Time for another Real Life Wedding! And this is one that I was at! When the bride appeared at the back of the church it was a real WOW moment! That dress was amazing! Read on to see the dress and hear all about Máire and Carl’s big Kerry versus Dublin wedding day!
The couple: Máire Prendiville and Carl Coates
Ceremony Venue: St Mary’s Church, Tarbert, Co. Kerry
Reception Venue: Ballygarry House Hotel and Spa, Tralee, Co. Kerry
Date: 23rd July 2015
Dress: Farage, Paris from Eden Manor
No of Bridesmaids/Groomsmen: 4 of each
Bridesmaids Dresses: Pink multi-way dresses (I blogged about these exact ones here) from Siopa Lara, Dublin
Groom’s suit: Wilvorst from Dan at The Formal Suite, Duke St., Dublin
Photographer: John Walsh, Tralee
Videographer: Ger O’Riordan
Flowers: Joan Lynch, Tarbert
Cake: The Cake Creator, Gorey, Co Wexford
Band: The Irish House Party
DJ: DJ and Silent Disco
Hair: Síle at Marie Langan’s Hair Salon, Glin, Co. Limerick
Make-up: Katrina Vaughan Make-Up Artist
Length of engagement: A year and nine months
How did you find planning your wedding?
We planned and booked everything within 9 months of the wedding, as we had gotten engaged while travelling in Vietnam and were slow to get started. This made for quite a stressful planning process. As we both live in Wexford a lot was done over the phone. The hotel staff were brilliant, patiently answering all our questions, making great recommendations and reassuring and advising us whenever we started second-guessing ourselves. There were lulls within the nine months where there wasn’t much we felt we could do, or wanted to do, followed by spells where we had lots to do.
Was your groom/bridesmaids hands on?
Yes, they, as well as our friends, helped us out a lot with everything from ribbon-tying to transport on the day.
Favourite moment of the day?
We had great fun getting photos taken. Our photographer, John Walsh and our videographer, Ger O’Riordan, were brilliant fun. Both of us had great fun the morning of the wedding too. The boys got ready in Ballygarry where they had some photos taken. I got ready at home with my parents and sisters, it was like Christmas morning when we were kids. I even got a surprise- the VW Camper van as the wedding car!
Were there any hiccups on the day of the wedding?
There were a few hiccups leading up to the wedding. My dress got lost in transit from Paris four weeks before the wedding, but luckily Hilda at Eden Manor sorted that out without me having to do anything. We also found out that there was one near-hiccup on the day, but the hotel staff had a back up plan in place which, luckily, they didn’t have to use. There were probably more issues that we didn’t hear about, such is the nature of big gatherings!
Anything unusual that you want to promote the supplier?
We got our invitations designed by Joe at Elsie’s Crafts. We wanted to have a bit of fun with them so he played up our Dublin/Kerry rivalry and designed them to look like GAA tickets. The Beauty Spot in Tarbert were brilliant. They closed the salon for an evening and did nails and tan for my mum, my sisters and I.
What do you wish you had known when planning your wedding?
Knowing what we could have done during the quieter times of planning would have eased a lot of the stress. Having a better idea of costs would have helped as well.
Do you wish you had done anything differently? E.g. booked something earlier, different supplier, invited more/less, etc?
We wish we’d started saving earlier for the wedding! We would get our cake elsewhere because we had difficulty dealing with the supplier. Overall, though, we had a brilliant time on the day itself and wouldn’t change a second of it.
Thanks so much to Máire and Carl for sharing their big day with me.
Love from my world,
Lisa x