“I thought I would burst with excitement walking up the aisle!
The couple: Jordanna Scanlon & Kevin Kelly
Length of engagement: 13 months | Wedding date: 14th March 2015
Wedding location: Tulfarris Hotel and Golf Resort, Blessington, Co. Wicklow
Photographer: Art Wedding Photography – artweddingphotography.eu
We met… At work. We both worked with teenagers out of home. We were friends for two years before a Christmas work night out when it turned romantic! Kev had to do some chasing for a few months and on St Patrick’s Day with a nudge from my friend Kelly, it was official.
Our proposal… I was in work and Kev had the day off – we had recently moved into a new house and Kev was waiting on the new couch to arrive – I was dashing home, dying to see my new couch, little did I know what would be waiting for me. I came home to the house covered in rose petals and candles with Kev on one knee in the middle of the sitting room. Kev had enlisted my sister Jessica to help decorate the house. He cooked a lovely dinner and a bottle or two of Prosecco later, we told our family and close friends.
My dress… I knew the shape of dress I wanted – but not much else. I went to a few different shops, but had driven past O’Briens Bridal Couture in Rathnew before we were even engaged and loved their window display. So before I made my final decision, I had to pay them a visit. From the minute I tried on my dress, I knew it was the one. It was David Tutera for Mon Cheri. Tanya was superbly helpful and made the few tweaks I needed to make it my perfect dress. I really can’t praise Tanya enough. My friend Sheila very kindly loaned me her veil – my something borrowed. Later in the evening, I took off my veil and wore a headpiece, also from O’Briens Bridal Couture.
His suit… Kevin’s suit was Ted Baker from Moss Brothers. It was the first suit he tried for the wedding and the colour and fit were perfect, no shopping around needed!!! His shirt and tie were from House of Fraser and his shoes were from Penthouse.
What our bridal party wore… The bridesmaids wore Pisarro Nights – a very lucky find in TK Maxx. Their shoes were from New Look and flowers from Jackie’s Florist. I found the flower girls’ dresses on Amazon, I loved them and Kevin’s nieces felt like princesses in them. Their shoes were from Debenhams and their stoles were John Rocha at Debenhams. We rented the Best Man and groomsmen suits from Moss Brothers in Liffey Valley. The best man lives in Australia, so his measurements were done over the phone and Moss Brothers tweaked it when he landed back in Ireland.
Our wedding theme/colours… We didn’t have a theme as such. I really wanted ivory bridesmaid dresses, but couldn’t find any I liked. My friend tipped me off about the dresses and off me and bridesmaid Kelly went to get them. I knew what flowers I wanted from the start and that I would have a brooch bouquet. I got mine from Pauline Forde and was absolutely thrilled with it. It is now a feature in my sitting room and will be something I’ll keep forever. I always wanted navy shoes for my wedding day and didn’t want to go with the traditional style. My navy shoes, tied in nicely with the boys navy suits. I got them in Harvey Nicholls in Dundrum.
Our ceremony… We found Billy Hutchinson on the Humanist Ireland website and met him quite early on in our planning. He sent us a draft template of a ceremony and we spent many nights looking for readings and finding the right music for our ceremony. We had three friends do a reading and my godchild Joshua read a piece from Dr Suess which went down a treat. A friend of ours, Alice, is an amazing singer and she did the honours, along with her cousin Shane on guitar. We had quite contemporary music and I loved our ceremony – we got lots of compliments on how personal it was, which is just what we wanted.
We chose our photographer because… I emailed a lot of photographers and got lots of portfolios back. Sebastian of Art Wedding Photography was the second to email back and we loved his work from the beginning. We wanted something slightly different and Sebastain definitely delivered. He enlisted his colleague Tomasz, as we wanted two photographers. It was perfect, Sebastian came to my house on the morning and Tomasz went to Kevin’s. They both got some great shots and were fantastic to deal with. Sebastian has already given us our photos – which was fantastic when we came home from honeymoon.
We chose our venue because… I liked the idea that at Tulfarris (tulfarrishotel.com), you had your wedding ceremony and reception in the house and not the hotel. I think it can be a little harder to personalise a hotel. We loved the grounds and wanted to stay for the whole weekend with some of our guests, which Tulfarris could facilitate. Honora was a pleasure to deal with and was always quick to get back to any queries we had.
Our menu… We had chicken and mushroom vol au vants for starter, cream of mushroom and tarragon soup, baked sea bass fillet with sea salt and mixed herbs or roast sirloin of beef with mixed herbs. Dessert was an individual pecan tartlet with toffee ice cream. We had canapés, Prosecco and bottles of beer for the drinks reception.
My favourite part of the wedding day… It’s so hard to chose – all of it. I thought I would burst with excitement walking up the aisle. I also loved our first dance, as it was when it was just us and we blocked the rest of the room out.
My piece of advice for other brides… do exactly what you want to do and don’t be swayed by what you think others expectations are. Tradition would be that the bride and groom talk to everyone. I knew from the start that wasn’t going to happen. We both love to dance and the dance floor is where you found both of us for practically the whole night. I would have felt I was missing out if I was sitting talking, rather than dancing. It was all our families and friends at the wedding – we’ll see them again!
Suppliers
Photographer: Art Wedding Photography – artweddingphotography.eu | Wedding venue: Tulfarris Hotel & Golf Club | Wedding dress: David Tutera for Mon Cheri | Bridesmaids dresses: Pisarro Nights at TX Maxx | Groom’s suit: Ted Baker | Flower girl dresses: Amazon | Humanist Ceremony: Billy Hutchinson, Humanist Ireland | Wedding cake: DIY by the groom’s sister Emma | Brooch bouquet: Pauline Forde Heirloom Bouquets | Sand & vases: IKEA
