It’s back! Another Real Life Wedding. This month’s bride already featured on my Facebook page when she was on her hen party wearing her now hubby’s club jersey with Mrs Duggan on the back (see it here)! When I saw this couple’s wedding pics, I had to feature them as I’m sure when you read on you will see how stunning everything was! For those of you who don’t know, Kathryn was the Cork Rose in 2011, just so you know for further on, you’ll see! So delighted to have Kathryn & Cormac as this month’s featured wedding. Read on to hear all about their big day.
The couple: Kathryn Brennan & Cormac Duggan
Ceremony Venue: St Joesph’s Church, Glanmire, Co Cork
Reception Venue: Garryvoe Hotel, Cork
Date: 1st May 2015
Dress: Pronovias from Áibhéil of Adare, Limerick
No of Bridesmaids/Groomsmen: 4 of each
Bridesmaids Dresses: Pia Michi
Grooms suit: Custom made by Lapel
Photographer: Emily Doran
Flowers: Ina McCarthy
Band: J90
Hair: Janice McCarthy from Be Fabulous
Make-up: Jackie Burkley
Length of engagement: 2 years
How did you find planning your wedding?
I absolutely loved every minute of the planning. Pinterest was my new best friend and I had an amazing wedding file that I loved cutting pictures from magazines out and pasting them in different sections. I loved every minute of being engaged too and I think its nice to celebrate and enjoy that time too. My Mom was such a help with all the organising and advice, I would have been lost without her.
Was your groom/bridesmaid hands on?
Cormac, like most Irish grooms, was very easy going about the whole process but in fairness was always available to give a hand or reel me in when I was getting carried away with things, ha! We got married by the sea so we decided to have message in a bottle wedding invitations. Each invitation was a “message in a bottle” with the invite on a scroll inside a bottle of sand, gold glitter and seashells. We custom made each one and so the bridal party were a massive help in the compiling of them. As they weren’t really “postable” the groomsmen hand delivered a lot for us. The invites were a lot more work than we first envisaged but I was so happy with how they turned out and peoples reactions to them made the hours of blood sweat and tears all the more worth while. We were in a unique situation with our bridal party that everyone knew each other already so there were many “bridal party” events organised in the run up to the big day.
For our guest book we had a message in a bottle on each table with little scrolls for the guests to write their message. Then each month anniversary we open a new bottle. So if you were sitting at table 5 we will open it on our 5 month wedding anniversary. We have opened 3 already and it’s a lovely way to remember our day.
Favourite moment of the day?
I get asked this a lot and I loved every minute of the day but I think my favourite part was the ceremony itself. We had a lot of close friends and family part of the mass and it made it very special and personal. Walking down the ailse with my dad and seeing Cormac at the alter was a moment I’ll never forget. I also loved the car journey from the church to the hotel when it was just the two of us.
Other special moments: Two of my bridesmaids and two of our groomsmen wrote wedding songs for us. Caoimhe & Shauna sang theirs in the church and it was so beautiful and two of the groomsmen Mike & Phil sang theirs after the meal which was hilarious and everyone joined in. Two friends of ours, Grace & Dee, surprised us and flew home from Abu Dhabi for the day.
The speeches were excellent too. The Best Man, Cathal made a video with messages from our secondary school principal, where me and Cormac met, The Sars senior hurling team who Cormac plays with, a lecturer we both had in college and from Daithi O’Sé telling Cormac how “original” it was to marry a Rose. His speech was a talking point of the wedding – absolutely hilarious and very well done!
Do you wish you had done anything differently? E.g. booked something earlier, different supplier, invited more/less, etc?
We had a long engagement (2 years) so I was very organised with everything and everything seemed very easy and stressfree. I do think it’s important to book things early so you get exactly what you want and you can enjoy the build up to the wedding which is such a lovely exciting time.
What do you wish you had known when planning your wedding?
I put so much thought and effort into every little detail of the day and the lay out of things in the church and reception but on the day you are in such a little bubble that you don’t even notice the little things. So I’d say don’t stress about the little things!
Thanks so much to Kathryn & Cormac for allowing me to feature them as my August Real Life Wedding!
Love from my world,
Lisa x