Chilled & Stylish Countryside Wedding

Sarah and Joey, your whimsical flair wedding has me all excited today. Why? Let me share all…

On the 1^st of August 2015, Sarah and Joey were married at Lyrath Estate in Ireland. They envisioned a chilled country wedding which appealed to the all generations of their wedding guests. That’s an ethos I have to say sounds just lovely.

The style was out of this world. Sarah wore a dreamy Divine Atelier dress called Anisia which she teamed with a long veil and perfect waves. The gents were suited and booted in blue with bow ties and tan shoes, while the maids wore mismatch gowns. WOW. The dreamy blooms certainly deserve a mention too as does the super cool car.

Memento Photography, thanks so much for sharing these wonderful images with us.

   

THE PROPOSAL | I had just returned from a work trip and Joey was particularly happy to see me… reminding me not to forget it was our 5^th Anniversary on Thursday! The proposal, like us, was pretty laid back! He had planned to propose on a quiet bridge in the city centre after ambling around the Christmas fair but I didn’t get the hint and hailed a taxi as the bridge wasn’t on the way to the restaurant he’d booked. After a lovely dinner we headed back home and as I was taking my jacket off in the living room he dropped to one knee. In hindsight being proposed to at 1am on a Thursday night when you have work at half 8 in the morning isn’t quite Hollywood but he thought he was being romantic on our anniversary so I’ll let him away with it…. or forgave him eventually! J

THE VISION | The most important thing for us was a chilled and fun filled day that would appeal to ALL the generations. Beautiful unblemished countryside surroundings were a must; we really wanted to make everyone feel welcome and relaxed. Some personal touches made this a lot easier; getting conversation flowing is key…after all you are bringing two sides of friends and family together… many of who have never even met… so anything that increased interaction levels were important to us!

We included a page little quotes from ‘our homes growing up’ into the beginning of the mass booklet, and trawled the internet to find a really talented band that we knew would suit most tastes, and endeavoured that there was a menu with enough variety!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We were very quick off the mark with venue hunting as we knew the size of our guestlist would limit our venue options. Joey had booked his favourite magician before we even had a date!

Photographer and band were next on the list and with a bit of Internet research we soon had our next priorities locked down!

On the girlier side of things, Pinterest was a great tool for research on all things wedding! Inspiration is endless… bouquets, wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, make-up and hair for starters. Within a few short months, the venue, band, the church music, photographer and the magician were all booked. With the important elements in place we took our foot off the pedal, which led to a busier few months before the wedding, filled with invitations, mass booklets, flower arrangements, table plans, and everything else that you don’t think of. Putting a personal stamp on things takes time as Joey found out in the ‘invitation workshop’. There were times when it would have been easier to press print on a premade invitation or mass booklet but we were really pleased with how everything turned out even if they took longer than anticipated.

THE VENUE | Our larger wedding party and our countryside vision brought us to the wonderful Lyrath Estate Hotel. You are immediately thrown into a different era as you turn off into the venue. The unspoilt landscape of the driveway leads you to a gorgeous 17^th century house at the top of the hill, which made a perfect setting for our drinks reception. It’s so beautiful and elegant and opens out onto a sun terrace that we were luckily able to use with one of the few dry and sunny days of the Irish summer.

There are plenty of locations for photos on the grounds, with woodland boroughs and tree lined walkways on the perimeter, we were spoilt for choice – and thank God the weather played ball!

Lyrath has the perfect combination of ‘old and new’, as well as the authentic ‘old house’ there is a contemporary build onto the 17^th Century house which meant we could easily host a sit down meal and have enough rooms to accommodate our 250 guests. The evening was hosted in a large function room, which they had prepared to precision. A long bar is just outside the room but it doesn’t feel that way when you keep the doors open. We didn’t need to move any of the tables for the music and the dance floor was big enough to feel full but not overcrowded. The food and service lived up to its great reputation, so many guests have since raved about the how helpful and accommodating the staff at the hotel were, going the extra mile on everything … even surprising guests with children with milk and cookies for bed time!

The staff was excellent and did everything to ensure we had the day we wanted. I’m sure Darragh the banquet manager wanted to kill me by the end of it, but the hotel did such and amazing job, we were so happy!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My brother during his speech informed the whole room that the dress I was wearing wasn’t actually the first dress that I’d bought. I was too quick to decide on the first one and probably had picked it far too early. Unfortunately it was only after my initial deposit wasn’t refundable that I realised the dress just wasn’t me at all.

