THE BIG DAY

SHANNON & SAMARA

SO TELL US HOW YOU MET, WERE YOU SINGLE FOR A LONG TIME BEFORE YOU STARTED DATING?

SHANNON: We met once before but only briefly which lead samara to add me on Facebook I have a flower shop so it mainly started there when she bought flowers off me for her mum and granny which I thought was normal, I found out later she had never bought them flower before meeting me lol I was with someone else and me and samara became close friends and she helped me through a very hard time which led to us spending a lot of time together & then we ended up never being apart from then on, I’ve never met someone like samara before and I knew we would play a big part of each other’s lives, I just didn’t know how big that was going to be. Samara had her flight ticket bought for Australia her visa & job set up when we met, I told her I would wait the year but samara told her family on Christmas day she wasn’t going they were so happy and supportive of her decision and of course I was over the moon she was staying.

HOW LONG AFTER YOU STARTED DATING DID IT TAKE TO POP THE QUESTION, WAS IT AN IMMEDIATE YES?

SAMARA: We met for 2 months and after that on Jan 14th Shannon asked me to be her girlfriend of course I said yes and was in shock she had even asked me then 6 months after in June the 28th I had already picked the ring in her favourite antique shop and a few days before we went for a drive, some food in north 55 and then went to the beach, Shannon’s Granda told them he used to own and I asked Shannon take some pictures of the view and I wrote in the sand will you marry me she shouted I’m going to pee and then she screamed yes of course I will.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BIG DAY, LOCATION, NUMBER OF GUESTS ETC. WAS IT PLANNED PRE COVID, HAD YOU TO ALTER MANY THINGS?

SHANNON: We had the best day ever! I have never felt as happy in my life. We got married in Orange Tree House Greyabbey thee most perfect venue, they were incredible and went above and beyond for us! We had started planning our wedding a few months after our engagement when Covid hadn’t made an appearance yet so we had a far bigger quest list originally which due to Covid we had to cut down to 80 of our closest family and friends we were so so lucky to have this as we got married on the Friday just before the new restrictions came in on the Saturday putting it to weddings of 25 people then Monday 25 people and no reception. We had an original date we never changed it once I refused to change or cancel I just kept telling everyone our wedding will be going ahead just you wait and see & someone was definitely was looking over us because our day went ahead like I said just by one day and no more! The relief we felt just the day before our wedding when the orange tree gave us the go ahead to start setting up our flower’s we done our own flowers which I was so proud of me and my team. The only changes we had to make was we couldn’t of our band or live entertainment, but we had DJ Gaz set up & my friend Amy sang us down the aisle, everything was perfect from start to finish we were surrounded by love and support. We still were aloud our first dance which we choose Whitney Houston I want to dance with somebody and we owned that dance floor we said if we are only aloud one dance we are going to make sure we DANCED!!

YOU ARE ONE OF THE FIRST SAME SEX COUPLES IN N.I TO TIE THE KNOT, WAS THIS PLANNED OR DID IT HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT?

SAMARA: We already had our date booked before the law changed but we

were so happy to hear that it had we were over the moon and very proud to be able to get married!

WHAT ABOUT THE FOOD AND DRINK?

SHANNON: Food & Drink thee most important part once we said I do. We had canapé’s & drinks straight after the service along with a dinky donut van! that was followed by a 3 course sit down meal we also had a caramel & Bischof naked wedding cake and then a hog roast by the spitting pig. In between there was tea and coffee in china teacups with shortbread just in case there wasn’t enough food. We took a shot of Guinness in memory of samara’s grandad jimmy. The orange tree house had an app to order table service for all our drinks it was a little bit too handy and I think there was quite a few sore heads the next morning

WITH RESTRICTIONS WILL YOU GET A HONEYMOON OR ARE YOU PLANNING ONE FOR NEXT YEAR?

SAMARA: We love our dogs too much to leave them for more than a night so we decided when we were planning it all we would buy a camper instead so they could all come with us whenever we wanted to go! So one day on the way home we spotted one so we pulled over to see it as we pulled in the owner was pulling out of his drive he shouted out its open jump inside, he seen the excitement on our faces so he stopped his car jumped out and chucked me the keys and told me to take it a sale! I been driving an automatic for the past year and a bit so going into a 1992 no power steering geared camper I was abet worried but Shannon said wise up you’ll be grand so off we went! we completely fell in love with it and paid a deposit straight away! My dad is a mechanic he got it all done up for us for the wedding and Shannon the bridesmaids and the two mums went in Bowie the camper to the wedding!

IN YOUR DAY TO DAY LIVE ARE YOU INTO THE SAME THINGS? WHAT INTERESTS DO YOU HAVE THAT ARE DIFFERENT?

SHANNON: We have the same moral and values, but most hobbies expect for being around nature and being with our dogs are quite different. we spend most days with each other once I get home from work, I normally get home cook dinner then we head to the local forest or beach to let the dogs run wild. I enjoy yoga, embroidery and reading and watching movies samara loves playing the play station and loves fast car’s anything dangerous or fast samara is there for it. I just like being in my flower

shop and coming home to spend time with the dogs and doing creative things I’ve chilled out in my old age of 24 haha. We both enjoy movies, and she has turned me into a horror fan something I never thought i would be. We like random adventures together and glamping is what we do best!! We have an amazing group of friends and family we always spend time with but mostly together. our families and friends never know what we are going to be up to next and nothing would surprise them haha I love all my spiritual side of things all my sage and crystals like samara’s mum she used to laugh at her mum and now I come home and samara is walking around with burning sage I knew then I had got the right woman! Samara LOVES food that would most likely be her favourite hobby eating though where she puts the food I’m not sure I look at a slice of cake I gain the weight she eats a whole cake and it wouldn’t show! she’s one of the lucky ones

DO YOU DO EVERYTHING TOGETHER OR DO YOU LIKE TO KEEP INDEPENDENT?

SAMARA: We both would spend most of our time together unless Shannon is working and even then I pop in to see her to have a coffee and help her out in the shop in any way I can which isn’t much but any help is appreciated! We have the best laugh with each other no matter what we do she’s my best friend soul mate and wife all in one so i love every minute I get to spend with her and of course the thee dogs Calla Odin and Athena! The only thing we don’t do together is when I get to play call of duty on the PS4 I’ll be blowing stuff up while Shannon is doing yoga or reading.

HAVE YOU A FAMILY, IS THIS SOMETHING ON THE PLAN FOR YOU?

SHANNON: We just have the three fur babies Calla Odin and Athena, but we definitely want kids! That is one of the main reasons we wanted to get married and married a year after our engagement so we would have a wee while to travel in the camper while married before we start to make our family bigger, I always said if I had kids I would want to be married before having kids it was important to samara too so we got hitched and now can’t wait to get on the road in our wee camper making amazing memories to hopefully tell our kids. Samra would like a football team of kids but we have settled at three.

TELL US WHO MADE YOUR DAY POSSIBLE IN TERMS OF RINGS, FLOWERS, PHOTOGRAPHER ETC...

SAMARA: My beautiful wife made the venue stunning with the flowers everywhere no one could of done a better job than Shannon when it comes to flowers and everything else she planned and made it happen. Steven Neeson our photographer was absolutely brilliant! he is so so good at what he does! he was just like one of the family the whole day and night! I honestly could not fault any of our suppliers they all made our big day special from start to finish.