A Beautifully Elegant White Wedding

Articles, Real Weddings

“Our wedding theme/colours… White Elegance with a touch of Regal Class.”

 

Names: Mardeen Mc Caughey & Michael Teer

Length of engagement:  Two years

Wedding Date: 21st July 2018

Wedding location: The Hillgrove Hotel

Photographer: Peter Carvill

 

 

We met… 10 years ago.

 

 

Our proposal… The Galway Races, My dessert arrived with the words written on the plate “Will you marry me” and the engagement ring!

 

 

Our wedding theme/colours… White Elegance with a touch of Regal Class.

 

 

Things we DIY’d/made ourselves… With the help of others, we made our own donut wall, we had an m&m sweet table as our initials are m&m, table favours, mass booklets.

 

 

My dress… I had seen a dress in a magazine and knew it was the dress for me. It arrived in Ireland for a Trunk Show and I loved it but needed my sisters to see it. So we followed the dress to the following Trunk show which was in England. The dress was by Galia Lahav House of Couture. It was an impressive ball gown dress with rose sheer tulle skirt with handmade flower appliques and off the shoulder sleeves with a sheer back. I had the train extended and wore a full length veil. My mother bought my dress for me which makes it even more special. I wore nude crushed velvet Jimmy Choo pumps.

 

 

My hair and makeup… My hair was done by the very talented Kay Burns Hair, Crossmaglen, I wanted a soft look to go with the soft and flowing nature of my dress which Kay achieved in minutes, Kay also came to the hotel after our meal and put my hair up so I was ready to dance. My make-up was by MRS Make-Up, Michelle created a beautiful soft look, she was full of energy and great craic the morning of our wedding but at the same time very professional.

 

 

His suit… As my Brother-in-law owns a Men’s Drapers Store – Tavey’s Menswear Castleblayney. Brendan Tavey suited and booted all of the men. The suits were handpicked from the Benetti’s warehouse. The suit was a classic slim fit black dinner suit with satin lapels finished with black bow ties and silver engraved pocket watch.

 

 

What our bridal party wore… The Bridesmaids wore elegant white fitted full length gowns with a small train. They had an off the shoulder V in the front and back. The Bridesmaids dress were made to order by Pheonix V, Dublin. Liza was a pleasure to work with. We accessorised them with rose gold brocade shoes and bags and Tipperary crystal and Swarovski rose gold jewellery. The Mother of the bride’s dress was also made by Pheonix V with a statement headpiece by Jennifer Wrynne Millinery and Jimmy Choo Shoes.

 

 

The five pageboys wore White Tux jackets and were kitted out with personalised sunglasses and badges as my ring security for the day. The youngest page boy Kelvin –jay had an electric white range rover with a personalised number plate to match our wedding cars. Our flower girl D’Arcy wore a mini version of the bride’s dress made by Angelo Bridal in Dublin.

 

 

Our ceremony… St Patricks Church Broomfield, the scent of the fresh flowers the minute the church doors opened was amazing, we had confetti, small rose gold tissue boxes for happy tears in the chapel, and we also had a papal blessing from the Pope! We included children as much as possible in our ceremony. Fr. Raymond Donnelly was the bride’s teacher before he joined the priesthood and he kindly agreed to be part of our day.

 

 

We chose our photographer because… we loved how he captured all the little details and special moments and that the pictures where not staged. Highly recommend him.

 

 

We chose our venue because… it was local, it was important to us not put our guests out and we also needed a venue that could cater for a large number of guests with plenty of staff and high quality food. We certainly got this at the Hillgrove, they loved my ideas and never said no or that anything was a problem. We had the prosecco van, Champagne fountain, icecream cart and donut wall on arrival at the Hillgrove for guests followed by a large flowerwall so that all guests could get a professional photograph. We had the function room completely draped and uplighted and had a 40ft x 20ft black and white dancefloor put in place for guests to dance the night away. We had two bands instead of a DJ and this worked very smoothly as the Hillgrove set up two stages so that there was no waiting time on the second band to set up. We jived to Bryan Adams You Belong to Me as our first dance. We wanted to get the celebrations started with a lively song and we are not into the slow songs!! We also had a photo booth. At the end of the night nobody travelled home hungry as we had Tayto Crisp Sandwich boxes for everyone.

 

 

Our menu… Being in the food business, food was extremely important to us. We had a fantastic private food tasting night in the Hillgrove. We chose Starter: Confetti of Duck on an Asian noodle salad, Vegetable Soup. Main Course: Medallions of Fillet Steak or Supreme of Salmon, Dessert: Baked Alaska with hot cherry sauce or Apple & Cinnamon Tartlets with warm custard and ice-cream. Our menu cards matched our invitations with our initials in rose gold foil with a special “Recipe for a Happy Marriage” on the back.

 

 

Our honeymoon… we were very lucky to win our Honeymoon!!! We entered a draw at the RDS wedding journal show not realising what the draw was for and we were very fortunate to win the overall prize which was an all-expenses paid honeymoon to Thailand with Sunway Holidays.

 

 

My piece of advice for other couples… Don’t worry about the little things, be as organised as possible and everything will fall into place, enjoy every moment and take time to sit back with your new husband and take it all in.

 

 

Suppliers

Wedding venue: The Hillgrove Hotel | Photographer: Peter Carvill Photography | Planner/coordinator: Mary Quigley The Hillgrove Hotel | Videographer: Cathal Farrelly | Musician: Chapel: Marie Fox Music, D-string Quartet | Venue: 1ST Band: Jim Devine, 2nd Band: Sugartown Road | Hair: Kay Burns Hair Styling, Crossmaglen | Makeup: MRS Make-up – Michelle Regazzoli-Stone | Dress: Galia Lahav House of Couture | Suit: Tavey’s Menswear Castleblayney | Bridesmaids dresses: Pheonix V, Dublin | Groomsmen outfits: Tavey’s Menswear Castleblayney | Flowers: Wedding Designs by David Mc Conkey | Cake: Amazing Cakes, Bray | Celebrant: Fr. Raymond Donnelly and Fr. Michael Daly