It’s still nearly a year away but I’m extremely excited that a friend just asked me to be a bride’s maid in her wedding. That may not sound very exciting to you, but it’s one of my best friends and the wedding happens to be in a country I’ve never been to: Northern Ireland.
Back story: I met my friend Clementine my freshman year of college. We were all in the same “First Year Program” at St. Lawrence University and therefore were all in the same section of a dorm.
Through the years, despite distance and changes in our lives, I’ve stayed close with Clementine and a few other good friends from SLU.
It was with Clementine that I did my first (and only, thus far) East Coast road trip from NY to Florida.
And it was with her that I tried my first absinthe, which may or may not have been a good idea in hindsight.
Since her family is from the Czech Republic, she always had interesting and new food and drinks to try.
While I have had an interest in international cultures for as long as I can remember, it was probably her friendship that helped me evolve my passion for travel and learning about new parts of the world.
Being a British citizen, she gave me advice when I did my study abroad in London. In turn, I helped out as best I could with my past experiences in Egypt and Turkey when she decided to take trips to those locations.
It does not surprise me at all that she is having an international wedding. In fact, it would have surprised me if she didn’t.
But, besides that adventurous and fun part of her personality, it was also in Ireland that she fell in love with her fiancé where they met as graduate students.
She told me when she got engaged that they were looking at locations in Ireland, but they came across a few problems with this as well – she wanted to have an outdoor ceremony and it tends to rain a lot in the lush, green, beautiful country.
After looking at a few locations, they have decided on the Crom Estate in Northern Ireland. And they were told that May and September are the best times to try to avoid rain so…I’m Northern Ireland-bound in September! I haven’t been to Northern Ireland before so I am looking forward to being the perpetual tourist that I am and maybe go down to some parts of Ireland I missed on my last trip.
I’m pretty sure my boyfriend will enjoy the beer and jovial Irish people as well.
I know I’ve read some bad things about Northern Ireland, I think one of the blogs on this site focused on that, but I’m hoping to look on the bright side of this since it is a wedding and the pictures of the ceremony site are beautiful.
Still, tips are always welcomed from the peanut gallery…cheers, in advance….