A Stylish Talbot Hotel Stillorgan Wedding by Memories Photography by Magda

Real Weddings

“I think being allowed to have the ceremony and vows that were completely personal and very much about us made the wedding so special and ended up being our favourite part of the day!”

The couple: Coran & Trisha Corbett
Length of engagement: 2.5 years | Wedding date: 15th April 2017
Wedding venue: Talbot Hotel Stillorgan, Dublin
Photographer: Memories Photography by Magda

We met… Our story is a tale of oblivious unrequited love. It was the year 2000 and one day, one of my friends told me a story about ‘Coran Corbett’. She spouted out words like “dreamboat”. I was beyond intrigued. The very next day, we sat silently as we waited for the anticipated beauty to pass by on his routine walk along the corridors at lunch. As we were chatting away, my friend nudged me and said “here he comes!”. Suddenly my world turned on its head and from that point on, my world would never be the same. He looked away into the distance, unaware that a girl 5 feet away from him had at that moment, vowed to marry him.

Then 7 years passed and I had almost forgotten about him. It was March 2007 when Coran and I first spoke in real life. I introduced myself with overdue anticipation. His reaction was blase at best; he barely responded to my attempts to engage in a conversation. It was at that point that my 7 year adoration had come to an abrupt end. A few days later I was out in another bar in town when I saw Coran again. Fueled with rage and an unfortunate amount of Smirnoff Ice, I approached Coran, rudely interrupting his conversation and blurted out “I used to love you in GCC” (Glanmire Community College). This time, Coran gave me his full attention and my dreams were again revived. This meeting was short, however, it was the start of something big. Coran found me on Bebo the next day and soon after that we exchanged numbers. It was not long before we would meet again.

My look… My dress was one of those “Say yes to the dress moments”. I had my heart set on one dress that I had seen very early on and in the spirit of not choosing anything too soon, I took a trip to Ciara Rose Bridal Boutique in Celbridge. I told the owner of my many and random desires for a dress and the first one she brought out, I just fell in love. It wasn’t what I had expected but it was perfect. It was very fitted, flowy and I did feel like a princess all day! My make-up and my bridesmaids’ was done by the very talented Michelle Regazzoli-Stone. My hair was by Rachel Cleary.

His suit… Initially, Coran had intended on wearing a suit matching his Groomsmen; however, 3 weeks before the wedding, he said “I think I want a different suit”. In the spirit of the relaxed pair we are, we set off and that day, found his new suit! He chose a grey checkered suit and paired it with a white shirt, dark red tie and pocket square and cuff links. Having a completely different suit to the Groomsmen worked really well and again lended itself to the individuality that we hoped we had brought to our wedding.

Our ceremony… was a part of the wedding that we put an awful lot of thought into. Neither of us wanted a church wedding, so we opted for a Humanist ceremony. We had so much freedom to make it personal, fun and put as much of ourselves into it as possible. Amazingly, a lot of men after the wedding told us that it was their favourite part of the wedding. We read poems that meant a lot to us and our family members. We talked about our history and relationship. We did little traditions that we found would suit us best, such as “the blending of the sands” and an “Anniversary Box”. We both wrote letters to each other on the morning of the wedding and placed them into a wine box during the ceremony. On our first anniversary, we will open the box, read our letters, drink all the wine and place new letters inside for next year. I think being allowed to have the ceremony and vows that were completely personal and very much about us made the wedding so special and ended up being our favourite part of the day!

We chose our photographer because… We met Magda (Memories Photography by Magda) at a Wedding Fair in the RDS and were instantly blown away by her quality of previous work. The most important thing though, was how we got on with Magda. We knew that she absolutely loved what she did and truly wanted to make our day special. The way Magda interacted with the guests on the day solidified our choice and we got so many compliments about how unobtrusive, kind and relaxed she was all day. Every time we looked at Magda taking photos, she was beaming smiling and everyone else couldn’t help but follow suit!

We chose our wedding coordinator because… we chose the venue because our wedding coordinator was fantastic. We met Liz at Talbot Hotel Stillorgan (formerly Stillorgan Park Hotel) and she totally got the vibe of what we were going for. She was very much open to our non-traditional ideas and was hugely accommodating to whatever we needed. The events manager, Dean then looked after us on the day and he was nothing short of brilliant. I don’t think anything went wrong on the day and even if it did, Dean made sure we knew nothing about it!

We chose our venue because… Liz and Dean really were the reasons why we chose Talbot Hotel Stillorgan initially. When we saw the ceremony room and the dinner room though, we were sold. The ceremony room was so spacious and beautiful and was everything we were looking for. The ballroom was huge and the great thing is that none of the tables needed to be moved after the meal, as the dance floor fit perfectly at the other end of the room. We had our own private bar and there was lots of space for the sweet table, photo booth by Shoot Booth and our band Pop Gods who were just amazing belting out 80s, 90s and 00s tunes.

Our wedding theme/colours… We didn’t have a theme as such, we just wanted our wedding to be fun, relaxed and filled with everything that we loved. Our table cards were printouts made to look like Google Homepage search results of important places we had been and/or lived. We had a photo booth by Shoot Booth, a sweet table and random quotes written by family members scattered around the venue. It all came together perfectly and made for a really relaxed and chill day.

Our honeymoon… We wanted to go on a big honeymoon a while after the wedding, as a lot of people told us that you are beyond exhausted straight after the wedding and don’t enjoy the honeymoon as much. So we decided to go to Amsterdam for a week after the wedding and are now planning our big honeymoon! I’m really glad we did it this way, as we literally slept for the majority of our time in Amsterdam!

Our favourite parts of the day were… the ceremony and speeches. Generally, these are the most boring parts of any wedding, however, we got so much feedback on how personal and relaxed these parts were. The photos in Blackrock Park were also fantastic and of course, the band were spectacular! They played 80s/90s and 00s songs and we went from rapping to Gangsta’s Paradise to singing along to the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys!

My piece of advice for other couples… I would say to just not worry about anyone else and make the day about the two of you. The point of the day is to celebrate your lives together, so try to make it as much about you as a couple as possible. There are no rules, so do whatever you want. And of course, don’t sweat the small stuff. A million things will go wrong and all you can do is nothing, so laugh instead!

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Wedding Venue: Talbot Hotel Stillorgan, Dublin | Photographer: Memories Photography by Magda | Wedding Dress: Ciara Rose Bridal Boutique, Kildare | Hair: Rachel Cleary | Makeup: Michelle Regazzoli-Stone | Cakes: The Cupcake Bloke | Wedding Band: Pop Gods | Photo Booth: Shoot Booth