Mint to be! An Amazing Amber Springs Wedding by Alan Roche Photography

Real Weddings

“Even though the weather was awful, I was on cloud 9 and waited outside to hug every single guest, I didn’t feel the wind or rain!”

The couple: Willina Carr & Kevan Travers
Length of engagement: 2.5 years | Wedding date: 9th July 2016
Wedding venue: Amber Springs Hotel, Wexford
Photographer: Alan Roche Photography

We met… In a nightclub in Glasgow in the early hours of the morning on April 21st 2010! I was living in Glasgow for the year, studying a Post Grad in Primary teaching. He’s Glasgow born and bred and was living at home with his parents. As I walked across the dance floor someone grabbed my hand and said ‘Hey’. I was non-too pleasant and told him to ‘feck off’. He heard my accent, and the rest as they say is history!

His suit… Being Scottish, Kevan of course had to wear a kilt! He chose a Hebridean Granite tartan with a tweed jacket. I didn’t realise how many choices there were for kilts- he had to decide on sock type and colour, weird lacey up shoe type, flashes for the socks, sporran type, shirt type, button type and ruched tie! He chose a dark green tie and his groomsmen wore gold ones. My dad, being Irish, was not into the whole kilt idea! So, he got a brilliant suit in the same colours and had a matching tartan tie.

My look… After lots of looking and experimentation, I chose my dress from a great shop in Glasgow called Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo Bridal. I really didn’t have a clue what style I wanted or what would suit me, so I must have tried on nearly every dress they had. The girls were so accommodating in there, allowing me to skype and send pictures to my bridesmaids who lived in Aberdeen and Wexford and hadn’t been able to come on that shopping trip! In the end I opted for a blinging Kenneth Winston dress. All the alterations were done by the fab girls in Fabricated Bridal Alterations in Glasgow.

My hair was done by Sinead O’ Brien who came out to the house and didn’t just do the hair but provided great craic on the morning of the wedding! My makeup was done by the amazing Jade Mullet, who I’ve known since secondary school! Like Sinead, Jade was amazing craic on the morning of the wedding and made everyone feel totally relaxed! Despite the torrential rain and wind, my makeup stayed put all day!

Our ceremony… Our ceremony was very special to me, being back in the church I was baptised in and made all my sacraments in. One of my grannies was too frail to come, so it was transmitted on the local radio frequency that was set up so people like her could listen to mass from home. My dad walked me down the aisle and only stepped on my dress once! We arrived in one of his classic cars with registration plates saying our names and the date! The priest, Fr Brian Broaders was great, his sermon included a lot of laughs about the kilts and the high winds we had that day!

My cousin Sandra and friend Karen sang and played at my wedding and were the absolute stars of the show. We had such fun picking the hymns and songs and included some Scottish ones for the occasion. It was an amazing feeling dancing down the aisle to Ryan’s Polka knowing there was no more planning or decisions or saving or stressing to do! I spent a lot of time choosing the communion reflection and decided on ‘Scaffolding’ by Seamus Heaney. Even though the weather was awful, I was on cloud 9 and waited outside to hug every single guest, I didn’t feel the wind or rain!

What our bridal party wore… Having one bridesmaid in Ireland and one in Aberdeen made it tricky to arrange bridesmaid shopping. We still managed to try on a huge array of dresses and finally decided on some pretty floaty ASOS numbers in mint, with a detailed sequin top. They wore gold shoes and bags.

We chose our venue because… It was tricky organising a wedding when you live in a different country. We wanted someone who was easily accessible by email and understood that we couldn’t do some of the same things that local people could do prior to their wedding. The facilities in the Amber Springs won us over as we knew we would have people from Scotland coming over and staying a few days. Deborah Stewart was our coordinator and was really so polite, friendly and helpful the whole way through. Wedding planning is never easy, but Deborah did her best to work everything out to suit our planning from Scotland.

We chose our photographer because… My brother had chosen Alan (Alan Roche Photography) for his wedding and also again for pictures of his baby. We loved his style and thought it fit our fairy tale theme, without being too posed or fake. When we met Alan we were instantly put at ease and had great craic with him! He also didn’t think we were crazy when we said we wanted to include our dog in the pictures! We also went to visit my granny on the way to the reception and both pictures are big favourites from the day.

Our wedding theme/colours… I was not the kind of girl who had their wedding all planned out, so I really had to start from the beginning! I began to look on Pinterest and piece together different things I like. I wanted something that seemed like it was from a fairy tale, with gorgeous feminine details. In the end I decided on a mint and gold theme which I thought would be beautiful on a gorgeous hot July day (little did I know what the weather would be like)!

Our menu… We chose our menu based on what we like! We love our food and the day we did the menu tasting was amazing! We chose a nice light summer menu with salad, chicken, beef and a citrus tart. We also had favours of popcorn (my favourite food) on the table with ribbons saying ‘and they lived happily ever after’ tying them.

My favourite part of the wedding day… Was definitely dancing down the aisle to Ryan’s Polka, delighted that all the stresses were over and we were finally married! Getting to see and hug and chat to everyone outside the church, then going to see my gran and my little dog Charlie on the way to the reception!

My piece of advice for other couples… Enjoy the highs of wedding planning, because there’s lots of lows! Don’t lose sight of who the wedding is for- you and your fiancé!

Suppliers

Venue: Amber Springs Hotel, Wexford | Photographer: Alan Roche Photography | Hair: Sinead O’ Brien | Makeup: Jade Mullet | Hair Comb: Gioia Mia, Glasgow | Music: The Great Escape | Flowers: Bridget Redmond | Nails: Salute Nails | Invitations: Paper Themes | Cake: Amanda Ennis, Amazebakes, Wexford | Dress: Kenneth Winston at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo Bridal, Glasgow