A Beauty and the Beast Themed Wedding

“Our wedding was a Beauty and the Beast theme. It was the first film I’ve ever seen at the cinema as a child and it’s been my favourite ever since.”

Your Names: Denise White and Keith Doyle

Length of engagement: 6 years

Wedding Date: 2019-11-14

Wedding location: Knightsbrook Hotel

Photographer: Denlo Photography

How did you meet and get engaged?

We met in 2008. I was renting a house with my friends and decided to have a party. My sister had come with her pals, Keith been one of them, and we just hit it off straight away. We decided to exchange numbers and I discovered I’d already had Keith’s number saved in my phone. We met 3 years prior in a pub, had exchanged phone numbers but never went on a date and here we are nearly 12 years on, married with 2 beautiful boys.

Describe your wedding:

Our wedding was a Beauty and the Beast theme. It was the first film I’ve ever seen at the cinema as a child and it’s been my favourite ever since. We had wedding invitations that represented the gates of the castle and inside was the famous rose inviting family and friends to be our guests. We loved the invitations and Andreea at Save the Date.ie was amazing at creating the invitations. We also had a Beauty and the Beast cake which was unbelievable. The detail and all the work that went into it was unbelievable. Bev at Amazing Cakes in Bray was fantastic. We also had a big fairytale book that had our table plan to complete the theme and it was such a lovely feature, everyone loved it. There was no specific colour theme, we hired uplighters for the room to get that lovely purple/pink glow and it was beautiful with the sparkly dancefloor.

Tell us about your bridal look:

My hair was the most I stressed about. I’d always thought I would wear my hair up on my wedding day as I love to wear it down most days and felt up would be different. I had Sian Sharkey tormented. Each style she did was beautiful but I just didn’t feel comfortable with it up and in the end, I opted for a Hollywood wave with the right side pulled back and held with a hairpiece. It was gorgeous, Sian is amazing at hair and I absolutely loved it.

My makeup was by the talented Tracy Duggan (The Makeup Mentor) Tracy has been doing my makeup for years and I wouldn’t have got married on the 14th if she hadn’t have been available to do it. I opted for a simple look that was elegant and I just left Tracy to work her magic which she did. I loved my makeup, it was perfect. I felt like a million dollars and that’s hard for me to feel.

I had always kept a picture of this stunning dress by Mark Lesley on my phone from the first day we booked our wedding. It was a dress I adored but knew would never suit me. So when the bridal shop closed down that I had ordered my dress with 8 weeks before due to get married, I decided to go in search of the Mark Lesley dress I’d had a pic of and found it at Smart Brides in Portlaoise. Well, it was meant to be. I loved it more than the dress I’d originally ordered. The staff at Smart Brides were amazing and managed to get the dress of my dreams at such short notice. I loved my dress so much I hated taking it off. I’m so glad things happened the way they did. It was stressful at the time but definitely happened for that reason I believe.

What did your bridesmaids wear?

I had 2 bridesmaids, my 2 sisters. Choosing dresses wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. They wore 3/4 length laced sleeve dresses that were fitted full-length navy in colour. The sleeves were a nice touch as it was a winter wedding. They both opted to have their hair down and I left it to them to choose their own makeup looks. They both looked beautiful and felt comfortable in the dresses.

What was your ceremony like?

We were married in Holy Child Church Whitehall. We loved every bit of the journey. Our priest was a family friend who married my cousins and has also christened babies in the family. Fr Casey was amazing. We enjoyed all our meetings with him prior to the big day. He made the ceremony really personal, enjoyable and very relaxed. The church was beautifully decorated with lanterns outside and inside and gorgeous pew ends up the aisle. Magic moments did a great job we highly recommend June and her team. We had Kiera Dignam sing and she was amazing.

Tell us about your wedding venue:

Our venue was Knightsbrook Hotel in Trim and I still can’t thank them enough. We loved this hotel after being at a wedding a few years before. The first time we met Mary I felt instantly at ease. Nothing was ever any trouble and on the day Mary and the staff went above and beyond to make sure our day was special. The food was gorgeous, the big chandelier and staircase are beautiful features for photographs. Then on top of that is the grounds. We were so grateful to our photographers, Denlo, who arranged with the hotel a golf buggy to take us to a little garden at the back of the hotel for some photographs, it was beautiful.

What is your favourite memory from your wedding day?

My favourite memory from the day was arriving at the church, My two sons 9 and 6 were jumping up and down with excitement as I got out of the car with my Dad. I will never forget their little faces they enjoyed every minute of the day and kept asking us to get married again. I’ve lots of favourites about the day but another big one for me was our secret waiter. We decided to surprise our guests. Do something different and it went down a treat. Conor from Singers Sicreto was amazing. He really got the crowd going and it was a great way to get the party started before the band arrived. I would highly recommend them. We danced, sang, waved napkins in the air and he took our breath away with the final song.

Have you got any advice for other couples?

My advice is to try not to stress. Everything will work out in the end. I was dreading walking up the aisle the thoughts of all eyes on me was my worst nightmare but if I could do it all again I would. The day comes and goes so fast. Make sure to take a step back and breathe it all in. Enjoy every bit of the build-up. Hold the head high walking up the aisle, it’s honestly the most amazing day of your life so try to relax and enjoy the moment.

Suppliers