When it comes to blogging, nothing makes fills my heart more than hearing from Brides who have read and been inspired by Love My Dress. I don't often shout about it, but I do receive an awful lot of emails from Brides thanking me for helping them to find that something special for their wedding day. One of the most recent lovely emails I received was from Irish Bride Leona, who tied the knot with her Husband Anthony on 18 September 2010 with a fabulous reception at The Castlemartyr Resort in Castlemartyr East Cork Ireland {more on this beautiful wedding venue a little further into this feature}.
These beautiful Photographs were taken by one of Ireland's leading Wedding Photographers, Philip Daly.
"I got a lot of the inspiration for our wedding from the wonderful world of wedding blogs. I absolutely adore Love My Dress, and even found my dream wedding invitations thanks to this blog, from the amazing Emily & Jo.
Also, ideas like the vintage suitcase table plan, and even the simple idea for our thank you cards {a photograph of us holding placards saying 'Thank You' that we printed out in postcard format} all came from my time spent on this blog…"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Philip Daly Photography
I just love these beautiful Order of the Day booklets. In fact, all of Leona and Anthony's wedding stationery was by the fabulous London Wedding Stationery Company Emily & Jo, who Leona discovered via Love My Dress…
Leona chose the beautiful lacey Cymbeline dress design 'Cory'…
"I spent alot of time looking for the perfect dress and when I came across a picture of the Cory dress on Cymbeline's websitee – I knew instantly that it was the one! However, living in Ireland sometimes can limit your choices and after an extensive serach of all the bridal stores in Ireland. I had to travel to London to fit a sample of the dress on, eventually I was able to order the dress via a bridal store in Dublin so it made the process of dress fittings easier!
I adored all the little details of my dress; it was as light as a feather (I couldnt believe how heavy most wedding dresses are) I loved the vintage corded lace, the elbow lenght sleeve, the split detail in the front and the covered buttons on the back.
I wanted to tweak it a little bit to put my own stamp on it so I replaced the cream sash it came with, with a dove grey sash…"
"Derrick Carberry did my make up, as well as that of my Mother and Bridesmaids. Derrick is quite simply one of the best make up artists in Ireland and he did an amazing Job…"
"Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a slight obsession with shoes, and in some ways, my wedding shoes were nearly more important than my dress!!
I really wanted to get the perfect pair and as there was quite a significant split in the front of the dress the shoes would be very much on show for the whole day. I eventually went with a beautiful pair of Kurt Geiger's. They were a mauve colour with a gorgeous pearl and diamond cluster at the toe and I felt that they had a vintage feel with a modern twist.
I absolutely loved them!"
"I opted for a small birdcage veil with pearl details. It was custom made by the very talented Aisling from Velvet Bow. Aisling also did my hair so she had really had a good idea of the look I wanted to achieve. I decided to go for a light pink colour in the netting of the veil as it would pick up the colour of my shoes and bridesmaid dress…"
"I wanted to keep the accessories simple as the dress had enough detail so I just had a pair of antique art deco diamond and pearl drop earrings…"
"Jill O'Keeffe of Wild Floral Couture did an amazing job with our flowers.
Together Jill and I developed the Hydrangea and Tea Cup theme over the year and had many meetings to bring the whole look together. I adore Hydrangeas of all colours but my favourite by far are the full rich blue Hyrgangeas, they are so vibrant but also have an old fashioned quality to them – they really remind me of my childhood so when choosing flowers for the wedding there was no competition.
I opted to have a light blue full hydrangea bouqet and had the stem wrapped with the same material as the sash on my dress. As an added touch I had an orignal cameo (which belonged to Anthony's Great Aunt) attached to it as my some thing old and my something borrowed…"
"Anthony's wore a Paul Smith suit and Prada shoes, finished off with a pair of his Father's cufflinks…"
"I have 4 sisters and couldnt bear to leave any of them out so I had all 4 as bridesmaids! I wanted to style them all as individual looks but with similar colour palettes of cream,dust-pink and champagne.
The long cream dress was from Coast's Couture Line and I teamed it with a light pink ribbon to pick up on the other dresses. The second dress was a stunning Roberto Cavilli number - so very Marylin Monroe! My two younger sisters wore champagne ruffle dresses from Warehouse which were very age appropriate and super pretty.
I loved that none of the dresses matched but together it all worked beautifully. We had 3 little flower girls too, who wore Jasper Conran Sunday Best dresses and they held lavender and peral wands and Alex our page boy wore a two piece tweed suit."
