True Love Tuesday Sarah and Scott Hyland... - Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine

Professional Irish dancer Sarah Costello originally from Belfast and now living in Celebration, Florida met Pittsburgh born Scott Hyland while he was on a golfing trip. Sarah was performing in an Irish bar on St.Patricks day in 2019 when Scott walked into the bar with his sister who was moving from Florida back to Pittsburgh, Scott had actually stayed on an extra day after his golfing trip to help his sister pack. They got chatting in the bar and the next day Scott text Sarah from Pittsburgh saying he had booked a flight back to Florida and wanted to take her on a date when he arrived 12 days later. The rest as they say is history, they now both live very happily in Celebration in the Sunshine State.

Scott took 6 weeks to plan the perfect proposal for Sarah, it was during the pandemic so they weren’t able to travel and their family weren’t able to travel to them so Scott arranged for the whole family to be on Zoom to watch the proposal, thankfully he had a good instinct that Sarah would accept. On Sunday 20^th December 2020 Scott proposed while they were in Spring Park in Celebration in front of all of Sarah’s Irish Dance families from her Irish Dance School who thought they were attending a Christmas gift exchange, both families were on Zoom and Scott dropped to one knee and proposed, Sarah very happily accepted saying it was magical. Scott chose a stunning three stone white gold princess cut diamond ring from Brilliant Earth.

With the lockdowns and travel restrictions Sarah’s family weren’t able to help her choose a gown in person and they had to use Facetime with Sarah’s mum and sister in Belfast. Sarah went to a few different bridal stores in Orlando but couldn’t find exactly what she was after until she found a beautiful off the rack gown in Bridal Gallery Couture in Dr. Phillips, Florida, their in house seamstress Daisy was able to make it the Disney Princess gown of her dreams with stunning lace sleeves and off the shoulder neckline. Sarah found a stunning emerald dress for her sister Eimhear who was her Bridesmaid from Mac Duggal Designer online, Sarah’s niece wore her beautiful handmade dress that she had worn at her first communion the previous year.

Scott and his groomsmen got their suits from Red Groomswear, Belfast “who were amazing to work with and so flexible, considering they only had 48 hours to prepare the suits” Sarah told us. Scott’s brother TJ and his cousin Logan travelled from America to be his Best Men.

Sarah and Scott planned their wedding for 2^nd April 2022 in St Peters Cathedral, Belfast with their reception in Belfast Castle, they had an Irish/American and Disney theme for their wedding. They brought the theme in with having green and gold colours along with Disney wedding favours and a Disney Princess gown. The grooms party all wore Irish Tweed with Irish Caps. They chose this fun theme as Sarah is Irish and Scott is American and they both live and work in Disney. They didn’t set a budget and said “we both work very hard in the USA and decided we would spend what we work hard to earn on our very special day”

The wedding went without a hitch apart from Sarah misplacing her Jimmy Choos the night before, thankfully finding them in her Mums closet, Sarah also pulled a small hole in her dress outside the Cathedral which of course made her panic, she didn’t need to though as nobody could see it as her dress was so big. Making their day extra special was Davey Music who put on a fabulous show, they also enjoyed a Ceili with a Ceili Caller and an ice cream truck from Brooke Avenue. They also had Irish Wolfhounds and Irish Dancers form a guard of honour outside the Cathedral which was amazing and drew quite the crowd of spectators. Irish Dancers from McGowan Moore Academy of Irish Dance put on a show in the evening as well. They had their first dance to music by an American country singer Matt Stell – I prayed for you.

Sarah and Scott said planning their wedding was quite stressful with the time differences from Florida to Belfast and also both countries having different restrictions at different times. A highlight of the day for Sarah was “coming out of the Cathedral with the church bells ringing, all the public looking on, the dancers doing the guard of honour and the magnificent Irish Wolfhounds coming over to greet us” Scott said “the whole day and having my family in Ireland and most of them for the very first time and experiencing a real Irish wedding” the both said “looking back we wouldn’t change a thing, everything was perfect, if we could have gotten rid of the Covid pandemic and the fear it creates, we would have got rid of that and maybe had a few more guests come to the wedding”

Before heading of on honeymoon first of all to Slieve Donard in Newcastle and then Dubai and Paris, Scott and Sarah gave this advice to couples planning their own wedding “everyone will have their own opinion on what you should and shouldn’t do, don’t listen to them, do what you want and your day will be perfect”

They are now back in sunny Florida and finding married life extremely happy and busy with work and their dog Patch.