
Real Weddings: Laura and Marc’s winter wonderland wedding in Co Meath
Laura and Marc tied the knot in their local church before heading in style to Ballymagarvey Village. Akin to a winter wonderland, the venue was beautifully decorated with twinkling lights, dangling stars and snowflakes, and hibernal florals.
THE COUPLE
Laura, primary school teacher, and Marc, IT product manager.
THEY LIVE
in Straffan, Co Kildare.
THE VENUE
Ballymagarvey Village, Co Meath.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Emma Russell Photography.
THEY MET
We literally bumped into each other on a night out in Dublin many moons ago. I was on a girls’ night out and Marc, originally from Manchester, was out on the town with some lads from Manchester who were over in Dublin for the weekend. After instantly hitting it off, we exchanged Facebook details and as the saying goes, the rest is history!
THE PROPOSAL
Marc organised a surprise trip to Adare Manor to celebrate our seven-year anniversary. After dinner, Marc informed me that he needed to return to the room to charge his phone. To my surprise, when we returned to the room, it had been beautifully decorated with “Will you marry me?” balloons and decorations. Marc got down on one knee and popped the question. We spent the rest of the night celebrating with bubbles and making initial wedding plans. I was so excited that I began emailing wedding venues the following morning and arranging viewing appointments.
THE DRESS & THE SUIT
I must have tried on about 50 dresses in the search for my wedding dress but kept coming back to the dress I tried in The White Room in Mullingar. I had an idea of the style of dress I wanted from the beginning – simple with long sleeves and a square neckline. With the help of the sales assistant in The White Room and my stylish mum who has never steered me wrong when it comes to choosing an outfit, I found the perfect Pronovias dress.
I wanted to keep my dress classic so that I could add some statement accessories. My veil was from Blue Meadow, as were my earrings. Just before dinner, I made a subtle change to my look and instead of my Blue Meadow veil and earrings, I wore a beautiful, feathered hairband for the rest of the night from Designed by Nua, an Irish-based bridal accessories brand and accessories from Betty and Biddy.
Marc’s quest for the perfect wedding attire was much more straightforward and unsurprisingly he found his suit in the first shop he went to! Having come highly recommended, Marc purchased his suit in a local menswear shop, Richie Whelan’s Menswear in Naas, Co Kildare. He wore a classic tuxedo with a black velvet jacket to add a modern twist.
THE CEREMONY
Our ceremony was held in our local church, St Brigid’s Church in Straffan. The priest, Fr Willie O’Byrne, delivered a perfectly personal wedding ceremony which was very special. His humour set the tone for the day and made us both feel comfortable and relaxed.
Our beautiful music in the church was provided by Aoife from Duet Justice. It was very important to us to have our families and friends involved in our wedding ceremony from our gorgeous flower girls and dashing page boys to our parents, siblings and close friends.
THE RECEPTION
The Christmas decorations, twinkly lights and cosy fires in Ballymagarvey were the perfect backdrop to our festive drinks reception. From mince pies and mulled wine to pigs in blankets and prosecco, the drinks reception paved the way for an evening of fun for our guests.
For entertainment, we had an illustrator, Linda Byrne (The Wedding Illustrator), who created the most beautiful live illustrations for our guests. This was a gorgeous keepsake for our friends and family to take home on the day. Honey Voom Duo provided the music in the conservatory in Ballmagarvey and had everyone in great spirits.
THE ENTERTAINMENT
Our amazing wedding band was Arthur. They were incredible and kept the dancefloor full all night. Arthur are interactive and fun and brought so much energy to the wedding. In order to ensure we had the perfect setlist, the lads in the band even learned some new songs at our request in advance of playing at our wedding.
As Arthur was getting set up, we had a firework display from Emerald Fireworks. They were a total crowd-pleaser and a fabulous backdrop to so many of our wedding photos. Emerald Fireworks also supplied sparklers for our guests and again, were a great photo opportunity. Fortunately, it was a perfectly crisp night so getting everyone outside after dinner was the perfect refresher before a night of dancing! During the night, we had a photo booth from Event Occasions which was enjoyed by many of our guests, particularly the kiddos.
THE DECOR
Ballymagarvey is known for its breath-taking décor in the dining room and so, we didn’t need to add much more. Our fabulous flowers were by Ali from The Tangled Bramble who, in addition to Ballymagarvey’s gorgeous décor, added some beautiful finishing touches to our tables and candelabras.
My wonderfully creative and talented bridesmaid, Ruth, handmade our beautiful table numbers which were a very special, personal touch. Ruth is a perfectionist and went above and beyond to ensure we had the perfect font and perfect style of table number – they were gorgeous.
Our wedding signage and menu were printed by Amanda in Spectrum Print. I bought templates from Etsy that complemented our wedding invitations which were designed by Sage Studios and Amanda printed them to perfection.
We had personalised chocolates from Lily O’Briens for each of our guests at every place setting as our wedding favours – simple but effective!
THEIR TOP TIPS
Marc and I enjoyed every part of the wedding, from the moment we got engaged to the big day. We would definitely encourage all brides and grooms-to-be to celebrate all of the little milestones in the build-up to your wedding. Take every opportunity to celebrate it being a certain number of months out to the big day; toast when you have chosen your wedding venue or picked your wedding bands. You will only do it once so enjoy it all!
Get booking suppliers as soon as you can after you’ve gotten engaged. This is something that really surprised us both. If you have a venue and a date in mind, arrange a viewing appointment so that you are not disappointed. And finally, I know everyone says it but really do make sure to take little moments together throughout your wedding day to soak it all in.
THEY WISH THEY HAD
We really have no regrets at all from the day. We enjoyed every minute from start to finish and everything went off without a hitch. We didn’t want the day to end, so much so that we had a sing-song until 4.30am with many of our guests! We say it to one another regularly, but we truly wish that we could relive it all again. It really was the best day of our lives.
THEIR BEST MOMENTS
There are so many to choose from! Seeing everything come together after months of planning and seeing all of our friends and family having such a good time was very special.
Our bridal party were absolutely amazing, so as well as having many special moments ourselves on the day, there were lots of special moments with them both in the run-up to the wedding and on the day.
THE FIRST DANCE SONG
Dreams by the Cranberries.
THE CREW
Wedding dress: Pronovias dress from The White Room. Bride’s shoes & bag: Loeffler Randall from The White & Gold. Wedding Suit: Richie Whelan’s Menswear. Bridesmaids’ dresses: Folkster. Cake: Mimi’s Bakes. Florist: The Tangled Bramble. Make-up: Nicole McGrath. Hair: Clare Feary from Snipetts Hair Salon. Wedding car: Peader from My Wedding Car.ie. Band: Arthur. Videographer: Evan from Irish Eye Wedding Videos.
See more photographs from Laura and Marc’s wedding in the gallery below.
Photography by Emma Russell Photography.
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