The Build Up.
Monday 26th May – Spent all day trying to organise new wedding favours as the wedding cake shaped cookies I’d ordered arrived both in the completely wrong colour and about 85% of them were broken. Ordered chocolates in boxes from Leonidas in Heirlooms, Cruises Street, Limerick and Mary couldn’t have been more helpful. She did the whole lot and wouldn’t even take a deposit over the phone, just trusted that we’d show up to collect them after all her hard work. Then that evening we got a phonecall from the priest who was due to marry us to say that he’d fallen and fractured his arm and was in a sling and while he’d do the rehearsal no bother, he’d prefer if we could find someone else to do the actual ceremony as he was finding it a bit hard to manoeuvre in the robes with his arm in a sling. Panic Stations ensued and Hubby rang his PP who was attending the wedding as a guest. He was on retreat below in Kerry and wouldn’t return til the Thursday night so we had to get a phone number for the retreat, phone, leave a message and wait for him to call us back. Thankfully, he did quite quickly and said he’d be delighted to perform the ceremony.
Tuesday 27th May – Tore around like a mad thing organising bits and pieces. Had the rehearsal that evening. Had a small bridezilla moment cause my parents and nephew were coming out to meet us at our house and collect the suits and we were running about 5 minutes late and text them to say so and to wait at the house. Got to the house, no sign of them, waited til 5pm then just heading out the door to the rehearsal at 5.30pm (after missing dh’s suit fitting cause of waiting for them) to see them drive up. They’d left their phones at home so didn’t get the calls we’d made to them. Had a small bit of a freak out at them as we had enough to be doing the following day without having to fit in the suit fitting as well, then all was calm. Did the rehearsal, all went well. Went to dinner, then went home and had a drink with cbm and bm.
Wednesday 28th May – Tore in first thing for the final suit fitting then into Limerick to sort out the final details about the cake, collect suitcases from wedding list, collect wedding favours from Heirlooms, pick up a few bits in town and then out to the hotel for final numbers and quick run through. Had a quick late lunch there and met with the photographer Ronan Downes, who took some “engagement” photos to have as part of our album. Headed home for 6pm to meet a friend who was dropping off a present, a gorgeous set of champagne glasses. CBM called in with a beautiful white gold chain with a little diamond on it for me, was so chuffed.
Thursday 29th May – Had pretty much everything sorted at this stage. Had been watching the complete SATC seasons on Paramount in preparation for the film, watched the final two episodes that morning. Tidied myself up, packed my stuff up and headed into the hotel, picking BM and CBM up along the way. Dropped our stuff to the hotel bridal suite, which was huge and headed into Limerick. Told hubby on the way that there was no more I could do and that it was now his baby. Gave him all the phone numbers and cheques he’d need and breathed a sigh of relief. Picked up a final few bits in town and then headed up to The Ivy at Halo to have our nails done. Had gotten gel french toes done myself there the week before and they’re brilliant, saves you having to paint your toes on honeymoon (and lets face it, you’ve much better things to do on honeymoon then paint your toes). Came out and went to Abrakebabra for dinner, had intended on going somewhere abit fancier but never got round to it as we were afraid we’d be too late for the cinema. Headed out to Storm Cinemas about 9 and went to see the 9.30pm showing of Sex and the City…..it’s brilliant but quite long, it’s 2.5hrs. Came out of cinema at 12 and we’re standing there waiting for taxi and I’m going, OMG I can’t believe I’m getting married today!!!!!! Had a quick drink in residents bar and off to bed. Slept fine thanks to Mammies sleeping tablets.
The Big Day.
Friday 30th May – Woke up about 7.30am, lay there for a while then got up and ran a bath about 7.45am. Relaxed in the tub until CBM woke up then got up and had a bit of a giggle together til breakfast arrived at 8.30am. We had ticked pretty much everything on the menu the night before to make sure we wouldn’t starve throughout the day (best idea we every had). Stuffed our faces with pancakes and coffee and fry up. Hairdresser arrived at 9am. Caren from Halo is fantastic. Had hairstyle picked out for BM but nothing particular for CBM, asked Caren what she thought and she came up with a lovely style for her, everyone kept saying how beautiful it was and how well it suited her. Got my hair done last to allow it to last as well as possible (She did a great job, it was still immaculate at 6.30am when I finally headed to bed). My mam arrived too to get her hair blow dried. Mandy O’Loughlin arrived to do the make up around 11am and she is the loveliest girl, so cheerful and bubbly, an absolute dote. The makeup was perfect and everyone commented on it, they told me that I looked like a (depending on who you talked to) 30’s, 40’s or 50’s film star, which is the sort of look I was going for so it worked out well. The flowers arrived and they were stunning, Elaine Flanagan of Cerise Flowers did an amazing job. I wanted really bright cerise pink roses and no one else could grasp exactly what colour I was looking for. Ronan Downes the photographer arrived around 12pm and got some lovely photos of us getting ready. Next thing I knew my dad was arriving dressed in his suit and I’m still in me PJs. Ronan is taking pictures of the frock and I’m standing there waiting for it. Fired on the dress, few quick pictures and out the door at 1.25pm…..had intended on leaving around 1.15 as was Friday of Bank Holiday weekend, the church is in Adare (on the main Kerry road….where everyone would be heading for the weekend) there was roadworks on the round about outside the hotel