OUR WEDDING DAY

“Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

I thought since it's our first wedding anniversary today that I'd do a wee post about our wedding day and share some photos. We have been so blessed over the past year to be able to spend so much time together travelling and we're so excited to be expecting our first baby, but this is the day where it all began!

Wednesday 18th July 2018

THE MORNING & GETTING READY (My House)

I woke at around 6am after a surprisingly pleasant sleep. I stayed in my parents home; where I had been living anyway. In the house was my parents, four bridesmaids and myself. We woke up, all tanned and ready to start the preparations for the most beautiful day of my life to date. The makeup artist arrived around 6:30am and started with the bridesmaids while I showered and had some breakfast. My hairdresser arrived at 10am and started with the hairs. In between times our florist arrived bearing the most spectacular flower arrangements ever followed by our photographer, and videographer ready to document our day.

I was quite surprised at how much time I seemed to have from waking up until I was ready to leave! Once our hair and makeup was sorted it was time to get the bridesmaids in their dresses and finally for me to get dressed. With help from my Mammy I put on my dress, veil, jewellery, shoes and perfume. The cars then arrived, a vintage VW Beetle for my Daddy and I, and the VW Camper for my bridesmaids. We had time for a few photos outside and then around 12:40pm it was time to make our way to the chapel.

My something old and barrowed was an antique ring that belonged to my granny that was handed down to my Mammy. My something blue was a beautiful Monica Vinader ring with a blue stone.

         

THE MORNING & GETTING READY (The Grooms House - by Emmett)

I'll go ahead and assume my house was a lot more relaxed than the girls'. We didn't wake quite as early, I think I got up at around 7:45am and myself and good friend Squeak went for a run. We only ran half an hour or so but it was good to get out and get some training done to burn off a few nerves and work up and appetite for breakfast. When we got back the rest of the boy's were up and my Mommy had made us all breakfast; porridge, fruit, pancakes, croissants, the works! we then got showered and ready, and no word of a lie we put on the "Step Brothers" film and had a laugh, got a few photos, jumped in my Mommy's car; which my brother drove, and headed for the chapel. It all went very smooth thanks to all the groomsmen who kept it simple and kept the craic going.

We wrote each other cards to read on the morning of the wedding.

WEDDING MASS

We had our Wedding mass in St Columba's Church in Drung, Donegal. Our reason for choosing this chapel was that my parents got married there and also because we loved both the chapel itself and the location. I arrived at around 1pm with a few final guests entering the chapel as we pulled up. Much to my surprise I hadn't cried up to this point and I wasn't nervous at all.  We had two priests celebrate our Wedding, Fr Lagan was the main celebrant and Fr Farren was concelebrant. Our music was so beautiful from start to finish, we had Emmett's cousin Kim play cello and piano, and a friend of Emmett's sister, Niamh sang and played piano too. It was an amazing feeling entering the chapel with my Daddy and seeing all the people we love there to celebrate this special day with us. Looking back, the mass was definitely the highlight. I had imagined what it would be like a million times but in real life it exceeded anything I could have dreamed of. With our faith being so important to us, having such a beautiful celebration before God and receiving the sacrament of marriage in His presence was perfect.

We had our younger cousins read the prayers of the faithful.

I love the blue front door to the chapel, especially with our floral arrangement to frame it.

My maid of honour, Amy accidentally stood on my veil here - lol

My beautiful Bridesmaids!

Once we left the chapel we had time for hugs and chats with our guests as well as some photos. Emmett and I along with our photographer went to Lisnagra Woods for some portraits. We tried not to spend too long getting photos as we had discussed with our photographer that it was more important to us that we spend more time with our guests and less time posing for photos. We are really happy we decided not to spend hours getting photos taken while our guests hung about at the reception starving - lol.

THE RECEPTION

We had our wedding reception at The Red Door Country House in Fahan, Donegal. Originally I wanted to have a very small garden reception but after pricing caterers, marquees, toilets, furniture etc. and the clean up, it seemed like a much better option to have it at a ready to go venue. The Red Door was perfect, it was small enough for a more intimate reception and the gardens and outdoor seating area made in between the drinks reception and dinner times relaxing for our guests. We moved inside and had the speeches followed by Fr Farren say Grace and then it was time for our amazing meal! We were so impressed; along with our guests, at the standard of the food we were served.

Once dinner was over, we cut our delicious cake and then the floor was cleared and we had our first dance (John Mayer - Love is a Verb), Father Daughter dance (Miley Cyrus - Butterfly Fly Away) and Mother Son dance (Elton John - The Circle of Life)  all accompanied by Niamh again. After a slight hiccup, our DJ finally arrived and the dancing began. It was the best feeling to see our guests enjoying themselves and a bonus that we had the most spectacular day of our lives!

This is hilarious!

We had our table names the names of our favourite beaches from places we've visited.

As the sun went down our photographer grabbed us to get some photos down at the water, I'm so glad she did because I love these photos!

I can't believe it's already been a full year since this incredible day! We're so grateful to everyone who made our wedding so special, especially our family and all of our guests. Looking back over all the photos for the first time in months makes me realise how blessed I am to have so many loving people around me and for such a selfless, caring, loving, godly man as my husband.  I hope you enjoyed reading about it and looking through our photos. 

Emma-Jo xx

Dress: Mc Elhinneys, Ballyboffey

Shoes: Forever Soles

Suits: ASOS

Ties & Pocket Squares: The Belfast Bow Company

Hair: Michael Deery

Makeup: AMG

Florist: Sharon Peaker Flowers

Cars: Cool Classics Cars

Reception: The Red Door Country House

Cake & Donuts: Sean Boyle

Photographer: Holly & Lime Photography