An Elegant, Romantic Real Wedding at Mount Wolseley by Tara Aherne Photography

Real Weddings

“Our son Cillian carried up a beautiful handmade heart that read “Here comes the bride” and looked on with pride while his mammy and daddy exchanged vows.”

Wedding location: Church of The Most Holy Rosary, Tullow
Reception: Mount Wolseley Hotel, Tullow. Co.Carlow
Length of engagement: 11 months | Wedding date: 26th November 2011

Photographer: Photography by Tara Aherne

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We met… In our local pub ‘The Roselawn Inn’. Instead of him beating around the bush he asked me straight out for a date, which definitely impressed me… not to mention his good looks and funny sense of humour! He tells me love at first sight – Should I believe him?

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Our proposal… Shay proposed to me on Christmas eve night after tucking our son Cillian into bed and getting everything ready for Santa’s big arrival. Totally oblivious I went into the kitchen to make some food and open the wine (as you do) and when I arrived back into the sitting room Shay was down on one knee…! Shocked was an understatement… It was so romantic! The first person I phoned was my dad. I just screamed down the phone hardly able to contain my excitement, the poor man was only short of having a heart attack thinking something was terribly wrong! Seamus finally got on the phone to put him at ease and share our good news.

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Our ceremony… was held in The Church of The Most Holy Rosary, Tullow, Co.Carlow.. We chose this church as it was the closest to the reception. We were married by a friend of the family Fr. Joe McLoughlin, he helped personalise our day, he added humour to our ceremony and made us feel at ease as he knew most of our family and friends. We wanted our son Cillian involved as much as possible throughout the ceremony.. he carried up a beautiful handmade heart that read “Here comes the bride” he looked on with pride while his mammy and daddy exchanged vows.

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My dress… I purchased my dress in Tamen Michael in Ballymount. I had the dress re-designed as I wanted personalise it to my own taste. (Changing the cut of the dress, adding a bow belt and changing the diamond finish to pearls).

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We chose our photographer because… I met  Tara (as well as many other photographers) during a wedding expedition held in the RDS Dublin. Tara really stood out for me the most, friendly, professional and not only was she within our price budget but her package also included a pre-shoot at our wedding venue. This got us comfortable in front of the camera before the big day & gave Tara a chance to get to know the hotel / choose picture perfect locations etc. I set out looking for a female photographer too – so meeting Tara was an added bonus!

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We chose our venue because… We had been at a wedding at the Mount Wolseley Hotel previous to ours and we fell in love with the hotel, the staff / service really stood out, not to mention the delicious food!. We wanted to get married somewhere outside of Dublin (but nothing too far away) with a country side feel to it and this hotel had everything we wished for.. (one hour outside of Dublin, golf course, houses on the land amd lots of picturesque scenery) and luckily was within our price budget too.

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Our wedding theme/colours… I wanted to keep our wedding theme very simple, the colours we chose were purple and ivory cream.

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My favourite part of the wedding day… Wow, too many to choose from – to mention just a few; walking down the aisle with my dad, my husband’s reaction when he turned to see me, my first dance.. But if I had to choose just one it would be the speeches. I was truly blown away. Unfortunately my father-in-law has since passed away – but his beautiful words on our wedding day will stay with me forever.

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Our honeymoon… We wanted a bit of madness followed by peaceful tranquility so we chose Las Vegas and Mexico – amazing is an understatement! We stayed in the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Vegas, and Secrets Maroma Hotel in Mexico.

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My piece of advice for other brides… Make sure to check the height difference with your partner when choosing the shoes!

Other vendors

Dress: Tamen Michael
Flowers: Tullow Florists
Bridesmaid Dresses: Dessy.com
Music: The Perfect Day Band
Venue/Church Décor: Finesse Weddings
Shoes: Brown Thomas, Dublin
Jewellery: Etsy.com
Suits: Tango’s, Temple Bar