"We had a l string quartet playing in the church and chose a wide array of songs to be played during the ceremony itself. I walked down the aisle to a traditional Irish Air called 'Inis Oirr' and for the recessional walk we had the string quartet play an instrumental version of Journey's Dont stop believing!!"
Exchanging the rings….
"I always have my nails painted. My favourite colour is Chanel Rouge Noir and its the colour I wear throughout most of the year. Although it's not a very typical bride colour I felt it was the only colour I could wear on my wedding day - anything else would have felt wrong!"
"A stand out moment for both Anthony and I was when my sister Cliodhna sang the Bob Dylan song "Make you feel my love" {listen to the Adele version of this beuatiful song here} with Anthony's father playing the guitar it was a very special moment for us both, there wasn't a dry eye in the Church!"
Hehe! I love this photograph! That's certainly a novel way for a Bride and Groom to get themselves to the wedding reception! 🙂
Hehe! Brilliant!! 🙂
The couple chose The Castlemartyr Resort to host their wedding reception…
"We choose this venue for its unbelievably stunning grounds and we also felt that it had the perfect blend of old world charm and contemporary elegance that we were looking for.
It ticked all the boxes for us and we knew from the very first meeting with the event planner that our family and friends would be given 5 star treatment and we would be given the freedom to things our own way. We held our canape and cocktail reception in the 18th Century Manor House to the background music of a baby grand piano. Our gourmet meal and reception was held in the truly stunning Capel Suite with beautiful chandeliers and floor to ceiling drapes…"
I just love Leona and Anthony's table plan!
"Our Florist, Jill O'Keeffe of Wild Floral Couture worked with me on the old fashioned suitcase and side table feature – the Suitcase table plan was placed on the entrance to the chapel suite and was was a huge hit with our guests!"
"Instead of centre pieces, each table had a little collection of unique vintage teacups with a selection of flowers in them…We also had a side table next to our cake with vintage plates adorned with delicious macroons and more tea cups,candles and flowers!!"
What a stunning cake! Very Wedgewood 🙂
"I can't explain how much I loved our cake!! It was made for us by Mrs Timson an unbelievably talented icing sculptor from Cork. I found a beautiful Wedgewood inspired cake design on line and I asked her to recreate as near as she could to the image as it was incredibly ornate. I couldn't believe it when she did an exact replica of the image, it truly as a work of art.
Cake wise the top layer was a delicious carrot cake and the bottom layer was a yummy biscuit cake. The middle and most ornate section was a dummy layer and now sits on our sideboard at home with dried blue Hydrangeas on top as a constant reminder of our special day…"
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"A good photographer was the best investment ever. Moments that we never knew happened (Anthony's nephew Alex our little page boy walked down the aisle backwards! and had everyone in fits of laughter) or that we had forgotten about were captured beautifully by our Photographer Philip Daly and will be treasured for ever.
I would also say if you want to put some unique touches together for your wedding day it does take some thought, research and planning – you don't want to leave things to the last minute as the weeks leading up to the day itself can be a stressful time! However all those things that you think are important and have to be perfect really don't matter; the emotion and enormity of the day take over, and it is the love you feel from your new Husband and from your close family and friends that makes for a perfect wedding day in the end…"
♥ ♥ ♥
Brides Dress – 'Cory', by Cymbeline
Brides Birdcage Veil + Hair Stylist – Velvet Bow (telephone
Brides Shoes – Kurt Geiger
Brides Earrings – Antique Art-Deco
Bridal Makeup – Derrick Carberry
Grooms Suit – Paul Smith
Bridesmaids Dresses – Coast's Couture Line + Roberto Cavilli + Warehouse + Jasper Conran Sunday Best dresses
Photographer – Philip Daly Photography
Venue – The Castlemartyr Resort
Stationery – Emily & Jo
Cake – Mrs Timson, Cork (website not provided)
Flowers – Wild Floral Couture
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Such a beautiful Bride and so many lovely ideas 🙂
Thank you so very much Leona for not only following Love My Dress but for sending your wedding in as faeature. HUGE congrats to you and Anthony – you both looked amazing on your big day and the whole experience sounds wonderful 🙂
Thanks too to Irish Wedding Photographer Philip Daly for so kindly allowing reproduction of these photographs on Love My Dress.
Annabel 🙂
♥