Wedding Day

First German Protestant Church

Ceremony

The Milestone New Braunfels by Walters Wedding Estates

Reception

Our Wedding

I have always wanted to fall in love, get married, and have a family. But as my 30s were fast approaching I was losing a little bit of hope. When I got offered a job abroad I was absolutely elated, but there were some negative thoughts running through my mind. Not about moving to another country where I did not know a single person. It was about love/marriage/my future family. I kept thinking "if I go to England for 2 years, when I come back I'll be 30 and that doesn't give me a long time to fall in love/get married/have 2-3 kids." I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind because in my heart and soul I knew I had to have this adventure (or I would regret not going for the rest of my life!!) and love would just wait until a little later. In August 2019 I hopped on a one-way flight to London and my life has not been the same since! It took me a couple of months to settle in, but I quickly came to enjoy the beautiful country, the culture, my job, and most importantly made some life-long friends. My work colleagues were absolutely amazing in helping me adjust to a new lifestyle. It meant so much to me that they were so kind and welcoming. In October, I felt much more settled and I was curious about dating abroad. My colleagues helped me set up a Tinder account. In the northeast of England, lunch is called "dinner." Most days at work we would have "Dinner Tinder" during lunch in which I surrendered over my phone to my colleagues. They had the time of their lives swiping (although some of those right swipes were very questionable choices, Helen and Diane), looking at profiles, and helping me message guys. The sole male of our group of speech therapists, Matt, did not partake in these activities, but enjoyed everyone's laughter and reactions to profiles/messages. At some point he mentioned this to his wife, Rachel, to which she replied "I have someone I can set her up with!" I gave my number to Matt for Rachel to give to Gareth. After two days of texting paragraphs back and forth to each other, I texted "We should definitely meet up sometime, I don't think we'll run out of things to talk about." Turns out I was right as our blind date on November 3, 2019 started out as brunch at 10:30 am and ended a little after 10:30 pm after we came in last place in a pub quiz (worth noting that we did win the Latin round though). Flash forward nearly 2 years later:We have had multiple lovely holidays, survived dating during the pandemic, gotten engaged, gotten a puppy, and are now in the midst of planning an epically fun wedding while abroad (shout out to my mom who made helping out with my wedding her retirement project!). At this point, I would like to say that before I moved to England my mom would constantly say, "you are going to fall in love over there and never come back!" She was right about the first part, but who's to say where in the world we'll end up moving to in the future?

England + "Dinner Tinder" + a 12-hour blind date= Our Love Story

Our Story

Photos

Sister of the bride ~Texas native, living that Dallas life ~Sheepadoodle mom ~lover of sushi  ~#taken 

Madison McElroy

Best friend  of the bride since 2000 ~Born in the Netherlands, raised in Texas ~Super Mom to 4 beautiful kids

Linda van Ruiten 

Sister of the groom ~New mommy to Seamie ~Ireland's best makeup artist

Melissa Nolan 

Work colleague and friend of the bride ~Born in Ireland, but calls Newcastle home ~Flawless skin ~Always kind and considerate ~Mum to two beautiful boys 

Gemma O'Rourke 

Work colleague and friend of the bride ~Speech therapist by day, volunteer fire fighter at night ~Crossfit Queen ~Dog mom to Millie the rottweiller 

Katy Jackson 

College roommate and friend of the bride ~The only British friend Sarah met in America ~Lover of animals ~Mom to the lovely Ainsley 

Jennie Maseda 

Friend of the bride ~Sarah's American work out buddy ~Dog mom to a pack of three ~#bossbabe

Tiffani Roberts 

Best friend of the groom ~mostly a bad influence ~ladies love him 

Phil Taylor 

Brother of the bride ~Dog dad to Garrus ~Likes to think he is good with computers ~Single and  ready to mingle 

Ryan McElroy

Friend of the Groom ~Baby daddy to Seamie ~Ireland's best contractor ~Knows a lot about Koi fish 

Jim Craig 

Friend of the groom ~Better known as "Pritchy" ~Crossfit King ~Every party's best DJ ~Dog Dad to Millie 

Steven Pritchard 

Friend of the groom ~Another Irishman ~Can drink more Guiness than you ~Poker star ~Dad to Finn and Ronan 

Damien O'Rourke 

New friend to the groom ~From Holland, but got to Texas as soon as he could ~Dairy man ~Biggest fan of The Tejas Brothers ~Dad to the ring bearers and flower girls 

Sarah & Gareth

Sarah & Gareth

Wedding Party