Lissanoure Castle Wedding

We are joined by WWW readers Adam and Jacqui today with their Lissanoure Castle wedding held in beautiful Northern Ireland. Their day was personal, elegant and great fun! Not only do I adore the delicate rose gold colour scheme, which ran through the outfits (hello rose gold sequin bridesmaid dresses) and the stationery. But I also loved the campervan photo booth, pizza food truck, moon gate flower arch and the super stylish attire. Does it get any more gorgeous?

Do also look out for the really cute scratch map table plan and the geometric wedding cake. You’re going to love it all.

Adam and Grace, thanks ever so much for sharing these exquisite images of a very special day indeed.

The Proposal

On the evening we got engaged Adam completely surprised me! We were going for a walk in a local park then as we walked around we stopped at the exact spot where he asked me to be his girlfriend just over 4 years previously. It was there that he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife and by this stage I was in tears – it was so special and personal to us. Adam proposed with a Pandora ring and off we went a few days later to choose a ring. I always loved the idea of a surprise proposal that was special to us and it really was both of those!

The Vision

We wanted our wedding day to be enjoyable for our guests and to be Christ-centred as this is very important to us both. The ceremony was the most important part to us both and we wanted this to be reflected in our plans. We loved the idea of a unique venue with some character that would be a relaxed environment on the day and also provide amazing opportunities for photos.

The Planning Process

We knew straight away that we wanted to get married the following summer so the planning process was quite quick (we got engaged in August). Initially, we struggled to find a venue when browsing online as nothing seemed to fit our vision. Then we stumbled across Lissanoure Castle and instantly fell in love. We went to view it a few days later and secured our date there and then for 16th June 2018. We loved the character of Lissanoure, the amazing courtyard and the beautiful grounds. We were already dreaming of our special day from this point. Once we got our venue sorted, Adam pretty much left everything else to me (YAY)! I’m generally a very decisive person so everything else fell into place quite easily after this.

The Venue

We had both our ceremony and reception at Lissanoure Castle and it was just perfect! Our Pastor Simon married us in the Gallery of the Coach House which is a unique curved shape room. Following this, our guests enjoyed the afternoon in the McCartney room and outside in the stunning circular courtyard before heading over to the barn for our meal and evening reception. Lissanoure Castle is an award-winning, private estate surrounded by woodlands and lakes with an amazing team on hand to help along the way. We loved our venue and the staff on the day made us feel so special.

Your Outfits & Accessories

My dress was called Dravidia by Pronovias and was bought from Romantique in Magherafelt. My dress was actually the first-ever wedding dress I tried on. When I tried it on the first time I was in tears. I was unsure if this was because I loved it so much or it was just the overwhelming feeling of being a bride and that amazing moment of standing in a wedding dress. I visited a few other shops which were great to help narrow down my style but couldn’t get this dress out of my head so of course, I had to return and try it on again. Once again I was in tears and just knew it was The One! I teamed my dress with a beautiful subtle veil, minimalist jewellery and the most amazing blue sparkly court shoes – I really did feel like a princess!

Adam’s suit was by Remus Uomo from Hire Class, Belfast. He loved his suit because it was modern yet timeless. It was a beautiful shade of navy with a subtle check running through it. He teamed it with a classic white shirt, navy tie and checked waistcoat and finished it off with special cufflinks that I gifted him on our wedding morning.

The Readings & Music

We booked Ruth Corry, Harpist to play during our ceremony and drinks reception and the music was so beautiful. So many of our guest complimented us on her music. She played Pachelbel’s Canon in D as I walked up the aisle with my Dad. During our ceremony, Adam’s sister Kayleigh and our friend, Andrew led the Praise along with Ruth playing. We chose four songs to sing during our ceremony as we loved the words of them and wanted God to be the centre of our day. We had two readings from the Bible beautifully read by a friend Naomi and Adam’s other sister, Victoria. We loved having special friends and family involved in our wedding day. During our ceremony we also had two friends, Thomas and Gemma pray for us and our future as husband and wife.

The Flowers

I loved our wedding flowers! My favourite flowers are peonies so it was ideal that our wedding was in June – peak peony season. Karen from House of Elliott, Lisburn was our florist and she was incredible! I didn’t want too much going on in terms of arrangements all over the place but instead opted for an amazing moon arch as the focal piece – it was stunning! We really maximised the use out of it at the front of our ceremony, to cut our cake in front of, behind our top table and finally to use as a backdrop for out photo booth during our evening reception. Karen made the moon arch from the most beautiful range of greenery and with white and pink tones to set it off.

My bouquet and the bridesmaid were a beautiful mix of white and pink tones with of course some peonies. My vision for the flowers was to be elegant and to complement our dresses. Adam and the boys also had a lovely white rose for their buttonholes.

