Had an absolutely amazing wedding weekend on September 16th in the gorgeous Kilshane House, Co Tipperary.
LEAD UP
In the lead up to the wedding I was amazingly calm as I was very organised, the groom on the other hand turned into a stress bunny two days beforehand but thankfully that all evaporated on the day.
Spent the night before the wedding at home with my three bridesmaids, drank vino and slept like a log for 8 hours; couldn’t believe it, I was sure I’d be tossing and turning all night.
I had been obsessively checking weather.com on my mobile and watching RTE weather for the few days before the wedding ,nearly dreaming about Evelyn Cusack and had about 16 friends and neighbours with a ‘child of prague’ in the garden. Thankfully I woke to a typically grey Irish sky- result! Gale force wind but no rain, a good start.
Had both hair stylist and make-up artist arrive around 9.30am so managed a small breakfast and a few glasses of bubbly while Will Allen, my favourite hairdresser in Limerick and the uber talented make up artist Lesley Turner worked their magic on us ladies. Lesley, who owns a lash bar in Newport, Co Tipp also did my tan and had given me the most fantastic 3D false eyelashes which last six weeks so was thrilled with my make-up.
My dad arrived while Lesley and Will were hard at work and chilled out with a cup of tea while we were being magically transformed, I was a little worried about him as my mum passed away a few years ago, he was just out of hospital after a heart op and I was afraid both of us would over emotional that morning but he was in great form.
I was dying to wear my backless silk Jenny Packham dress which I fell in love with the first minute I tried it on and hopped happily into the car.
The church, in Bansha, beside Kilshane House is normally 45 mins away from our home so at 1.15pm I left hoping to be in Bansha around 2.05pm (our wedding was 2pm.)
OH. MY.GOD. The traffic. I will NEVER forget it; three sets of roadworks, crazy Friday lunch-time traffic through Tipp Town. To cut a long story short, after lots of frantic bouquet waving at other irate drivers, I was 45 mins late. Totally not my fault but I was hoping guests didn’t think I was being rude or flapping around at home. Turns out most of them were late too and had a few scoops in the pub beforehand.Anyhoo, the walk up the aisle was pretty nerve-wracking but it was sooo lovely to see himself, albeit a little choked up at the top of the aisle. We walked up the aisle to the Elbow song, One Day Like This and our priest, Fr Eugene Boyce, from Dooradoyle in Limerick was fantastic, really easy-going.
I wanted really relaxed pics, so our wedding photographer Sean Curtin took us into a corn-field on the way to Kilshane House and I ended up wearing wellies (ironically met hubby at Electric Picnic) while he got some fab pics with the angry sky which was now threatening to pour out of the Heavens. It’s also very hard to smile when you’re fffff-freezing!
Kilshane House is such an amazing place, all our guests oooh—ed and aaah-d about the Conservatory where we had our drinks reception to the sounds of swing band Idol Bones.
and when we walked into the Orangerie (function room) it really took my breath away, I loved the way the room was decorated with ivy on the ledges, our florist Carolyn from Tiger Lillies did a great job on the candalabras and all the twinkling tea-lights really set it off. Food was amazing, monkfish and beef, and our speeches (inluding my own) went off really well. My OH’s speech blew me away, he was brilliant. Our first dance was to the Cure, Friday I’m in Love and after the band finished (Final Touch) our DJ played our favourite alternative tunes until almost 5am!! I had to be dragged to bed at 6am, really REALLY didn’t want to take my dress off and got up again at 9am to see Ireland beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup, what a great way to round off the day. Had a BBQ the next evening in Kilshane, around 70 people stayed. Our beloved scottish terrier, Dougie, even came to the BBQ and stayed in our room that night, Kilshane is that kind of relaxed place. Ended up having another late night and almost had tears in my eyes saying leaving Kilshane the next day. I know it’s an expensive venue and we saved like hell the last year but it was worth every penny, I really had the time of my life and all our guests raved about their experience. We went on a mini-moon to Spain for a few days and looking forward to our honeymoon in Argentina and Rio on New Year’s Eve! Advice? Don’t sweat the small stuff, get your Mass Booklets done AT LEAST two weeks before your wedding, check the traffic (!!!) and most of all enjoy yourselves, the day just flies by.
Suppliers:
Venue: Kilshane House (http://www.kilshanehouse.ie)
Dress, Jenny Packham at Annabel Rose, Dublin http://www.anabelrose.com
Shoes Jimmy Choo (Brown Thomas Sale)
Bridesmaids: Virjinia’s Bridal, Limerick
Hair, Will Allen (Visage, Limerick)
Make-Up Lesley Turner (Cerise, Newport)
Photography: Sean Curtin (http://www.seancurtin.com)
Band: Final Touch (http://www.finaltouchband.com)
Drinks Reception: Idol Bones (http://www.idolbones.com)
Flowers: Tiger Lillies (http://www.tigerlilliesdesign.com)
Woollies are just the best xx
