Oh my, have we the sweetest couple on the blog today. Jay knew Sara was the one when he got up at 5.30am on a Saturday morning to drive the three hour journey to Galway from Dublin, so sweet, read their story now…
Galway girl, Sara first met Jay at a friends 21st birthday party in Galway city almost ten years ago.
“The first night I met Jay we stayed up talking until it got bright. I walked him to his train the next morning and called my friend to say that I had met the man of my dreams but that he lived in Dublin so it probably wouldn’t work out….almost ten years later we’re still together and happier than ever!” said Sara.
For Jay the feeling was mutual;
“When I first started going out with Sara there was no motorway between Dublin and Galway so it was a 3 hour drive. I knew it was for life when I started to get up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning so I could be in Galway before she woke up,” he said.
The couple got engaged in July 2013. In need of some relaxation they booked a weekend away in Monart Hotel & Spa, Co. Wexford, little did Sara know what was coming!
“The setting was incredibly beautiful and serene and Ireland was in the middle of a heatwave. On the second day we returned to our room after a relaxing day in the Spa. While relaxing and enjoying a glass of wine before dinner, Jay asked me if I’d ever heard of a particular song by the band ‘Train’. The song turned out to be “Marry Me” and as I sat listening to the song Jay produced a ring and asked me to marry him,” she explained.
With the deal sealed, Sara and Jay both knew they didn’t want the traditional church and hotel wedding and decided to get married in Sara’s parents’ back garden in a beautiful area of South Galway.
“What we didn’t factor in our idealistic vision, however, was the incredible amount of work that holding a wedding at home would entail. For over six months we roped in friends and family to knock down walls, build steps, paint walls and plant flowers. We also had to hire a JCB and make extremely glamorous decisions about portaloos versus ‘luxury’ loos! However, we did have a lot of fun adding plenty of little personal details. We made over a hundred place setting consisting of little windmills, menus and napkins all wrapped up in ribbon. Our friends and family really helped us out with all the other bits and pieces. On the day a number of our friends brought homemade desserts while my Mam and Aunt did the flowers,” said Sara.
“At the beginning of the planning process we were worried about how to go about injecting our personalities into the day. As it transpired, everything happened really naturally- we just chose things we were interested in and everything came together. We both love Harry Potter so for our guest book we used an A1 poster that contained an entire Harry Potter book on one page. For our escort cards, we made 110 golden snitches with tiny silver wings attached to little hand-written luggage tags and the grooms gifts were all Superhero related! The ceremony “booklets” were little handmade pastel “chatterboxes”, our invites were Game of Thrones themed and the bridesmaid’s jewellery, our escort cards and guest book all had a Harry Potter connection!” explained Sara.
How did the day go?
“The day itself couldn’t have gone any better. I got ready at the house and the morning was a bit crazy. Jay was staying at a local hotel so, even though I was in my PJs and having my hair and make-up done, I was the go-to person for caterers, musicians and family who weren’t sure of the order of the day. There’s a photograph of me on the morning, just before Jay arrived with a very anxious look on my face, and one directly after where I looked completely relieved.
To be honest, from the second I walked out into the garden, with my parents on each arm and looked up to see Jay standing there everything felt absolutely perfect. My cousin Catherine sang Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ accompanied by violin and cello as I walked up the aisle and I was looking out at the smiling faces of people we love.
Sara’s uncle Declan officiated (we had been legally married the previous afternoon), friends and family contributed to music and readings and we exchanged the vows they had written for one another. There were tears in everyone’s eyes, including our own and, because we had written them ourselves every word was very meaningful and relevant,” Sara explained.
“After the ceremony, we had set up a drinks table (including crisps and snacks and the 200 or so cocktails that we had made and bottled in little glass bottles the night before!) and people immediately tucked in, kicked off their shoes and either sat on the grass or mingled with each other. Because we’ve been together so long, a lot of our guests already knew each other, so within about ten minutes of the ceremony finishing, there was a real party atmosphere. At this stage, Jay and I took a spin with our photographer Ian to an abandoned old mansion not far from my parents’ house. We got a couple of funny looks from passers-by on the country road when they saw the two lads holding up either side of my wedding dress as I hoisted myself barefoot over barbed-wire fences and ‘Danger’ signs. The pictures turned out amazingly well though so I would advise brides-to-be to remember that the dress is just for a few hours, but you’ll treasure the pictures for the rest of your lives,” said Sara.
“That evening we ate delicious barbeque for dinner and tucked into two tables laden with different types of desserts that our guests had made.
Although we had put a lot of time into planning all the little special details for our guests, we were also given a couple of surprises during the day. My sisters had vanished that morning and I was secretly cursing them in my head for disappearing, but when they reappeared about an hour later they unveiled the most beautiful two-tiered wedding cake that they had made for us, complete with a bow to match the one on my dress and S&J cake toppers! Similarly, after the speeches, our Bestman Eamonn and Bestwoman Lia got up, put on ‘Jay’ and ‘Sara’ masks and sang a hilarious song they had composed themselves to the tune of ‘Business Time’.
After dinner, our band The Wilful got everybody up dancing. The marquee was heaving and apart from a little break at midnight when the pizza delivery arrived, the party kept going until the sun came up!” added Sara.
Advice for other couples
If you are going to host your wedding at home remember that everything that your guests see or use (including every straw, glass, fork, napkin and flower) has to be sourced, bought or hired by you!! If you can, you should try to hire someone to run/ coordinate the day for you. Having someone who will oversee everything and make sure everything ran to schedule would have made things a lot easier for us (and our long-suffering friends and family).
Most of all though, you should try to enjoy it. We had so much fun putting our heads together and coming up with crafty little details that would add to the day. We also did everything as a team- neither one had more involvement than the other so nobody felt either overwhelmed by too much responsibility, or left out of proceedings- it was very much ‘our’ day.
Wedding Suppliers
Photography: Ian Mitchinson.
Marquee: Pavilion Marquees.
Catering: Cava Bodega.
Wedding dress: Anabel Rose, Dublin.
Hair: Aoine Mahony.
Makeup: Lauren Enright.
Wedding band: The Wilful, Galway.
Thanks to Sara and Jay for sharing their amazing day with us! Some great advice if you’re planning a wedding at home.
