A Romantic Wedding with a Rustic, Vintage Feel

Articles, Real Weddings

 

The beautiful decor was inspired by the look of the venue. Although there was no particular theme, they chose dusty pinks and sage green with a rustic, vintage feel which is super romantic!

Your Names: Fiona Cuskelly and Shane O’Brien

Length of engagement: 19 months

Wedding Date: 2019-07-19

Wedding location: Ballymagarvey Village

Photographer: Denlo Photography

Videographer: Darren Byrne Photography and Film

 

Fiona and Shane visited New York during the Easter holidays in 2016 and fell in love with the city. As their Christmas present to each other, they went back to New York in December 2017, which is when they got engaged!

 

 

The beautiful decor was inspired by the look of the venue. Although there was no particular theme, they chose dusty pinks and sage green with a rustic, vintage feel which is super romantic! “With the help of our parents, aunts and bridesmaids, we did all the decor ourselves. The centerpieces for the tables, welcome signs, table plan and table names, place setting names, favours, photograph ladder, crates etc.”

 

 

Shane is a huge Bob Dylan fan, so the tables were named after his favourite Bob Dylan albums. The couple framed LPs and put them on small wooden easels in the centre of the tables. Their sweet wedding favours were CDs with some of their favourite songs. They used single LPs with a personalised sticker as placemats.

 

 

“I wanted a dress that I could dance in. Fitted, sleeves and embellished. I didn’t want a long train or lots of layers.” We love Fiona’s gorgeous birdcage veil and headpiece from Kyna Brady of Stash.ie.

 

“We didn’t want our bridesmaids to wear exactly the same outfits so we mixed and matched skirts and tops. The skirts were dusty pink and the tops a mix of pink, silver and nude. We bought the skirts in Folkster and the tops in ASOS, Ollie and Mac and Soho Market. The same for the groomsmen, we didn’t want them to wear traditional suits so they wore Farrah navy chinos and Cavani maroon waistcoats and blazers. We were worried about the outfits matching but it all came together in the end!”

 

 

Fiona and Shane had a beautiful Humanist ceremony, with celebrant Joe Armstrong. “He made us both feel very relaxed and made everyone feel welcome. He carried out the ceremony in a relaxed and humorous manner, while at the same time keeping us at ease. We wanted a personal ceremony to be attended onsite by all our friends and family. We picked out poems, readings and songs that meant a lot to us. Rituals carried out included ring-warming, hand-fasting, and lighting a memorial candle for our grandparents that have passed away. Laura and Tommy played our ceremony music. They catered for every song request we asked for and did an exceptional job.”

 

 

The couple visited Ballymagarvey Village in January 2018 and the thing that immediately drew them in was the friendliness and dedication of all the staff. “Ballymagarvey is an exclusive wedding venue. On the day of a wedding, the bridal party and their guests had the private and sole use of the venue.  The venue is immaculate and is tastefully decorated throughout.  The gardens are beautifully maintained throughout.”

 

 

“The fact that the ceremony could take place onsite was also a big factor for us in choosing Ballymagarvey.  The upstairs renovated barn was used for the ceremony.  There is also an option to have your ceremony in a walled garden outside. The meal on the day of the wedding was second to none.  Most of our guests later commented on the high quality and standard of the food.”

 

 

Fiona’s favourite memory of the day was their first dance. She originally didn’t want to have a first dance as she hates being the centre of attention, but they went ahead and had so much fun! Something they did which made it even more amazing was they got their bridal party to dance with their partners instead of with each other. This made everybody relaxed!

 

From Shane’s perspective: “Having refused to practice for our First Dance I was delighted to say to Fiona “You take the lead”, smile and burst into laughter before shuffling through our dance. (Our First Dance was “If Your Prayers Don’t Get to Heaven” by Brian Fallon)”

 

“Enjoy the build up to the wedding. People often say that it is a lot of money to spend on one day, but it isn’t just one day. We organised dinner and drinks for the bridal party in the months before the wedding so they could get to know each other. We stayed up one night until 3am deciding on readings/poems and music for the ceremony and had so much fun dancing around our sitting room! I enjoyed gluing burlap and pearls on glass jars for the centerpieces with my bridesmaids in the garden while sipping prosecco! Dress shopping, suit shopping, Mother of the Bride/Groom outfit shopping, cake tasting, ring shopping, menu tasting, going to listen to the band… all little events in themselves.”

 

 

“Don’t worry about the weather. We hoped for a dry, sunny day but that did not happen. It rained for most of the day (some of the guest bedrooms were flooded!). Thankfully we got 40 minutes of dry weather to get some photographs outside. However, some of our favourite photographs are the ones of us running in the rain with umbrellas.”

 

 

Suppliers

Wedding venue: Ballymagarvey Village | Photography: Denlo Photography | Videographer: Darren Byrne Photography and Film | Planner/coordinator: Veronica Myles/Rachel Gantly | Musician: Laura Colgan and Tommy Meehan | Band and DJ: Catch 22  | Hair: Sinead McGoldrick | Makeup: Yvonne Sheridan | Dress: Mori Lee, Madame Bridal | Headpiece: Stash.ie | Suit: Swan Clothing | Bridesmaids dresses: Folkster/ASOS/Ollie and Mac/Soho Market | Groomsmen outfits: Master Debonair, London and Donnellan’s Menswear Roscommon | Caterer: Day 2 party – Toppings catering | Cake: Primrose Lane (Helen McCann) | Celebrant: Joe Armstrong | Stationery: Bride’s aunt | Jewellery: Peter Germano Jewellers NY and Cahill Jewellers Tullamore | Flowers: The Flower Bar at Bennies, Tullamore (Lisa Bracken), Flowers Made Easy Wholesale, Sandyford