Bride: Freida, Publisher
Groom: Clyde, Lecturer
Date: October 28, 2011
Freida and Clyde planned a stylish yet classic wedding that showed off the best sites of Dublin city to their guests.
They chose Dublin City Hall for their ceremony for its location, right in the middle of Dublin city centre, and its unique architecture, which created a beautiful backdrop for their photographs. It also perfectly matched their vintage wedding theme.
Paul from Moat Hill Photography was there to capture their elegant wedding day, especially Freida’s amazing 1940s, silk dress from New York that had a removable, vintage lace cape. She looked stunning in this gown and could give the sexy sirens from the golden age a run for their money any day!
Our wedding theme/ colours… My choice of vintage wedding dress probably provided a loose vintage theme for the wedding.
Our bridesmaid… My best friend since school, Edel.
Our bestman… Groom’s brother, James.
We chose our ceremony venue because… We knew that we didn’t want to get married in a church, but it was nonetheless important to us that the venue we chose was beautiful and befitting the occasion, so we spent a long time looking at different options for civil ceremonies. When we first visited City Hall, we were astounded that we had so often walked past this magnificent building, but never ventured inside. It was perfect for us – spectacular architecturally, atmospheric and located in the middle of the city centre. (We pass it almost every day and so are constantly reminded of our wedding.) Furthermore, because City Hall is owned by Dublin City Council and is a historic public building, it felt like our wedding was a part of the city we live in. It was a privilege to be permitted to celebrate such an important, personal event in one of our city’s finest public buildings and I commend the City Council for opening it up for this use.
The staff at City Hall were also really enthusiastic and helpful — they only hold one wedding a day at the venue and are clearly very excited by their work.
My dress… It was a 1940s dress from New York with removable, vintage lace cape over a silk dress. I bought the dress from the lovely Kathy and Caroline at Dirty Fabulous, who have an eye-watering range of vintage gems and a real passion for making ordinary ladies look (we like to think!) like sirens of the silver screen.
Wedding photographer… Paul at Moat Hill Photography. Reportage or documentary-style photography is our preferred style – we wanted a skilled photographer who would record the day artistically, but with a minimum of fuss and artifice. Paul succeeded on both counts. His extremely warm, friendly, unobtrusive approach was commented on by all of our guests who were made to feel completely relaxed in his presence. At the same time, he brilliantly captured the day’s wide range of emotions and City Hall’s stunning architecture and beautiful natural light! We will cherish his photographs of the day more and more with each passing year.
Our wedding reception… The Cliff Townhouse. It would be difficult to overstate how wonderful our reception in The Cliff Townhouse was. Delicious food, truly exceptional staff and a beautiful venue all contributed to making it very special. I will always be grateful to The Cliff Townhouse for their commitment to making our celebration perfect. Our guests raved about the three-course dinner, fantastic wine and superb service and also loved that the reception was in the city centre so they could walk to it from the ceremony in City Hall. (I suspect a sneaky pint or two was taken on the way!)
My advice for other brides… Do not stress and do not pay attention to what other people insist you “have to do”. We planned our wedding in less than six months and it involved two events: this one and a full, catered reception for 120 people two days later. Both days were brilliant and didn’t cost the earth.
Vendors
Dress: Dirty Fabulous with alterations by Fitz on Drury St.
Shoes: Kathy De Stafford Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: Reiss
Flowers: Fruit and Veg Market, Smithfield
Music: Jennifer Doyle
Cake: Hubby
Hair: Gillian Edgeworth
