Graphic designer Feena McCarthy married Swiss fiancé Claude-Alain Descloux in the beautiful Thomas Prior Hall in Dublin this autumn. With help from their friends, family, a very patient sister(!), and the staff at Bewley’s Hotel, the couple brought together their love of travel with a bit of Old Hollywood glamour to create a unique and meaningful celebration. Kevin Morris documented their day perfectly, from the big emotions down to the smallest details!
The couple: Feena McCarthy & Claude-Alain Descloux
Length of engagement: 1 year | Wedding Date: 15/09/2012
Wedding location: University Church, St. Stephen’s Green and Thomas Prior Hall, Bewleys Ballsbridge
Photographer: Kevin Morris Photography
By Karen Birney
We met… Nine years ago in true Irish style in Flannery’s pub on Camden Street in Dublin. I noticed Claude-Alain straight away. Our eyes met across the room and the rest, as they say, is history…
First impressions… For me it was tall, dark and handsome… and who can resist the Swiss accent?!
Our ceremony… My parents got married in University church, Stephens Green, 40 years ago so we thought it would be lovely to get married there. My uncle is a priest and he did the ceremony for us which made it really personal and meaningful. My sister is a singer so she sang at the church and she was also in the band later in the evening.
Our proposal… It was our eight year anniversary and we had booked into The Stephouse Hotel in Carlow for the evening and for dinner. Claude Alain had it all planned that he would spell out ‘Will You Marry Me’ in percy pigs on the bed (I LOVE percy pigs, and for those of you who don’t know what they are, go to M&S!) but we got lost on the way down there so he had no time to do it before dinner! So then he just asked me straight out in the room. We had kilos of percy pigs to get through for the rest of the week!
My dress… The dress was an amazing stroke of luck, The White Room in Mullingar were having a flash sample sale in January so myself and my sister decided to go down and see what it was like. It was my first (and only) time shopping for the dress so I didn’t think I would get anything there, but after queueing for about an hour and trying on five dresses I found ‘The One’! I bought it there and then and didn’t look back. It was the perfect dress for me, simple clean lines and a touch of Old Hollywood which was exactly what I wanted.
Our wedding theme/colours… We wanted it to be a really personal day for both of us and included lots of personal touches and we also wanted it to have a classy glamourous feel to it. My mum did the bouquets, which were absolutely stunning with white roses and sea holly in mine. This tied in with our overall colour, which was navy blue. An amazing friend of mine did the cupcakes which were amazing and also tied in with the colour theme!
Our table plan and stationery… We both have a love for travelling to exotic places and have been to many together so we decided to work a theme of travelling into our wedding. Also as Claude-Alain is Swiss we will always be travelling from Switzerland to Ireland and back. We had a vintage suitcase (from my parents attic, where there are about five more!) with postcards for each guest slotted in. Each postcard told the guest where to sit and also had the menu. The seating plan was a world map and each table name was a place we had been to. We also made paper lanterns with each guests name on them as table seat names (we had lots of help with this from my sister as making 140 paper lanterns is no easy task!).
My favourite part of the wedding day… Where to start, it was all so amazing! Getting ready with my two sisters and my mum… Seeing Claude-Alain for the first time wearing his suit… or walking up the aisle with my dad past all Claude-Alain’s uncles and aunts wearing traditional Gruyerian (Swiss) outfits! My sister singing… The vows… The Swiss singing ‘Le Ranz les Vaches’ when we walked into Thomas Prior Hall… my mum’s speech, my dad’s speech, both simply beautiful… my father-in-law’s speech… the first dance… It was truly a beautiful day and we will never forget it and the people who helped make it happen, from our families and friends giving us so much help, to the amazing venue and staff at Thomas Prior Hall.
My advice for other brides… Enjoy the day! Let the stress go and accept you can’t control eveything on the day and then you really will enjoy it. We both totally relaxed and stayed up until 5am making use of every last minute of the day!
Vendors
Venue – The stunning Thomas Prior Hall, Bewleys Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
Stationery – I did it all myself as I’m a graphic designer! 
www.feenamccarthy.com 086 7803958
Photographer – Kevin Morris Photography
