A Fun Kippure Estate Wedding by Zi Fernandes Photography

Real Weddings

“I quickly changed into the matching converse style runners I’d bought for myself and the bridesmaids, I wanted to be able to dance the night away!”

The couple: Nickola & Gary
Wedding date: 4th May 2017
Wedding venue: Kippure Estate, Wicklow
Photographer: Zi Fernandes Photography

We met… Myself and Gary married on the 4th of May 2017, 15 years after the day we first began dating. At the young ages of 15 and 16 it was definitely love at first sight, we grew up as best friends and continue to be so today. It wasn’t easy getting to this point, we had our ups and downs but it was definitely worth it.

Or proposal… For my 30th birthday Gary surprised me with a trip to Paris for the following January, a place I have always wanted to go with Gary. I had no idea of his plan to propose, Gary was a first time business owner of a gym, so his focus was purely on that, or so I thought. Anyway we flew to Paris on Friday 28th of January 2016, Gary was acting a bit funny, quite distracted really and I just thought he didn’t want to be going away because of his work load. That evening we went to Montmartre, a place I really wanted to visit, I had read about the cobble streets and cafes and just thought it sounded beautiful. We went up to the Sacrè Coeur and looked out over Paris from its highest point, Gary wanted to propose there but the wind and the rain got in his way. We went into the Basilica to shelter, Gary found a little alcove in this Silent church, which really helped his Love Actually (my favourite movie) style proposal. I turned around, Gary was down on one knee with his A5 sheets of card, I knew instantly what was happening so the tears came, one by one he removed the cards on which he had wrote some lovely things with the last one reading “Will you marry me”??

My look… I got my dress from Berketex Bridal in Jervis Street shopping centre, I borrowed my sister’s veil as my something borrowed which she also got in Berketex, five years previous, I just loved the idea of wearing her veil, sure I used to always play dress up with her clothes. My shoes and bag were bought in TkMaxx. I quickly changed into the matching converse style runners I’d bought for myself and the bridesmaids, I wanted to be able to dance the night away!

Our wedding theme/colours… I had no strict theme to the day other than relaxed and real… we wanted to really make the most of the beautiful surrounds and bring that into our wedding so we had a lot of wood and raw materials. For my candy cart, I really wanted to use vintage tea cups and pots, I spent months searching Charity shops to find some mismatched china.

Our venue… We knew we didn’t want a standard hotel wedding, we wanted a more relaxed feel to the day and somewhere where we were free to do things our way. I googled “alternative wedding venues” and Kippure Estate popped up, I knew from the first picture that it was the place we would marry, I spent a whole night researching Kippure and then set up a meeting with Cary, the head of weddings. As we drove up on a rainy February afternoon, we fell in love with this beautiful place in the Wicklow Mountains. We knew planning a wedding in Ireland you couldn’t plan on good weather, so if we loved it on a rainy dull day then it would just be a bonus to have the sun shinning down on our wedding day, which we got!! All the staff at Kippure were just amazing at their jobs, from Jenny who looked after the decorating and running order of our day to Chris the bar manager that kept everyone happy all night. Apart from a few DIY bits I brought with me, Kippure did all the decorating as part of their package and they did an amazing job. The wheel barrow filled with beer was a nice touch. My guests really loved the ceremony area, they said it made the whole thing feel very romantic.

We chose our photographer because…  Zi (Zi Fernandes Photography) was just so lovely and made me feel very relaxed from the first meeting to the wedding day. We both are a bit camera shy so we really wanted someone who understood that and would just let us be ourselves and capture moments. Zi really made the photo taking experience really fun.

Funny/Favourite moments… Having our family and friends together to celebrate with us was very special to me. My mother passed away five years ago so I knew it would be a sad cloud over a very happy day, seeing my dad happy was truly special to me and the emotion on my husband’s face as I walked towards him. The memory table I put together was a way of bringing my mam’s memory into the day without it being a sad thing, we all toasted her with a shot of her favourite drink (Baileys) and moved on to celebrating, which is exactly what she would have wanted.

Credits

Photographer: Zi Fernandes PhotographySecond Photographer: Karen Stein | Venue: Kippure Estate, Wicklow | Florist: Bee Wedding Flowers | Wedding Dress: Berketex Bridal | Wedding Band: Panic AnimalMakeup Artist:  The Makeup Mentor | Hair Stylist: Leona Keegan | Wedding Cake: Cakes Galore by Polly | Suits: Suit Republic Galway | Bridesmaids: Frock N’ Fabulous