“Our wedding theme was wildflowers and our colour scheme was a mix of burgundy and blush pinks.”
Names: Barry and Katie Keane
Length of engagement: 10 months
Wedding Date: 30th Aug 2018
Wedding location: Virginia Park Lodge, Cavan
Photographer: Dermot Byrne
Videographer: DC Media
We met… 8 years ago in the 40ft bar in Dun Laoghaire. I was at a friends 21st in the Irish yacht club and Barry was on a night out with his friends. The 40ft was fairly dead that night and Barry and his friends were all about to leave to head into town. Luckily though the yacht club closed at 12am and we all came over to the 40ft. When I walked in I noticed Barry talking to someone and caught his eye and he smiled back at me. It turned out the person he was talking to was a mutual friend who then introduced us. We clicked straight away and the rest is history.
Our proposal… we had planned a holiday to Majorca in Oct 2018 to visit a friend but I had other plans. Instead of flying straight to Majorca I had arranged a 4 day stop off in Rome. I managed to rush Katie through security and up to the gate before she realised what was happening. She went into a panic and thought we were at the wrong gate until I showed her our tickets. On the second day in Rome we went to visit the Coliseum and after a long day walking around I wanted to trek up a hill opposite the Coliseum for one last photo.
At this point Katie was getting a bit hangry but I managed to convince her. I asked a random man if he would take a photo of us in front of the Coliseum. I proceeded to get down on one knee and in true Katie fashion, she got a word in before I could even open my mouth and shouted ‘’oh my god are you proposing?’’ to this all I could do was smile and nod.
Our wedding theme/colours… our wedding theme was wildflowers and our colour scheme was a mix of burgundy and blush pinks. This theme happened by accident. I had chosen a wedding dress that had flowers in it and two of the bridesmaids’ dresses I had chosen also had flowers in them. So from that, I decided to further incorporate that into the wedding. I decided on wildflowers because I love the wild and rustic look they have.
Things we DIY’d/made ourselves… we did a lot of DIY stuff for our wedding. Barry made a few garden games that guest could enjoy during the reception. I wanted to give the guests small packets of wildflower seeds as our favours so I asked Barry to make a stand to hang them on. I also went and picked wildflowers with two of the bridesmaids. We then pressed them and placed them between two small pieces of glass and used them as our table names. I also made confetti cones that were filled with dried flower petals.
Barry made a candle holder made out of a copper pipe for our ceremony to remember his dad Ciaran who passed 4 years previous. He also made a copper pipe stand that we hung 3 generations of family wedding photos on.
My dress… I got my dress in Alice May bridal in Kilternan. It was actually the very first dress I had tried on. I really liked it but I thought I had better shop around to be sure. I quickly realised that it was the one.
My hair and makeup… Danielle Garner is the only person I trust to do my hair so it was a given that she’d be the one doing it on my wedding day. My makeup artist was Breifne Keogh and she was unbelievable. I will definitely be recommending her to any of my friends getting married.
His suit… I got my suit in Magee on South Anne Street in Dublin.
I went with the best man to so many suit shops before heading to Magee. As soon as I tried it on I knew I had to have it. The quality and fit of the suits were beyond compare. I was so impressed with the service we got from the staff.
What our bridal party wore… Choosing the Bridesmaids dresses was probably the toughest part of the wedding planning for me as my bridesmaids were all different shapes and sizes and I didn’t want any one of them feeling uncomfortable or not themselves in their dress. It was so important to me that they felt good in what they were wearing too. I decided to go for two different styles so that this was possible and thankfully I found both in The Suite and it all worked so well and everyone was happy.
Our ceremony… We were lucky enough to be able to get married outside as it was a lovely sunny day. Our florist, Hilary, had made us a beautiful floral arch that we sat in front of. Vincent Whelan was our spiritualist and we could not recommend him more. He did such an amazing job. He kept us both nice and calm and was able to be funny and serious at the same time. Our guests were even commenting afterwards about how amazing he was.
We chose our photographer and videographer because… We went with David Coyle for our videographer. He’s such an amazing videographer and a real professional. He was extremely subtle and we hardly even noticed him. We couldn’t be happier at how our video turned out.
We chose Dermot Byrne as our photographer because we knew we could count on him to do an amazing job. He was very calm and efficient and really made us feel at ease. We can’t thank him enough for capturing our day so beautifully. It was so hard to pick the photos for our album out of over 900 amazing shots but we are extremely happy with the amazing finished product.
We chose our venue because… Katie is a chef and as a couple we are big into our food. Virginia Park lodge is owned by Richard Corrigan who is a Michelin star chef with an ethos of using only seasonal and local produce. We also wanted a venue that would accommodate the majority of our guests if not all of them and Virginia Park Lodge had enough accommodation to house nearly all of our guests.
Our menu… was based around seasonal locally sourced produce with the freshest of the ingredients some of which were from the organic gardens in Virginia Park Lodge.
Our honeymoon… We went to Sicily for our honeymoon and stayed in a lovely seaside villa with its own private pool and access straight onto the beach from our back garden. It was early September so the weather was in the high 20s low 30s. It took us a few days to calm down from all the wedding hype start relaxing and enjoying ourselves, but once we did we had an amazing time.
My favourite part of the wedding day…We both agree that our favourite part of the wedding day would have to be the ceremony. Vinny really set the tone for our ceremony and it was full of so much laughter and love. Our friends sang “take my hand” during our hand fasting ritual which was amazing and really special to us. We really didn’t want it to end.
My piece of advice for other couples… Enjoy every moment of your day take it all in because it goes by so quickly. I remember someone saying this to me before we got married and telling me not to let any little glitches affect me, so I made the conscious effort to do exactly this and I can seriously say I was on cloud 9 the entire day. It really is the best day ever!
What is it that makes your wedding unique? Our wedding was a combination of both our personalities. Both of us are fairly handy so I would say our wedding was quite unique when it came to DIY. Barry made all of the garden games and Katie made the table name stands along with the confetti cones and a few other quirky things.
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Wedding venue: Virginia Park Lodge, Cavan | Photographer: Dermot Byrne | Videographer: DC Media | Ceremony Musician: Sacred Sounds | Reception Music: The Kooky Ukes | Main Band & DJ: The Mixtape | Hair: Danielle Garner | Makeup: Brefni Keogh | Dress: Alice May Bridal | Suit: Magee | Bridesmaids dresses: The Suite | Groomsmen outfits: Magee | Caterer: Virginia Park Lodge | Cake: Sugar & Spice, Buncloudy, Wexford | Celebrant: Vincent Whelan, Spiritual Ceremonies