Our second real wedding of the week shares the story of Lisa and Alan, a Dublin couple who were keen to represent both themselves as individuals and as a couple on their Big Day. Thanks to Edel O’Malley Photography for sharing their beautiful images with us.
After catching sight of his mohawk across a busy Dublin bar, Lisa and Alan started chatting thanks to their mutual friend introducing them. Their relationship developed very organically and soon Lisa realised her future plans became their plans.
“Alan proposed in our back garden – he came home after a few drinks one night and unexpectedly, and somewhat unsteadily dropped to one knee. Not the most romantic of settings but I wouldn’t change it,” said Lisa.
Lisa and Alan were very open about their wedding ideas with each other and were keen to represent themselves as a couple and also each other as individuals. After agreeing a budget, Lisa kept track of everything on a spreadsheet, and although the figures were adjusted slightly over time she found it very helpful to have a figure to work around.
“Like most modern brides I spent a lot of time looking for inspiration on Pinterest, but I eventually just bought some colouring pencils and made sketches of what I envisioned. I looked up wedding timelines online, created my own Excel spreadsheet to keep track of everything and threw myself into all things wedding. Because I wanted to inject as much personality as possible into the wedding, I insisted on doing as much as possible myself; I spent two full days sweating over the font size for the order of service cards alone. We were sure we wanted to spend the most on our food. The food had to be amazing, so we focused on the quality of the food over the price when we were picking our venue and the cake,” explained Lisa.
Lisa wore a pre-loved Pronovias wedding gown that she fell in love with on a visit to Memories Bridal Boutique. She wanted her bridesmaids to feel beautiful and comfortable in their outfits so let the girls choose their own black dresses.
“We both agree that the best part of the day was when we saw each other at the altar. Also, the speeches were brilliant. We kept them to a minimum, but everyone who spoke did an amazing job – short but sweet! Thankfully there were no disasters but the rain decided to bucket down as we were out taking our photographs and I had a minor bridezilla moment when my hair started to fall down halfway through but our photographer saved the day and suggested we take a break in a pub we were outside. We ended up taking the rest of our bridal party shots inside and then skipped the entire drinks reception to stay and have a drink with just the bridesmaids and groomsmen. It was one of the best moments of the day,” added Lisa.
Lisa’s Wedding Planning Advice
When looking for vendors, have a chat with any friends or relatives who have tied the knot and there is plenty of advise on forums and blogs online. Also, a good friend of mine got married in December, and the best advice I had for her was to take some time out during the day itself with her new husband. You spend so much time planning the event itself, and so much of the day talking to your guests that it goes by in a flash. So take a moment to enjoy it together.
Wedding Suppliers
Venue: Fallon and Byrne, Exchequer St, Dublin 2.
Wedding dress: Memories Bridal Boutique, Templebar.
Alterations: Sew Creative, Donnybrook.
Hair: Shelly Walsh, The Powder Room Girls, Dublin.
Makeup: Dolly Buckley, The Powder Room Girls, Dublin.
Grooms wear: Aston Formal Wear, Templebar.
Cake: Creative Cupcakes, Blanchardstown.
Cupcakes: Bizarro Cupcakes, Cabra.
Flowers: Miss Daisy Florist, Artane.
DJ: DJ Road Dogg.
Photographer: Edel O’Malley Photography, Ratoath.