The dress I wore on the day was the ‘Anisia dress’ from the Poetica collection by Divine Atelier. I found the dress at The White Gallery, (near Newry Co. Down). Rachel the owner was a great help accommodating my ‘panic appointment’. When I arrived at her boutique there was a chalkboard with my name on it and floating love hearts drawn on, and gorgeous soft music playing when I went into the showroom… she really goes the extra mile to make the experience unique and personal, which is definitely not the norm in other bridal stores I visited (despite what the movies lead you to believe!) Rachel was a great help with the selection of my dress and the appointments were really relaxed and calm, with exclusive use of a dressing room for the girls, my Mum and myself giving us lots of time for ‘ooohs and awwww’ moments! Rachel was also so accommodating in liaising with the designer to customise the back of the dress, I added the lace back and buttons, and even got a mock up sent through by email to see what it would look like before ordering! The back detail ended up being my favourite part of the dress, I was so happy with how it turned out! The White Gallery offers such a unique collection of gorgeous dresses and is definitely worth a look for any bride looking for something different!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Not quite the metropolitan fashionista that many grooms seem to be these days Joey was keen to get a suit that he could recycle at weddings, christenings, funerals and everything in-between so traditional tails were off the table. After a few short shopping trips he came across a shop that had lovely slim fit suits and that’s when he decided he wanted to buy suits for his groomsmen too. He settled on a French-navy three-piece suit, and accessorised with a navy base pink polka dot bow tie and tan leather shoes.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Having lost both of our Father’s in the year and a half lead up to the wedding we wanted the ceremony to be as uplifting as possible. We came across the most enthusiastic, upbeat and talented Gospel Choir you could wish to meet – The Discovery Gospel Choir. I walked up the aisle to my favourite song – the theme song from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet – Everybody’s Free. They sang and danced to an array of Gospel songs including an amazing version of Real Love (Clean Bandit version), which we walked out to. They had everyone clapping and smiling and they really set the tone of how we wanted our day to go.

The Hitmen Trio provided our evening music and played a huge part in the vibe of our day. They’re an extremely talented acoustic musical trio that put their own twist on a variety of music. Young and old filled the dance floor and everyone sang their praises. Our first dance was ‘Feel so Close’ by Calvin Harris which started off slowly and romantically and then kicked into an acoustic dance number. They finished with an amazing mash up of Insomnia and Christy Moore (a traditional Irish singer), which had everyone rushing to the dance floor.

Our readings were also positive and upbeat to get across the message in a simple and meaningful way.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I really wanted to the girls to feel comfortable in what they wore on the day and to keep their own individual styles – as they all have so much of it!!!… Which I didn’t want to suppress! After a couple of days out we visited The Suite, South William Street, Dublin. I knew Tara at The Suite would be more than able to cater for us as my sister had ordered her bridesmaids dresses form the same boutique a couple of years previous. Obviously not wanting to have identical dresses… we explored all the bridesmaid collections that Tara stocks … Amsale, Ghost, Adrianna Pappell etc.

The Suite makes the whole bridesmaid shopping experience so easy, we had the top floor of the boutique to ourselves to essentially play dress up and have the lols! The girls got to try on whichever shape they liked best and then we could play with colours after. We ended up going with silk chiffon Amsale gowns in an array of styles and colours, we rummaged through the swatch book and created a soft whimsical palette in lilac, dove slate and opal, the first time I saw all the girls in their dresses was the wedding morning! But I was confident the tones would compliment and they did, the variation of colour and style added to the laid-back feel of the day.

I had three gorgeous flower girls, my niece, and my cousin’s two little girls. The girls looked fab in their Estella Crochet Dresses from Monsoon. They wore floral crowns to ramp up the cuteness even more; my nephew James was pageboy, who looked like a ‘super cool dude’ in his attire from Next and his little denim con’s.

THE FLOWERS | Flowers were not a priority for me originally, but further into the planning process I realised how much the right ones can add to the vibe of the day. I really wanted the bouquets to be a mix of pastel colours to compliment and contrast against the bridesmaid’s dresses with some light foliage to add dimension interest. I met with Stephanie at The French Touch and she brought lots of amazing ideas to the table, she was so easy to work with and totally saw the vision of the day. At the church, we chose tall stands with pillar candles for the aisle, a draped floral arrangement for the alter and two large floral urns incorporating lots of colour for outside the church which also doubled up as evening décor in the banquet room.

