“Our best man and groomsmen cycling through the dance floor was definitely something you don’t see at many weddings!”
The couple: Maeve Mateer & Dylan van Vliet
Wedding date: 16th May 2015
Wedding ceremony: Kinsealy church, Malahide | Wedding venue: Summerhill House Hotel, Wicklow
Photographer: Tomasz Kornas Photography
We met… We met in 2006 in our third year of college at a night out to start off the new college year. We had been in college together for two years but in different classes so we only got to know each other in our final year. We started dating a few weeks after meeting.
Our proposal… We got engaged on Sunday the 1st December 2013 in our apartment, after seven years together. As usual Dylan was up before me on this Sunday morning, so when I finally woke and went into the kitchen, Dylan asked me if I wanted to go shopping. Thinking that he was talking about doing the grocery shop I wasn’t too enthusiastic and tried to think of a reason we could put it off. Then Dylan said “I was thinking we’d go shopping for a ring?”! I couldn’t believe it. We had of course talked about getting engaged but it really took me by surprise when Dylan asked! I of course was only too happy to go ring shopping together. We went and picked out a lovely white gold engagement ring and spent the rest of the day spreading the word to our families.
My dress… was a tea length Justin Alexander wedding dress from B Couture, Wicklow.
What our bridesmaids wore… our bridesmaids wore nude tea length dresses from Coast.
Our ceremony… The ceremony was brilliant, it was so relaxed and we laughed so much, we hadn’t done a rehearsal so we had a few mistakes but they just added to the service!
We choose our hotel because… we loved the feel of Summerhill House Hotel, we just really liked it when we saw it and all of the staff we met during the viewing were really nice – we knew it was the place we wanted our wedding! We loved that it was a country house that could hold a large wedding. It’s a beautiful venue that has the perfect layout for a wedding. We thought the function room was ideal and we liked the way the drawing room and other bar were available for any guests who didn’t feel like dancing. We had looked for a venue within one hour of Dublin and it was the first venue we saw and our favourite!
Our wedding theme/colours… was Vintage – we actually hadn’t started off with a theme in mind but as we started to gather ideas and suppliers we liked, it became clear that we were going to have a vintage themed wedding. I took on one DIY project which was my bouquet. I have a blue heart brooch that was my mother’s that I really wanted to use as my something blue. I wanted to do something a bit different and when I saw the brooch bouquet idea it was just perfect. I was able to incorporate some of my mothers other brooches along with some that friends had given me over the year. So it was lovely that so many of the brooches had a story behind them.
Our honeymoon… was booked with Cassidy travel and we went to Rome and Sorrento.
We chose our photographer because… We cannot recommend Tomasz Kornas Photography enough, from the day we met him we knew he was the photographer we’d like for our wedding! Not only did we love his style of photography but he also was able to make us both feel relaxed about being photographed all day! We loved our engagement shot pictures and we honestly couldn’t be happier with our wedding pictures, they are amazing and captured our wedding day perfectly!
My favourite part of the wedding day… Dylan: My best man and groomsmen cycling through the dance floor! Definitely something you don’t see at many weddings! Meave: Having our pictures taken in the forest and the dancing!
My piece of advice for other brides… Be organised and make a plan of what needs to be done every month, it’ll stop you having everything to do at the same time. Hire a good band! We did a lot of research on bands as we felt that they had the power to make or destroy the night! Our band – The Panoramics – were absolutely amazing! They are so talented and the dance floor was jammed for the night. Everyone is still talking about how great the band was.
Suppliers:
Photographer: Tomasz Kornas Photography | Venue: Summerhill House Hotel | Dress: Justin Alexander | Stationery: Appleberry Press | Shoes: Dune | Bridesmaids’ dresses: Coast | Hair: Mia Douglas | Make-up: Louise McMahon | Flowers: Jungle Flowers Malahide | Groomswear: Youngs, Debenhams | Transport: Lawler Chauffeur Service | Cake: The Wedding Cake Boutique | Band: The Panoramics | Rings: Lance Grossman Dundrum