Hi All,
Well, i've been meaning to do this for a very long time but i'm finally getting around to it. We had the most amazing day and i would love to go back and do it all again but wouldn't change a thing - well apart from the weather. It was the weekend that Dundrum shopping centre & the m1 and basically the whole country flooded!!!
Firstly, I stayed in my parents house the night before the wedding and the next morning I woke up at 6.30am and had 45 minutes to myself to finish up my speech and get my thoughts together. I had put some soaked teabags in the fridge the night before so i popped them over my eyes to help brighten my eyes as i knew i wouldn't sleep well the night before with everything going through my head. So I woke up, finished my speech and put the teabags on my eyes and lay in bed listening to the peace and quiet and thinking about what the day would be like! I then went to the kitchen to make myself a cuppa and in came my 3 sisters (bms) and my mum. We had a good laugh chatting about everything and then one of my sisters (cbm) disappeared for a few minutes and arrived back in with a bag full of pressies from my then h2b! He had a beautiful necklace for me, a Robbie Williams book (my first love!!!) and 1001 albums you must hear before you die (we are massive music fans) along with a card with a picture of 2 elephants on the front holding trunks and he had written the most gorgeous things on the inside... as you can guess, i started crying. Then my cbm produced my h2b's Ipod and he had made me a mixed tape!! (playlist) of 'our songs'. We listened to this for the whole morning getting ready and it was amazing. If there's any H2B's reading this thread, this idea goes down a storm!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, 8.30am came and my makeup artist Breda O'Neill from more than makeup & Sinead Gaffney from The Hair Mob arrived and started to work their magic on all of us!!! I loved this part of the morning. With the music going and the champagne flowing, i almost didn't want it to end! I said ALMOST!! Anyway, at about 11.30 the photographer and videographer arrived and they were lovely. We used Aideen Daly Photography & D Digital Videography. Both have been lovely to deal with.
The morning absolutely flew by. Before i knew it, it was time to get into my dress. My youngest sister came with me and helped me get dressed as my cbm was still getting her makeup done. It was great to have those few minutes away from everyone and just listen to the crack going on in the house. I loved it.
I walked out from getting ready and there stood my mum and dad and they were crying. It was a lovely moment. I just hugged them both so tight and thanked them so much for everything. Then our car arrived. We used Connolly Chauffeurs and got an ivory Bentley S1 which was beautiful.
Anyway, off my Dad and I went to the church at about 12.45 and we arrived at the church at 1.00pm on the dot, few minutes for photos and braving the wind and then it was straight up the aisle to 'the fist time ever i saw your face' sung by Jessica Molloy with accompaniment by Gavin Mc Caffrey. These guys were amazing. I even turned around to her after her rendition of Adele's To Make you feel my Love and told her she was amazing!! I absolutely loved the ceremony and have never heard so many people talk about the ceremony so much. It was just good fun. Our church was very small and intimate so everyone felt really involved.
Anyway, the mass ended and we met everyone outside and then off to Cabra Castle myself and DH went. We had about an hour and 15 minutes in the car and we so enjoyed this time together. All of our guests were passing us out on the way up and beeping and waving. We felt like Will & Kate on a much much smaller scale!!!
Anyway, we arrived at Cabra Castle @ about 3.30 / 4.00pm and were met by Paul (our Cabra Castle Planner) and we were guided up through the castle to the drinks reception by the bagpiper and were then met with delicious glasses of champagne. Then off for photos around the castle and for a little freshen up and chillax before dinner which was being called at 5.45pm. We made our big entrance into the banquet hall and took our seats for dinner. Our starter was avocado & prawns which was lovely. Then in arrive this group of 5 people dressed in tuxes and gowns and I didn't know who they were. Next of all a violinist starts and they start singing fabulous opera music. My Dad had arrnaged this as a surprise and what a surprise it was too. They were amazing and all of our guests - young and old, were blown away by it, as were we. They were called the Drawing Room Opera Company. Absolutely amazing surprise.
Then on to our main course - i ordered the fillet steak (we also had options of chicken and sea bass) which came with 3 different types of potatoes (the garlic spuds were AMAZING!) and a lovely selection of veg and then dessert (chocolate tort). The came the speeches. I'm dying to see our dvd because i forget most of them, but after the surprise of the opera singers we were all high as kites and were very relaxed doing the speeches. The rest of the night absolutely flew by. Our band and DJ were fantastic (The Beat Club Band & Digital DJ's). We could not fault them and the dance floor was literally never empty for the night.
Overall, i loved the day and the next night was almost as good. We had a bbq (yes, in the lashings of rain) in Cabra Castle and they had set up the drinks reception room beautifully for us for this part of the weekend. The food was amazing, as it was the night before. Lots of beautiful meat, salads, breads etc. The bar stayed open for us till 6.00am the next morning
Anyway, as i said, i'd love to do it all again and wouldn't change a thing. A link to our video highlights is below.
Our Suppliers (all of whom I would highly recommend were)
Flowers - Forget Me Not Florist - Donabate http://www.forget-me-not-florist.net/
My dress & bms dresses - Bridal Heaven in Swords
My jewellery and bms jewellery - Knightsbridge Boutique
Cake - For Heaven's Cake - http://www.forheavenscake.ie/ (delicious!!)
Car - Connolly Chauffeurs
Band - The Beat Club Band - http://www.beatclub.ie/
DJ - http://www.digitaldjs.ie/
Photographer - Aideen Daly http://www.aideendalyphotography.ie/
Videographer - D Digital http://www.weddingfilmsbyddigital.com/
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