THE CAKE | We’re very lucky to have a gifted cake maker in the family. With such a large reception room we needed a cake that wouldn’t be lost in the room or leave mouths hungry so we opted for four tiers packed with different flavours. Fresh flowers separated each tier. We were so happy with how it turned out and plates were left empty. She has a successful career in wedding cake making if she’s ever looking for a career change.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We researched a lot of photographers online and were struggling to find someone that suited us until we came across Derek’s page. The quality and creativity of his shots is there to be seen but what really drew us in were the glowing reviews he was getting from all his past clients. Photography can be stressful trying to make sure you have the right shot but he gets it done in a fun way that makes everyone laugh and relax. We wanted to avoid stereotypical and staged shots and capture the moment in its natural expression, which is Derek’s forte. We ended up with 842 fantastic shots so making our own wedding album is going to be a process!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Originally I had not planned on extra flowers or extra décor for the evening reception, but I really wanted to keep the pretty / whimsical theme running throughout the day. This can often be difficult in a hotel banquet room, but working alongside Stephanie from ‘The French Touch’ and Mary at Finesse, we quickly came up with a way we could maximise use of church flowers at the evening venue. We also went about adding lots of candlelight and pillar candle stands as well as candelabras around the room to achieve the whimsical setting we wanted. I couldn’t have been happier with the end result, which our ‘LOVE’ letters that were placed at the stage on the dance floor topped off – our guests had loads of fun using these as photo props for the evening

The comedian / ventriloquist! … Joey and myself wanted keep the guests perked up after a big feed and Jack Wise completely delivered. He really got the guests going and got some of them on stage … to everyone’s amusement! We’ve been to see him lots of times and knew he’d be a big hit. He also did close magic at the drinks reception, which is completely different to his on stage comedy magic set.

Our photographer Derek from Memento offers a really cool photobooth option– this took place just after the comedian. We have some really cool photos of our guests, and all age groups took part! Derek makes a stop motion video clip of all the photos and adds a really cool soundtrack… its such a nice keep sake to have and the photos are full of so much fun with everyone letting loose and having fun with crazy wigs and props!

THE HONEYMOON | At this point I must admit that our wedding wasn’t without drama and commotion. I somehow managed to dislocate my knee on the dance floor at 1am even after changing into flats, jeans and a top. I hadn’t even danced yet, but as soon as I skipped onto the floor I bumped into Joey and my spinning aunt, which sent me backwards with legs going in different directions. Luckily our guest list was full of medical professionals, which prevented the 999 calls! Thank God!

The upside is that we booked an all-inclusive 5 star hotel in Mexico just outside Cancun. It had endless pools, amazing service, delicious cocktails and nine restaurants so my need to move around was minimal which was perfect. We chilled out there for 10 nights before moving on to Chicago for the last 4 days of the trip. Chicago is an amazing place that I would recommend to anyone. I was still not light on my feet but we taxied to the sights and researched plenty of places to go, taking a relaxing boat ride through all its architectural wonders and we still had a great time.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | I had such a lovely time in the morning; we had the run of the gorgeous vintage bridal suite for hair and make up and all prep! Dawn our make-up artist and Stef our hairdresser made everything run so smoothly… they completely took control of the morning timetable to avoid any panic of getting to the church on time! They both did such a great job and really added to our girly morning of favourite tunes, prosecco and lots of laughter! The morning was really special spending it with those closest to me and my Mum and sister.

The discovery gospel choir added so much to the day… walking up and down the aisle to ‘Everybody’s Free’ and ‘Real Love’ was such special moment for us. The choir were so good some of our guests said that they wanted to clap after every song.

The laughter and tears of the speeches – It was always going to be difficult but the light touches brought so much laughter to the room. My brother spoke on behalf of my family and effectively delivered a best man’s speech for me to everyone’s surprise, especially mine, but it went down a treat. Joey got a raw but hilarious deal off his best man as well and is plotting his revenge when he delivers a best man speech at his wedding in a few months.

The success of the evening entertainment.

A relaxed, fun and sun filled photo shoot giving us some down time before re-entering the madness.

The happiness of our Mums was clear to be seen and they had a better day than we could have hoped for.

Finally, coming down the stairs from the bridal suite on my bum the next day. I won’t be forgetting that in a hurry!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Entertainment that helps guests interact is a good way to help people relax into the day. We took a few risks with our entertainment i.e.: loose-lipped comedian getting people on stage … but in the end it was decisions like this that paid off the most!

The most important advice from me though would be to get plenty of rest in the week leading up to your wedding. There is so much buzz and excitement in the build up so it’s important that you keep enough energy to be your best for your big day.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Memento Photography

Venue | Lyrath Estate

Church | Gowran Parish

Make Up | Glamour by Dawn

Hair | Hair by Stef

Videographer | Birds of a Feather

Gospel Choir | Discovery Gospel Choir

Dress | The White Gallery Boutique

Bridesmaid Dresses | The Suite

Flowers / Décor | The French Touch

Car | A family friend

Décor | Finesse Weddings

Cake table | Avoca

L.O.V.E Letters | Lovin Letters

Comedian/Magician | Jack, Magician Ireland

Band | The Hit Men Trio

Just amazing.

Thanks so so much to Sarah and Joey for sharing their marvellous wedding story today xo Lou