It definitely shaped how the day felt. When you’re there, it just feels like home. Everything felt like a fairytale. I’d seen pictures of these places before, but actually standing there and having our own experience in those locations made it all come to life.

Pat: We’d originally talked about Aruba when we first got engaged — and don’t get me wrong, the photos probably would’ve been beautiful. But I genuinely don’t think they would’ve compared. When people at work saw our photos and asked if we’d used a green screen for the background, that kind of said it all for me. We were really standing right there.

Honestly — how did the cost compare to what a traditional Boston wedding would have looked like?

Pat: This was like a quarter of the cost. A cheap US wedding is around fifty thousand dollars. We’ve been to a few at a $100k, $120k. And I’m a budget person — I’m an estimator, I track numbers all day. So the fact that our venue at Dunluce cost us something like seventy-five dollars, for one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen at a wedding — that’s always going to be a win.

Haley: And then wrapped our honeymoon right into it. So it wasn’t just the wedding saving money — friends have spent $10 or $15k just on their honeymoon separately. For us it was all one trip.

Pat: Our friends who’ve had traditional weddings all say the same thing — it went by in the blink of an eye and they barely remember half of it. I feel like I remember every single detail of our day. It was the fastest — but the greatest — six hours of my life.

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Before the day, how did you handle telling your family you weren’t doing a traditional wedding?

Haley: We broke the news softly. We said — we’re going to elope, but we want to do a small courthouse wedding with just the parents, and go out to dinner afterward. That softened the blow. My mom high-fived us. She knows how much it costs.

Pat: The person who took it hardest was my little sister. She was bummed she wasn’t going to be there. And then she saw the photos and was showing everyone at her work. My dad told us we had the most beautiful pictures out of all the weddings in the family. I don’t think he announced that to the entire family — but he said it to us.

And then at work, one of our HR leaders asked if she could share our wedding video at the Monday lunch. I thought it was going to be a couple of people. She set up a projector screen and showed it to the entire company. There was a girl there who’s engaged right now — she came up to me afterward and said, you have me seriously considering eloping after watching that.

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Did eloping actually protect some of your family relationships — things that might have got complicated with a big wedding?

Pat: A hundred percent. Yes. There were some things about traditional weddings I wasn’t necessarily interested in doing. This helped avoid the conflict without it ever becoming a conflict.

Haley: And for me, it’s just me and my mom. A big traditional wedding — all the pressure that comes with that, the planning, all the decisions — it just took all of that away. It fit our life way easier.

What gave you confidence you were in safe hands, eloping in a country you’d never been to?

Haley: Once you gave us the how-to guide and basically planned our trip, I was like — thank God. I saw the price for the planning assistance and I was like, yeah, that’s worth it. There’s no way I could do it myself.

Pat: Part of what pushed us toward eloping in the first place was — one summer we had eleven weddings. By the end of it, we were sitting at a wedding looking at each other like, why don’t we just elope? And watching all our friends stress through planning their weddings, we’d already decided: we need someone who can just make the decisions for us. We’re not picky. We like to go with the flow. Having someone who can just do everything was perfect.

Was there a moment on the day itself when you could just relax and let it happen?

Pat: Honestly, when I woke up I was already pretty calm. But the moment I saw Rob walk through the door, I was like — there’s our guide. That’s our shepherd. I’m just going to do what he tells me for the rest of the day. That made my life easy.

Haley: The ceremony was really grounding. And then the restaurant at the end of the day — sitting there, exhausted, full — we just looked at each other like, we actually did this. That was the real aha moment.

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Did the day feel like something you were performing? Or something you were actually inside of?

Haley: Inside of. Not performing at all. I loved the adventure of trekking through the farmland, hopping fences. It was just one big adventure the whole way through.

Pat: When you look at our photos, you can see it. Some of the best ones in there aren’t posed smiles — they’re genuine laughs, real moments. You can’t fake that. That’s what I wanted from the photos and that’s exactly what we got.

What do you think you would have lost if you’d chosen the traditional option?

Pat: The photos. At every other wedding I’ve been to — great photos, everyone’s happy and smiling. But when I look at ours, I can bring myself back to those exact moments. I can feel where we were standing, what it felt like. You don’t get that at a venue in Boston.

Haley: The adventure. We have a whole wall of photos at home now. Every time I walk past it I think — what an adventure. We live it every day.

If you were talking to a couple on the fence right now, what’s the one thing they need to know?

Pat: I’d ask them one question: are you looking for your own adventure that you’ll carry for the rest of your lives — or do you want the traditional thing with everyone you know around you? For us it was easy. We wanted the adventure. And I would tell anyone who wants that to elope every day of the week.

Haley: Stay open. Be malleable. You’re going to a place you’ve never been. You don’t know exactly what to expect. Let someone who knows it take the reins — get in the driver’s seat and be along for the ride. Trust that. It made all the difference for us.

One last thing. At the end of the interview, I asked them to finish a sentence.

Compared to a US wedding, eloping felt more like —

Us.

Yeah, Haley said. Felt more like us.

How Haley and Pat’s day came together

Haley and Pat booked one of my two-day elopement packages — coverage across the elopement day and a sunrise session the following morning at the Dark Hedges and Bonamargy Friary. They also added on my planning assistance, which meant I took care of booking the hair and makeup artist, flowers, and officiant on their behalf.

Pat put it plainly: “I saw the price and I was like, yeah, that’s worth it. There’s no way I could do it myself. Don’t try to plan it on your own. Just have Rob do it.”

They weren’t high-maintenance about it. They just knew that after a summer of eleven weddings and watching their friends stress through every decision, they wanted someone to take the wheel. By the time September 24th arrived, the only thing Haley and Pat had to do was show up.

If you’d like the same — view the packages here or get in touch and we can talk through what your day could look like.

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Haley and Pat’s day included a cliffside ceremony above Dunluce Castle, portraits at Elephant Rock, Dunseverick Castle, and Giants Causeway, followed by a sunrise session at the Dark Hedges the following morning. If you’re planning something similar, here’s where to start.

To see what’s included and how the process works, view the elopement packages. Or if you’re ready to talk through what your day could look like, get in touch.