JEN AND CLARE’S CHIC WINTER WEDDING

December 11 2016, Waterford Castle

 

Clare proposed to Jen in the wake of the marriage referendum after 10 years, and two children, together. Their sons helped her make a proposal video, and of course Jen said “Yes!”

With only a year to plan their wedding before their pre-planned honeymoon, they were just in time to book Waterford Castle as their ceremony and reception venue.

The Wedding Details Jen found her wedding gown, by Sadoni, in Ciara Bridal in Powerscourt Town House. Clare looked online for her beaded dream dress and fell in love with one by Phase Eight.

Flowers by Lucy in Kilkenny designed the floral arrangements around Jen and Clare’s colour scheme and favourite flower, amnesia rose.

Jen and Clare chose to have a cheese wheel instead of a traditional wedding cake. Elizabeth Bradley, of Carlow Farm House Cheese, designed the ensemble and to satisfy guests with a sweet tooth they also had a selection of treats from Cakeface in Kilkenny.

The happy couple chose their favourite Carlow-based band, Monroe, to entertain their 60 guests during the reception.

Not fans of being in front of the camera, Jen and Clare chose Greg from IG Studio as their photographer as he specialises in documentary photography. “When we got our photos back from Greg we had no recollection of him taking the majority of them.  And when we did the posy photos he made us feel so relaxed and comfortable that they weren’t painful at all (because that’s what we were expecting them to be, but it ended up being far from that!)”

Their honeymoon was booked before the wedding, and their day was planned around their flight dates. Jen and Clare chose to spend a month in New Zealand and spent their time travelling around the North and South Islands.

Favourite Memories For Jen and Clare, having their sons walk them down the aisle was the most special memory from their ceremony. Their first dance, to ‘Good Riddance’ by Green Day, was another stand out moment. “We know it’s an unusual first dance song for a wedding, but it has a lot of meaning to us. Monroe had never done that song before and we only heard it the first time for our first dance and it was amazing.”

Special Touches As 16 of their 60 guests were children, Jen and Clare had a Santa come to the castle to entertain the kids and give their own children their Christmas presents as they would be away on their honeymoon for Christmas day.

Clare’s father helped her make a wish tree where guests could write wishes and messages on Christmas baubles or gift tags and hang them on the tree.

Jen and Clare also featured the Christmas theme in their wedding favours, giving each guest a tree ornament personalised with their wedding date for them to hang on their own trees at home.

Tell us about your experience with Waterford Castle? “The hotel venue was amazing, and the rooms were absolutely fabulous.  We had our ceremony, meal and our reception there between 2 different rooms.  The work the team did in the background to the rooms when we went from the ceremony to the meal and then to the reception was amazing they were like magic Elves everything just seemed to happen without even noticing it.  But also, the food was to die for!   It’s hard to describe how great it was, it was just divine.”