and we were travelling in a vintage car so figured it might be kinda slow. BMs went in Hubbies car with BIL. 2 minutes out the road from the hotel I realised I’d forgotten the veil!!!! We’d had it spread out on the dining table in the bridal suite but had moved it when Mandy came in so wouldn’t get makeup on it. Of course had left my phone in the hotel, dad had none so had to borrow a phone off the driver and the only number I could remember was Hubbies so had to ring him, say don’t freak out but I’ve forgotten my veil. Ring your brother and tell him turn around a go back to the hotel and pick it up. Panic over. Arrived in Adare at 1.50pm, there was no Flip traffic at all after all that. Parked down the road from the church on the opposite side and the driver went off to start hunting people into the church (most were in the pub up the road). There was American tourists taking photos of the thatched cottages and then turning round taking photos of dad and me in the car, we were mortified. Eventually moved car into church yard once hubby was safely inside the church. BMs arrived with veil, collected the flower girl, took a few more pictures and then off we took down the aisle. Hubbies face was a picture when we finally managed to lock eyes half way down the aisle, I’ll never forget the look of love on his face. Dad was a bit weepy handing me over but held it together. Ceremony went well, we had a few funny things happen thought. Firstly we lit the unity candles and sat down and when the priest turned the page of the bible the breeze blew out my candle. He caught my eye and smirked at me and I cracked up, dh had no clue what was going on til priest made some joke about my love not extinguishing so soon that it was he blew it out, he relit it and we moved on. When it came to the readings, dhs brother and my brother were to do them. BIL got up straight away but my brother didn’t notice and stayed put so BIL was nearly finished his reading by the time brother got up to the altar. He headed straight up and was just opening his mouth to start when the singer started singing the psalm (ag chriost an siol), we thought she’d only sing the chorus but she sang the whole long and my poor brother was standing there for about 5 minutes with the head down going redder by the second. The fact that you could heat his wife and son cracking up laughing below in the congregation didn’t help him much at all, god love him. The rest of the ceremony flew and then next thing we knew we were signing the register and heading back up the aisle as husband and wife. Took some photos outside the church and then headed back to the hotel. We had intended on taking some in the park in adare but it was threatening rain so we didn’t bother, good thing too as we were hardly in the car when it started lashing rain. It rained between church and hotel and that was it for the day, thank god. Had champagne and chocolate covered strawberries reception and took a lot more photos. Headed in for dinner around 5.45pm and had speeches first as dad was so nervous he wouldn’t be able to eat. Speeches went well, dh made a great job of his and dads was short, sweet and to the point. We named the tables after Audrey Hepburn films and I didn’t really pay too much attention to who had what table name (except our own, Love in the Afternoon), Hubbies bosses were all on a table on their own with their wives and the table was called “The Unforgiven”, they wanted to know what they’d done to offend him!!! The food was fantastic, we couldn’t fault a thing. The wine was lovely (had a friend of ours pick it as we’re useless at that sort of thing), everyone commented on it, even my brother drank 4 glasses and he hates wine. The band arrived and started setting up as we were finishing dinner, we had them play our first song on cd and it went off quite well. Got a few of the steps wrong but the big frock hid the fact that I was standing all over dh feet. Then the real partying got under way. The band were brilliant, even the CBMs dad, who hadn’t danced since his own wedding 30 years ago, got up and danced to them. The photographer ran a slide show of some of the photos he had taken while the music was playing and they look stunning. The evening food went down the treat, the cake was outstanding (Danes Bakery, Limerick) and we had mini fish and chips in paper cones (along with the obligatory sausies and sandwiches). The DJ was brilliant (Declan Hughes), we gave him a list of songs we’d like him to play and he played every last one of them along with a great selection of other songs. One of the songs we asked for was “Thriller” and that was deadly craic altogether, everyone knew a few moves (all from watching “13 Going On 30” of course) so we’d all do a bit and then copy everyone else, it was so funny. The crowd started thining out about 3am and by 5am there were only about 30 of us still in the function room. The hotel were great, there was no rush to get us out of the room, even though they had another wedding there the day after. Finally headed up to bed at 6.30am. It was a brilliant day and couldn’t have gone better, we had a fabulous time.
Had bbq in dh families pub the day after, the weather was great and we had a band, dj and bouncy castle. Myself and new hubby were the last to leave at 4am
Well if you’ve managed to last til the end, fair play to ya. Go pour yourself a stiff drink, you deserve it. Thanks for reading.
Contact Details:
Hotel: Castletroy Park Hotel, Nicola Fagan, Ph: 061 335566
Church: Hotel Trinity Abbey Church, Adare
Hair: Caren at Halo Hair, Ph: 061 446525
Makeup: Mandy O’Loughlin, Ph: 087 9203530
Florist: Elaine Flanagan, Cerise Flowers, Ph: 086 1590659 / 022 48703
Photographer: Ronan Downes, Ph: 086 8140362
Nails: The Ivy at Halo, Ph: 061 44635
The Cake: The Danes Bakery, Ph: 061 400477
DJ: Declan Hughes, Ph: 087 2026033
Band: Handipac, Ph: 087 8199720
Suit Hire: Noels Suit Hire, Ph: 069 61585
Dress: The Wedding Shop at BT, Ph: 01 6171133
Bridesmaids: The Wedding Shop at BT, Ph: 01 6171133
