How did you and Martin meet?

Myself and Martin met at DIT Mountjoy Square on the Visual Communications Course in 1998. It took us until Art & Design Week in our third year to get together – no doubt a combination of lethal punch and tragic Superhero fancydress outfits. We’ve been together ever since.

Who proposed and what were the circumstances?

Martin proposed in Seville on our 10 year anniversary, last April 4th and it was a complete surprise. It was at the end of a perfect day where we’d walked miles to eat the most amazing food in a tiny tapas bar called Sol y Sombra (check it out if you’re ever there), drank fino and pottered about the city enjoying the sights. He’d had a little horseshoe ring in his pocket all day which he used to propose, and we picked out the real one together when we got back to London – a rose gold ring with a Victorian diamond that had been a hat pin in a previous life.

How would you describe the style of wedding you planned?

As we’d been together a long time, we wanted it to be small, and very informal – a laid back party atmosphere – where we could pick and choose the aspects of weddings that were important to us. Also, as we’re based in London, it was important that it was reasonably easy to organise and that the style of the venue matched our own.

Why Bellinter?

We gave ourselves one weekend to come home and choose from a shortlist of four venues. I’m from Dundalk, Martin from Oldcastle, and it was really important to us that the venue was nearish to where we both grew up. Bellinter was pretty much in the middle. We’d stayed there a few times before so we knew we liked the style of the place, and it was also important to us that our venue could accommodate our civil ceremony and that that particular room felt joyful and celebratory. We also loved how the speeches would be held in the living room of the hotel before dinner, which felt so lovely and relaxed. Plus, we had the place to ourselves for the night. We got married there 6 months after visiting it and it was definitely one of the easiest decisions of the whole process.

Who designed your beautiful wedding dress?

My wedding dress was the second one I purchased for the day! I had those classic bride wobbles about 2 months before the big day and headed out to confirm that my original dress was ‘the one’. But then I found ‘the real one’. My dress was a vintage gown from the late 1950′s that I found courtesy of the lovely Helena at Heavenly Vintage Brides. I think by that stage I’d been to every single vintage wedding dress shop in London, but I hadn’t come across anything like this one – it was fun as well as glamorous and I didn’t feel like I was playing dressup. Helena even had a vintage petticoat to go with it for extra twirl action. I borrowed my Mam’s fur wrap from her own wedding day and bought Vivienne Westwood shoes for a bit of extra sparkle.

Could you tell us about the bridesmaid dresses please?

My two bridesmaids (sis & best mate) are two very fashionable ladies, so I wanted their outfits to be sharp, glamorous and be suitable for a Winter wedding. I flew to Dublin one weekend in August and we hotfooted it to BT’s, blew the budget on two Marc Jacobs skirts, then teamed them with navy blouses from Topshop. I got their shoes in London, we picked up the fur stoles a few weeks before the wedding, and they were set.

Who did the beautiful flowers? They are so unusual.

This was another really easy decision. Bellinter recommended Stephanie at The French Touch as she regularly does flowers for weddings there. Once I visited her website I knew she was the one – everything looked really romantic but still modern. I wanted my bouquet to feel structured, full of earthy colours and wintery floral blooms. Stephanie used ferns, pussy willow, lotus heads, roses, craspedia and achilea for me and the girls, and added a mix of velvety rabbit ears, chamomile and rosemary for the mens boutonnieres. She mixed it up for the table displays, for the ‘gathered from the garden’ look I wanted, with little mix-matched vases that we had collected from flea markets and car boot sales in London. Everything looked laid back and relaxed and as the arrangements were plentiful, but small and compact, our guests could see each other across the tables. Also, they doubled up as wedding favours – everyone took a little posey home with them, so they could be enjoyed for as long as possible.

Who did your hair & make-up?

I was very lucky. My lovely talented cousin Sarah works for MAC, and she very kindly did everyone’s make up on the day. Our hair was done locally in Dundalk at The Hair Shop.

Who did the stationery?

Myself and Martin are graphic designers and we kind of went to town on the print collateral, roping in our friend Eoin Tierney to do an illustration of us, which we adapted for the invites, ceremony booklets, menus, placecards, thank you cards etc.

Did you do anything yourselves?

Everything we could do ourselves, we did. Martin painted the little figurines, we made our thank you book, I handpainted the table plan which we hung on the back of the door and Martin painstakingly illustrated 90 placecards so that everyone had a personalised place setting. It made such a difference and was so cool to see everyone sitting down to dinner laughing at our representations of their hair dos. Eoin had painted 4 different head shapes, so we were able to pretty-much capture everyone’s likeness! We collected all the vases for the table displays as well as spending hours doing the wedding playlist. But we wouldn’t have had it any other way.

We also had 3 huge balloons that we hung inside the venue where they floated above the staircase. It was originally supposed to be my homage to Funnyface with a giant bunch of 12 balloons at the front door, but a mix up in the supplies of helium, meant that we ended up with a more modest arrangement, but it still looked pretty good to us…

Did you have a special car?

My Dad has been doing up a 1970s vintage Jag that he bought a few years back. He managed to finish it for the wedding so I got to travel to the wedding in fantastic style.

What type of cake did you go for and who made it?

We didn’t bother with a cake. And if anyone missed it, they didn’t say a word to us. I reckon everyone was stuffed after their creme brulee…

Did you have any wedding favours?

I guess you could say that we used our floral table displays as favours. We let everyone know that they were free to take the poseys with them, and were delighted that there were none left the following morning.

What entertainment did you have?

We were low key with this as well, just creating a playlist on the laptop, so all we needed to do was hire some speakers from a local supplier in Navan. It took weeks to create the end result, but the floor was packed for the night, so I think we did ok.

What was your first dance song? Did you choreograph a dance or just dance normally?

Out first dance was This Must be the Place, by Talking Heads and there was definitely no choreography. Just lots of enthusiastic shape-throwing.

What’s your best memory from the day?

The ceremony was by far the memorable and emotional part of the day for me. We had placed big church candles all along the windows and ‘borrowed’ loads of vases of flowers from the dining room, so the room looked really pretty. It was packed to capacity with our guests so it felt really intimate. I walked in to White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes with my Dad, feeling really shaky, but so excited to see Martin standing at the top of the aisle. We had personalised the whole ceremony, so friends and relatives read out poetry and passages from novels that had real meaning for us. I was also lucky enough to be given my late grandmother’s wedding ring, so all in all, it was a very overwhelming experience.

(BUT, the speeches were a close second it this.)

Did anything unexpected happen (good or bad!!!)?

It didn’t rain!

Having been through the experience, have you any advice for people planning their own weddings? Would you do anything differently?

Stick to your guns and do exactly what you want. Make sure to do loads of research online – there are so many inspirational wedding blogs out there now. Put your own stamp on things and don’t be afraid to be playful or mix it up a bit. It makes such a difference to your day. Take any help that’s offered and more than anything else, trust your gut instinct. You’ll know if something isn’t right and there is always time to change things, right up to the last minute.

Where did you go on honeymoon?

We took the train to Mayo for a well-earned rest in The Ice House, followed by a New York jaunt where we stayed in The Bowery and The Standard (because we couldn’t decide on one!).

Anything else you’d like to add?