“Our theme was rustic, we had lots of twine, wooden accessories etc. Our wedding invitations were self-assembly wooden look with twine wrapped around them and a wooden heart attached.”
Your Names: Sarah & Des
Length of engagement: 11 months
Wedding Date: 2019-11-08
Wedding location: Virginia Park Lodge
Photographer: Keith Touhey
Videographer: DC Media
How did you meet and get engaged?
We met on Tinder after my friend (Bridesmaid) pestered me to join it with her. We met up and it really was love at first sight, we moved in together three months later. We got engaged on Christmas Eve in our home after almost 5 years together – our first Christmas in our new house. I came home and Des had roses everywhere, our favourite Elvis song playing, champagne, and himself down on one knee as I walked in the door.
Describe your wedding:
Our theme was rustic, we had lots of twine, wooden accessories etc. Our wedding invitations were self-assembly wooden look with twine wrapped around them and a wooden heart attached. Keeping with this theme I made the mass booklets myself printed on kraft paper held together with twine. I also did the place settings myself and had handwritten kraft tags on each guest’s placemat. We had a personalised wooden welcome plaque also.
Tell us about your bridal look:
My dress was a very simple clean-cut classic style. I went with a Hollywood wave for my hair and glam make up with a berry lip and false lashes.
What did your bridesmaids wear?
My bridesmaids all wore TFNC from Asos. They all picked a different style dress in the same colour. I loved how the mix and match worked on the day they were all so beautiful. They were a mauve colour and we had deep reds and berry colours in our bouquets to bring in some winter colours to the look.
What was your ceremony like?
We had a church ceremony in Old Castle. We tried to make the ceremony as personal as possible, our friend sang as I walked up the Aisle and we added in an additional reflection reading read by my very close aunt along with the two readings and 5 prayers of the faithful read by those closest to us. We handpicked each part of the ceremony which made it really special to us.
Tell us about your wedding venue:
Our wedding venue was breathtaking! Fairy lights, floral arrangements and foliage everywhere. We had our meal in the pavilion which has surrounding glass walls, with the decor it felt like we were part of the outdoors. It was flawless! The food was out of this world. Comments from our guests such as it was the best meal they ever had and it was the nicest venue they had ever seen made us so happy with our venue choice. The second we viewed the venue we knew it was the one. The staff couldn’t have done enough for us on the day we were treated like royalty.
What is your favourite memory from your wedding day?
My favorite memory of the day was when myself and Des went to do our photos together, we were brought down to the lake in a golf buggy and into the trees and surrounding forest area. It was 30 minutes of the day that we were able to enjoy the time just ourselves and take it all in, 2 minutes away from our guests enjoying the reception drinks and soak in the joy of the day. Des’ favorite memory of the day was our first dance, we had learned a routine from my aunt and uncle and we had great fun with it (and didn’t fall)!
Have you got any advice for other couples?
One great bit of advice we got from one of our married friends was after each course of food go and talk to a few tables, we spent this time with the older guests so we got to talk to them as we knew we would see our friends on the dancefloor and late into the night. It was a great way to maximise talking to our guests as it’s very hard to get to talk to everyone. We had 150 guests.
Suppliers
Wedding venue: Virginia Park Lodge | Photographer: Keith Touhey | Videographer: DC Media | Musician and DJ: Sax and the City | Hair: Emma Leung of Kelly Leung in Malahide | Makeup: Louise McMahon – Malahide | Dress: Margaret Moreland – The Bridal Outlet | Suit: Louis Copeland | Bridesmaids dresses: Asos | Groomsmen outfits: Protocol | Cake: An aunt made our cake | Celebrant: Fr. Ray Kelly | Stationery: An Siopa Papier | Jewellery: Rocks on Grafton St. for my ring and Micheal Perry Jewellers for Des’ | Flowers: Hilary from Virginia Park Lodge