The Cake

Our cake was made and decorated by the lovely Gemma’s Cakes, Castledawson. The tasting session she offered was wonderful and helped us to narrow down our choices. Our cake design was quite elegant with rose gold accents to complement the décor of our wedding day. We added a little A+J cake topper to finish it off. Adam’s mum also makes the most amazing fruit cake so she made a slab of this too which was really special to us. We chose to cut our cake after our ceremony so our guests could enjoy it with tea and coffee while we were having photos taken. When we returned all the cake was gone which was a great testament to how good it was…although we were gutted we didn’t get any.

Beauty

A good friend of ours is a bridal hairstylist so as soon as we secured our date I got in touch to make sure she was available to pamper me and the girls on our wedding morning. Gemma Managh has been in the industry for years and is very talented. I always wear my hair down so knew straight away I wanted it down on our wedding day. With very fine hair, Gemma rose to the challenge and made my hair sit beautifully on the day. It was a great help that Gemma was a guest at our wedding and insisted on a few touch-ups during the day too! She also made my Mum and Bridesmaids look beautiful on the day too which was equally important to me.

Our make-up artist was the lovely Carly Proctor Make-Up and what an amazing job she did! I love Carly’s style which is quite natural with a dewy finish. Our make up looked amazing right up until the party ended. Along with Gemma, Carly was a great laugh on the morning of our wedding and made us all feel a million dollars.

The girls and I had our nails and tan done by a close friend Kelly – the owner of La Belle Boutique. Kelly and I grew up together dreaming of our wedding days and she has been pampering me for years so I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to get us ready.

Adam’s grooming was minimal for our wedding day – a haircut and shave the day before and he was looking as smart as ever.

Groomsmen

Adam’s Best Man and Groomsmen were three friends, Aaron, Mark and Aaron who also wore the same suit as him but with a plain waistcoat to compliment him as the groom.

Bridesmaids

My sister Emma was my chief bridesmaid and I also had two friends Hannah and Leanne. The girls wore beautiful rose gold sequin dresses by Dessy Group purchased from Perfect Day, Lurgan. I knew this was what I wanted my girls to wear so was delighted when we went shopping for the first time and found it and they all looked amazing in. I felt their dresses really complimented mine too which I loved.

Your Photographer

Our photographers were the amazing Adam and Grace! It was definitely one of the best decisions we made regarding our wedding planning. As a photographer myself I found it initially difficult to narrow down to a few to get in touch with as there is so much talent in the industry. When I reached out to Adam and Grace we had an instant connection – chatting to Grace it was like we had been friends for years. This was so important to us as we knew we would be spending a lot of our day with them and wanted to be relaxed and having fun with them. We had an engagement session with them which helped to build a relationship with them. They were so encouraging and fun to work with on the day. I loved that they took my suggestion on board as I wanted to go to the nearby Dark Hedges for photos at sunset and they were totally up for it – the photos were amazing so it was so worth it! We are absolutely delighted with our photos have them proudly displayed in our home and the most beautiful album to treasure for years to come.

Your Filmmaker

Our videographers were Matt + Abby from Forever Social who were brilliant on the day. They worked so well with our photographers which I think is so important to ensure the day runs smoothly and that their styles match. They blended into the background in that we hardly knew they were there but they were definitely working hard as we were blown away by the finished videos. All the little details that they included right down to the choice of music was perfect!

The Details & Décor

One thing we loved about our venue when we first went to visit is that we would be able to add our own stamp to it. A very talented friend Helen, owner of Kosalisa Art hand-lettered some bible verses to display around our venue and also created the most beautiful welcome sign and timeline of our day for us. To compliment our bridesmaid dresses colour we focused our décor on a rose gold theme to tie the whole day together. In the barn for our reception, we added festoon lighting across the roof which added a lovely atmosphere to the room. We loved including a few different displays of photos of us as a couple around the venue to share with our guests. Adam and I love to travel so our table plan was a scratch map featuring different countries we had visited together and each individual table had a photo of us together on our travels.

During the afternoon while our guests relaxed and mingled we also had woodfired pizza by Pizza Box to make sure they didn’t go hungry. This was set up in the castle courtyard and was loved by all our guests. We also had the lovely Hector the Picture Bus in the courtyard to entertain our guests. We love looking at the scrapbook of photos of our guests from the day and of course, we had our turn too.

The Honeymoon

Adam planned our honeymoon as a surprise and it was truly amazing! We stayed in the most beautiful cave overlooking the sea in the stunning village of Oia in Santorini. The island has the most beautiful sunsets and scenery. We took the opportunity to explore the island and relax for 5 days before heading home again to celebrate another friends’ wedding.

Memorable Moments

As our venue was just over an hour from home I really loved the journey in the car with my dad. We drove in my little mini to the venue and it was such a special journey together. We loved sharing our vows together during our ceremony and couldn’t keep from smiling all day. We loved when we got our portrait photos together as we felt it was a little we could steal together away from our guests to just enjoy our first day as husband and wife.

Advice For Other Couples

Enjoy every minute of your day as it goes so fast and although everyone will always tell you that I don’t think you truly appreciate how fast it goes until the day arrives. Choose your wedding suppliers carefully so you can trust them on your special day to do an amazing job for you – so you can just enjoy it all.