Good morning my beauties :) I hope this email finds you well. I'll probably be allowing myself a wee lie-in today so all your early birds will reading this whilst I'll be {hopefully!} in the land of nod still! My little girls are aware at their Grandparents until tomorrow now, and I intend on making the most of it! {Mums with children on school hols, are you with me?}. It's been in incredibly busy few weeks over here at Love My Dress H.Q; exciting things are afoot - new plans, lists, dreams, ideas and projects - Franky and I chatted by Skype last night and probably could have talked for England about everything we have up our sleeve! Don't worry, you'll always be the first to know exactly what's what and until then, I'm just going to blog to my hearts content with gorgeous weddings like this one :)
On Monday, I featured this beautiful wedding, photographed by Irish wedding photographer Paula O'Hara. I'd usually give a little breathing space before featuring any more of Paula's work on my blog but basically, this one can't wait. I like rather a lot see!
This is the wedding of Sarah and Anthony, who got married recently at St. Joseph's Chapel in Tynab, following which they threw a celebration with friends and family at a reception held at The Water Mill restaurant in Lisnaskea...
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Paula O'Hara
Homemade stationery alert. First clue this bride is a massively talented crafting type!
"Anthony and I met during first year in university and Anthony was doing his masters. I lived at the top of Palestine street in Belfast and Anthony lived at the bottom.
One night after being out my friend and I were coming home and met Anthony walking up the street. He was drunk and had locked himself out and had left his phone in the house. He borrowed my phone to call his friends, which meant he got my number without having to ask for it! He text me the next day and things went from there.
I don't actually think we ever actually agreed that we were going out it just happened! That was over 10 years ago..."
Don't you just love a 'just married' sign on the back of a car? Watch out for a cute little inspiration post coming up featuring all the bestest Just Married signs you can get hold of on the interweb...
"We borrowed a vintage sports car from Anthony's friend and hired a Daimler limo from Bentley wedding cars Northern Ireland..."
Sarah's sparkling dress is a design by Clinton Lotter, a sumptuous silk georgette backless gown covered in thousands of iridescent beads - a purchase from Blackburn Bridal Couture in London.
I honestly can't think of another dress in all the gowns in the universe that might have suited Sarah better, that elegant slender frame of hers looks like it slipped in to this dress with absolute perfection...
Green wedding shoes! Perfect pale green heels from Kurt Geiger...
"Our wedding colour scheme/theme was based around my shoes! I had picked my dress and loved how the glass beads reflected colour, I then decided to wear coloured shoes. The mint green was perfect as it was soft yet striking.
I then decided on soft pink for the flowers to compliment the green and gold/taupe for the bridesmaids in order to add richness..."
"We made quite a lot for the wedding. My mother made the bridesmaids dresses and the wedding cake. She also planted the pots for outside the chapel for which we bolted two pots together, one on top of the other.
Anthony's mother made his tie and matching bow tie and pocket squares.
One aspect I adore about this particular wedding is it's DIY/home made elment...
"I made the mass booklets, table tree plan, table numbers, hair piece, place settings, just married sign, signage for the reception and decorated the unity candle. Myself, Anthony and our mothers decorated the tables at the reception the day before the wedding..."
Hey Sarah, anyone tell you, you could become a wedding and event stylist, hmm???!?
"Anthony didn't want to wear the typical grooms wear and originally wanted a patterned shirt, - something a little wacky. However I didn't feel it would suit the style of my dress and we therefore decided on a floral tie which incorporated the colour of my shoes.
I also wanted to have a summery feel as our reception was in a marquee..."
"Anthony's mother made his tie and matching bow tue and pocket squares from material we bought in liberty. Bridesmaids earrings were bought from etsy and my earrings were handmade by a jeweller in Dublin. I made my own headpiece..."
"Anthony and I made the wedding road signs..."
"We placed freshly cut flowers from our parents and Anthony grandmothers gardens on each of the tables in little jars..."
"For my Christmas present Anthony booked a weekend in the Galgorm Manor resort. We were going out 8 years in the January and he had planned for us to go that weekend however we didn't manage to get until May time. We spent the Friday night and Saturday relaxing in the spa.
Anthony had booked us a table in the river room restaurant on the Saturday night. We were shown to the best table in the restaurant and the waiters were lavishing us with attention. I kept pointing this out to Anthony but he was very cool and just agreed. We finished our meal and were finishing off our wine when a waiter came over with a cloche covered plate. He placed it in front of me and said 'this is a special course for you'. We had been receiving little extra courses throughout the meal so I assumed this was all part of the service. It didn't dawn on me until the cloche was removed and on the plate was a ring and a note from Anthony asking me to marry him..."
"I could do nothing but laugh, although we had been going out a long time it was still a big surprise and I wasn't expecting it at all. Looking back there were many things that should have made me realise Anthony was going to propose but it just didn't click with me. Anthony bought a token ring to propose with as he knew I would want to pick my own.
After searching through every jewelers in Belfast we traveled to Dublin the following weekend where Anthony bought me an antique diamond and emerald platinum ring. It was the one and only ring out of everything I tried on that I loved. When I put it on it felt like something I had owned forever and I love that it has a history to it."
"The music teacher and seven pupils from the school I teach in played/sang at the ceremony, it was beautiful. Housem8's band played at the reception, they were amazing!"
"We were very close to booking another venue when we heard about the WaterMill from a friend. We didn't want to go to a hotel as we wanted an informal, relaxed wedding day.
The WaterMill was perfect. The setting is spectacular and the restaurant offered us a flexibility we wouldn't have received in a hotel. We were basically told we could have whatever we wanted...
Readers - you can see another wedding held at The Watermill {I'm struggling to find a site belonging to the actually company?} right here.
"Anthony decided to surprise me at the reception by bringing our dog Hobo. He made his grand entrance during the speeches."
Words of Wedded Wisdom...
"Try not to let it rule your life. We were very relaxed when planning. Decide what has to be done, do it, tick it off the list and move on. Don't fuss over it. We also found not doing things too early worked for us we did the bulk off our planning the march before our wedding..."
Oh wedding dress, I heart though. Infact I just love everything about this wedding, in an extra special kind of way - knowing so much of it has been lovingly crafted by the bride, groom and their family.
Huge congrautlations Sarah and Anthony, I love your wedding guys and am so thrilled you have so kindly shared it all. And Sarah, if ever you fancy doing some beautiful DIY features for Love My Dress - just thought I'd mention it! ;))
I mean, if you could look that good in a backless frock, you wouldn't, wouldn't you?
Much love to you all,
Annabel
Photographer - Paula O'Hara
Venue - The Watermill in Lisnaskea, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland
Brides dress - Clinton Lotter via Blackburn Bridal Couture
Brides veil - made by the Bride
Brides shoes - Kurt Geiger
Bridesmaids - material bought in London and made by the Bride's Mum
Flowers - Eileen Gaffney
Cake - made by the Bride's Mum
Car - borrowed from a friend
Makeup Artist - Paddy McGurgan
Hair Stylist - Colleen Grimley, Benburg
