Real Wedding: Mary & John

If you're looking for wedding ideas, you're going to love this traditional and romantic Irish affair. John and Mary celebrated their big day on the beautiful West Coast of Ireland, at Spanish Point. Featuring an historic castle, a stunning sea-side view and a gorgeous princess gown, you're going to love this wedding. The strawboys even paid the happy couple a visit, keeping an ancient Irish tradition alive and kicking! For centuries these original wedding crashers have arrived uninvited at country weddings and entertained the guests. Their presence is thought to bring good luck for the happy couple, and despite their slightly messy appearance, they're always welcome. Other stealworthy ideas include Mary's matching bridesmaids dresses and ushers' ties, her gorgeous long veil, and her simple half-up, half-down hair style. Don't miss the hilarious caraicature cake toppers, and all of Mary's other vendors detailed below. Fantastic pictures published with thanks to Mary Brown Photography.

The Before the Big Day Bridal Q&A - Mary was kind enough to fill in our bridal questionnaire, aimed at helping other brides with their planning process. Feast your eyes on her answers for helpful hints and tips from someone on the other side of her big day!

Where and when did you get married?
Carron in County Clare in Ireland on 7th June 2010

What was your thinking behind choosing the venue and the decoration of the reception?
We chose the Armada Hotel in Spanish Point because the view of the sea there was beautiful. The hotel took care of all the decorations so one less thing for us to think about.

Did you have a theme, colour or motif in mind?
Purple – my favourite colour

Who made your wedding outfit (dress, veil, shoes and accessories), and how did you come to that decision?
My dress was from the Ella Bridals Collection, which I purchased from Aphrodite Bridal in Newcastle West, Limerick. They were extremely helpful and the dress just felt so soft and light that I loved it. My sister-in-law lent me her tiara. I purchased simple silver sandals from a local shop and I already had a necklace and earrings.

What about your husband’s outfit? Where was it from?
We rented it from Mike O’Connell’s Menswear in Limerick

And how about your bridesmaids’ outfits?
They were purchased from Brides First Choice in Limerick.

What type of cake did you go for, and how did you come to that decision?
We chose a four-tier topsy-turvy cake from the Cake Gallery in Ennis. My husband-to-be was in charge of choosing the cake because he has a sweet tooth. He saw a picture in a magazine and thought it looked cool and different. Each tier was a different flavour! The personalised figurines were from Anita Caricatures.

Did you have any favours? What were they? Was there any particular reason why you picked them?
Yes, lotto tickets. They were used in a wedding we had been to previously and we thought they went down very well and added a little excitement to every table.

Who was your florist, what flowers did you choose, and how did you come to that decision?
Mulqueens Flowers in Ennis. I wasn’t too bothered about the specific flowers, so I just showed the florist a swatch of the bridesmaids dresses and told her our budget, and she did everything else.

Who was your photographer and how did you choose them?
Mary Brown Photography in Dublin. She is married to a friend of my sister-in-law and came highly recommended. We viewed her website and loved her natural style. We arranged a meeting with her, loved her personality and knew she would fit in well on the day.

Did you have any entertainment at your wedding?
We had up-and-coming Irish indie band O'Emperor. They had a busy summer recording their debut album, Hither Thither (out 1st October) and playing the festival circuit, but since their lead singer and guitarist, Paul, is John's cousin, they made an exception to play at our wedding.

Did you enjoy planning your wedding?
It was a little stressful to say the least as we didn't leave ourselves a lot of time to plan it, but it was nice to work on things together.

What advice do you have for brides planning their big day?
It’s never too early to start planning – don’t leave everything to the last minute. You want to be nice and relaxed on the lead up to the wedding, not stressed out. When sending off RSVP cards with the invites remember to write a number on the back of them and keep track of what name matches what number as people will reply and forget to put down their names. Put some time into planning your honeymoon – it tends to get a back seat compared to the wedding – remember the wedding is just one day, the honeymoon will be a lot longer. Packed for your honeymoon before the wedding – there may not be a lot of time afterwards. Get a good nights sleep the night before – it is a long day. Also eat a good breakfast – there is not much time for eating until you get to the meal.

If you have a lace up dress give yourself extra time to get this tied – it may take a few attempts to get it right! Have water and a few snacks in the wedding car – you will be hungry after the ceremony. Have baby wipes in the car in case your dress gets dirty. Bring extra hairpins as your hair or veil might fall down. Wear comfortable shoes. Keep a list of all the gifts you received and from whom on Excel so you know who to send thank you cards to. Cherish every moment of the day – it passes very quickly.

Supplier List
Hair: Evelyn Tigue at Ev’s Hairdesign, Quin Tel: 086 845 2278
Make-up: Keane for Beauty in Ennis
Church Musician: Singer and harpist, Jean Wallace
Videographer: SES Digital

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My Wedding - Save the Dates

This is where I tell you all about planning my own wedding. After all, if I'm publishing all these Real Weddings, it's only fair I share my trials and tribulations. Read the rest of my wedding diary here.

