HIDDEN GEMS:ARE YOU SO mad about skiing that you want to get married on the slopes? British company Ski 2 organises these big days with a difference on the slopes of the Italian Alps.
Its office in the resort village of Champoluc is run by Bridget Haly, who is second-generation Irish.
"Most of the brides and grooms have a passion for skiing. With one wedding we had recently the groom had proposed to the bride in Champoluc on a skiing holiday, so they came back here to get married," she says.
The company can arrange a civil ceremony in the town hall in the nearby village of Antagnod, at which the Italian official performing the service is accompanied by a translator.
This year, for the first time, a couple married in a local Catholic church.
The schedule is flexible, but a popular option, once the ceremony is taken care of, is for guests to board cable cars for celebratory drinks and nibbles at a pisteside restaurant.
Those who wish to ski can hit the slopes at this stage. Unless the newly married couple are expert skiers, the action photographs tend to be taken on nursery slopes.
Guests usually then return to the village to relax for a few hours before meeting up again for dinner. Many opt to finish off the night with a fireworks display, which costs about €140.
Irish groom Alan, from Lisburn, described his ski wedding as an awesome way to get married. "Most of our friends say it's one of best weddings they have been to. Plus it's a great excuse to go skiing every year for our anniversary."
Naturally, there is some paperwork to be done before you leave Ireland, including bringing documents to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin.
A Certificate of No Impediment, obtained from a Register Office, can take longer than the usual five days to process if one or both of the partners intending to marry is divorced. www.skiweddings.com
