The couple: Sona and Nick
Length of engagement: 10 months | Wedding date: 12th February 2014
Wedding Venue: Kinnitty Castl Hotel, Offaly, Ireland
Photographer: Roslyn Byrne, Couple Photography
We met… on a backpacker bus in New Zealand while travelling in opposite directions around the world.
Our proposal… While on holiday in Mexico Nick proposed during a scuba dive at the bottom of the sea. He had the ring tied to his shorts and dropped to one knee on the sea bed.
My dress… I had two! I got both from Tamem Michael in Ballymount who couldn’t have been better in the lead up to the big day. I also got a fabulous feathered birdcage veil there, which was very striking and fun.
My hair and make-up… For both weddings I and the bridesmaids pooled our know-how and did it all ourselves. Everybody commented on how professional it looked so I don’t think we did too badly and it really made for a relaxed, funny morning the day of the wedding! We also saved a tidy sum to spend on drinks for the guests!
We chose our photographer because… Couple Photography‘s exhibition stand in the RDS bridal show was covered in trash the dress photos as opposed to kissy kissy photos! Ros seemed like our kind of person!
Our ceremony… In Ireland, we organised a ceremony for our families in the drawing room of Kinnitty Castle Hotel with Romy McAuley of A Beautiful Ceremony who couldn’t have made it more special. We have had endless compliments on how relaxed, romantic and enjoyable the ceremony was.
We chose our venue because… In Ireland we wanted a castle that really looked like an authentic castle rather than a 5 star hotel in the four walls of a castle. A lot of our guests came from USA and UK and so the ‘Irish castle’ was a source of great excitement for them. Kinnitty Castle Hotel definitely ticked that box. We also wanted a more relaxed and non-formal atmosphere that we thought Kinnitty effortlessly achieved. The staff and food were second to none which makes a massive difference in how the day turned out.
We chose our wedding coordinator because… For the Irish wedding, coordination was done by Cavan Dunne in Kinnitty Castle Hotel who we found superb, relaxed, helpful and available at all times and ensured the day went off without a hitch.
Our menu… The food was superb and plentiful at Kinnitty Castle Hotel. After the canapés we sat down to a fantastic meal of goats cheese in filo pastry or buffalo mozzarella with parma ham. Then the ginger and carrot soup was delicious. Main course was fabulous Monkfish or fillet steak and then an assiette of desserts. The evening menu at 11.30 of bacon butties, chicken vol-au-vents and fish and chips also went down a treat. Everyone raved about the food, Kinnitty Castle Hotel couldn’t have done better.
My piece of advice for other brides… The more relaxed you are before it, the more you’ll enjoy it on the day!
Our New Zealand Wedding
Wedding Date: March 22nd 2014
Wedding Location: Coromandel Peak, Wanaka, New Zealand
Photographer: Aspiring Photography, New Zealand
The reason we chose to get married in New Zealand was because we wanted to get married where we met. When we came up with the idea of a heli-wedding we thought we should make the most of New Zealand’s jaw-dropping scenery and have some fun with a day in a helicopter while we were at it! All co-ordination for the New Zealand wedding was done by the celebrant and the helicopter company who he worked with. Our legal marriage was in New Zealand and we had a beautiful private ceremony on Coromadel Peak with a local celebrant. For our wedding meal we went for a 7 course blind tasting menu which meant we couldn’t eat for a week!
My favourite part of our wedding… The fact that we got the best of both worlds – the spectacular, private and romantic wedding that we wanted as well as the fun of spending the day/night with all our friends and family to celebrate with us.