My plan for our Save the Dates was a disaster. If you check out my last posting, you'll see that I'd decided to use wooden cards (see below) with the symbol of a key stamped on one side, and the Save the Date message stamped on the other. Unfortunately it really didn't look good. The font of the message stamp is light and feminine, and the key stamp is really heavy and clunky, and they clashed horribly. It wouldn't have been that much of a disaster, but in my enthusiasm, I'd already stamped all the wooden cards with the key, meaning I couldn't use them any more. If you're planning your own DIY invitations, I'd definitely recommend creating one template, to check out the finished effect, before you go stamping crazy.

Several weeks then passed where I tried to figure out what to do, and meanwhile the clock was ticking, because we were going away for August, and I wanted to get the Save the Dates out before we left. In the end, I decided to save the wooden cards for the reception, and use white luggage tags instead. By now, I'd left it too late to buy the perfect sized tags from Etsy, so I had to buy regular ones and chop the ends off them. As you can see, my scissor-skills leave something to be desired, so the edge wasn't entirely straight, but hopefully my guest won't notice!

Our flight left on Tuesday evening, and I decided to buy the luggage tags and start stamping on Tuesday morning! So it was a bit of a lastminute affair, but The Boy chipped in, and within a couple of hours, we'd managed to stamp and put together 100 or so Save the Dates, and carefully put them in the envelopes. We took them with us to the airport, with the plan of posting them just before we got on the flight. I'd decided on gold 1st class stamps for the look, but because of the pegs, they were too fat for a standard stamp, and needed more postage. So we ended up sticking on over 200 stamps with only half an hour to go before our flight took off. Tense wasn't the word!

The whole experience was good fun, but I'm not sure I'll DIY our actual wedding invitations. Despite all the impressive efforts of other DIY brides, I'm thinking they must have more raw talent than me, and I'd really like our invitations to look more professional. Although I will go on with my DIY attempts in the hope that I get a bit better! By the way - I'm always hugely inspired by the blog I Do It Yourself - definitely worth a look!

Real Wedding: Victoria & Will

As autumn approaches, I'm already missing summer weddings, and this one makes me feel all the more wistful for the sunshine. A gorgeous English countryside affair, it's packed full of sweet details and inspirational ideas. Victoria and Will celebrated their big day with an intimate humanist ceremony in a tiny little village called Little Bardfield deep in the Essex countryside. Will's childhood home made for a magical setting, and the different marquees dotted around the grounds ingeniously divided the outside space into different areas according to the different stages of the day. The happy couple decided on a topsy turvy wedding day schedule, with the Pimms reception first, followed by their ceremony. This ingenious idea {one I might just steal} resulted in a truly special day that really reflected their fun personalities. Other stealworthy ideas include the quirky old-skool hat-themed seating plan, flower decorated cake, lavender bag favours, and the traditional English flowers arranged by Amelia Cornish. Fantastic photographs published with thanks to the Marianne Taylor.

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Real Wedding: Heather & James

A brand new morning, and a brand new photographer for Before the Big Day! Meet Amelia Lyon and drool over her amazing pictures of her cousin Heather's wedding to her high school sweetheart James. We're talking serious details, folks - so keep your inspiration notebook close. This was a truly family affair, with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents chipping in with a helping hand, including the catering! My favourite details are almost too many to count. Let's start with the fantastic bold colour palette of aqua and orange, and move on to the heavenly parasols, handmade paper garlands and personalised soda labels. I'm also seriously loving Heather's pretty waist corsage and James' funky tie. Most of all, I love what they did with the venue. Is there anything more romantic than a roof of sparkling lights? Gorgeous photos published with thanks to Amelia Lyon Photography.

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We ♥ Sample Sales

♥ Fashionista favourite Temperley are hosting a huge sample sale this week. They'll be offering up to 80% off ready-to-wear, bridal and accessories at the 20th Century Theatre on Westbourne Grove in London. Form an orderly line from 8am-7pm on Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th September, 9am-6.30pm.

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Wedding Dress Hunt - Rachel Gilbert

Eight months and 13 days. That's how long I've got until my own wedding day. So it's probably time I started looking for a wedding dress. I have to admit what while I'm excited about the stationery and decor of our big day, the dress-thang doesn't really get me going. I think it's fear of the unknown, and a determination to not spend more than one thousand pounds - I mean, is that even possible?? Plus, I'm yet to find a single dress designer in the UK that presses my buttons. I'm guessing if I feel this way, then there must be other ladies out there with the same conundrum, so I'm going to go in search of the best frocks, for you and for me. My first discovery is Australian designer Rachel Gilbert. She's long been a favourite of mine, and {fab news!} Net-a-Porter have just started stocking her dresses. Check the pics out below, and tell me what you think, plus, if you've got any designers to recommend, please do leave a comment!

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Real Wedding: Ginny & Devin

If you're planning a vintage wedding, you're going to L-O-V-E the inspirational details in this gorgeous event. Ginny was the bride, and she went table-decor crazy, using an eclectic mix of personal touches. Each tabletop was decorated with different bright blooms, vases, tin cans, glass jars, papers, and even paint brushes still holding onto their perfectly artsy paint stains. My favourite detail has to be the polaroid photo wall, but I'm loving the fancy-dress moustaches and floral table cloths. One of the most important things on Ginny and Devin’s wedding day was their son, Liam, who chose to wear a super-cool superhero outfit. His friends followed suit, and just check out how cool they all look in the pictures! All these fabulous photographs published with thanks to the talented team at Simply Bloom.

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