Real Wedding Advice from April Brides

Are you looking real wedding advice?

I have some amazing wedding tips from two stunning brides who both got married in the month of April!!

Una and Eoin married on Saturday 9th April 2022. They had a church ceremony in Ardclough, Co. Kildare followed by a reception in Castle Durrow, Co. Laois. You guys are so lucky as Una shares so many wonderful wedding tips. Here they are in her own words:

Don’t Sweat The Small Things

“Having had to postpone our wedding due to Covid and essentially plan 3 weddings, my advice would be to not sweat the small things. I only had my sister as bridesmaid left purchasing her dress along with page boy outfits and shoes to the month before. My Mum is a seamstress and made the flower girls dresses. Everyone was comfortable in what they were wearing. My close family and friends kept saying people will only remember the ceremony, speeches and food. I went with this advice and how right they were! We were lucky enough to have family friends perform the ceremony and church music and they did such a fantastic job.”

Don’t Forget To Bring A Hand Held Steamer

“I only went into one wedding dress shop and walked out with my dress in hand! I had done no prior research into what type of dress I wanted. The dress I chose was incredibly comfortable, had pockets and in my opinion is timeless. I opted not to go for what was in trend and choose something classic instead that will not age in photos. My advice would be depending on the fabric of your dress, to ask someone to bring a hand held steamer to the hotel as my dress got creased in the car on the drive to the venue. My sister is thankfully a dab hand and did an excellent job with a shoebox cover and iron!

I would also advise making sure that your dress ties up appropriately if it’s long, mine wouldn’t stay in place and became a nuisance on the dancefloor- if I had known this I probably would have changed into a shorter dress after all photos were taken so I was more comfortable.”

Something Blue

“I love shoes and I always wanted a pair that I would wear again. I opted for a blue pair as I didn’t own a pair this colour and they were also symbolic. I bought a new pair of white runners that I changed into when my feet could no longer handle the heels!”

Shop Local

“I would recommend choosing vendors that are local to both church and venue. I went with AbFab flowers, they were familiar with the church and knew exactly what was needed. I didn’t even choose colour schemes, Lorcan is such a professional and once I described my dress he knew what flowers would work.

I chose a local lady in Durrow, Wendy’s Cakes to make our wedding cake. My Mum made one tier and she kindly worked with my Mum’s cake icing it for us.”

Create A Photo List

I would advise any bride or groom to take the time to call in or make a phone call to have the conversation with vendors to explain clearly what you are looking for. I love a good photo and phoned my photographer Mark Griffin to discuss what family photos we would like and he really listened. Eoin and I would walk along the canal in Ardclough quite frequently so we asked to get photos here and they are my favourites.”

 

Snap Happy

“We also got a photobooth which I would highly recommend. We got a gorgeous photobook left at reception the following morning along with a USB key which we still look at with fond memories and everyone left with a photo which they loved too!

Stock Up

My hair and make-up girls arrived at 7.30am and worked seamlessly. They had us all ready for 11:50am allowing time for lots of photos. There was no rushing as I only had my sister as bridesmaid. After my make up trial, I asked my make-up artist what products I should have on the day and once she informed me I went straight out and purchased – very handy to have in handbag! I actually carried a handbag myself for the day as I was conscious of pestering my sister when I needed top ups.

Delegate! Delegate!

I assigned jobs to different family members which I think they enjoyed and again helped us. My brothers looked after paying the vendors, and handing out the mass booklets. My sister in law minded my engagement ring during the ceremony and had make up and perfume on hand. All of my siblings assisted in gathering family for photos. Don’t be afraid to ask for help as some people really want to assist you and it relieves you of stress. 

Time Out

Our hotel had explained from the get go that they had allocated time for just the two of us to have drinks and appetisers. This was after all the photos and before the meal and it was lovely having this time to ourselves and to recoup.”

Leave Your Car At Venue

“We were fortunate enough that there was no wedding in the venue the day before. Eoin went down and set out all of our places names etc. This saved a lot of stress on the day and it also allowed us to leave our car in the venue so we could drive it home the day after with all of our belongings. You would be surprised with the amount of things you need to bring home the day after- including your dress which occupies a lot of space!

Print Photos

We received 800 photographs from our photographer which included gorgeous photos of family, friends, couples, relatives and we thought it was important they got a copy, so what I did was print a photo for everyone who was at the wedding. We put these in our thank you cards and the number of people who said it was such a lovely touch!”

Karen and Tony got married 8 years ago and it is so memorable for lots of reasons!  Firstly, Orla was only a month old at it (there was no way I was missing this wedding!). Imagine she got to her first wedding before she was 4 weeks old – she must have a love for weddings like her Mum! 

Karen was the most organised bride and was so calm in the lead up to her big day! We stayed overnight in Dunboyne Castle Hotel as my Mum came for the day to help us out with Orla (I was up and down to our room like a yo-yo feeding her).  When we checked in we saw that Karen and Tony had left a baby present for Orla in our room – I have no idea how she even thought of doing that! It was so nice of them!

After the church, Karen and Tony stopped off at the local café courtyard, Straffan Antiques, to get some photos taken! I think this is such a nice idea and it gives you some more time together before reaching your venue. 

It might be worth thinking about for your own wedding – is there a place along the way to your venue that you could stop to get photos?

What makes their wedding even more special for us was that it was in Dunboyne Castle Hotel where we got married too so we did lots of reminiscing on the day about our big day! I am sure I even had a few tears (but that is allowed at a friend’s wedding and when you have a newborn – right?)

One of the tips I have in My Wedding Planner is to put a photo of each of your parents cutting their cake on the day of their wedding day.  Karen and Tony did this but added to it beautifully as they got a photo of themselves smooching behind the cake too – I really love this shot.  And isn’t her dress just stunning – it is from B Couture in Arklow.

Anyone, who knows Karen will know how talented she is! As a wedding present for Tony, she took the song from “The Wedding Singer” and wrote her own lyrics to go with it to surprise her new husband on their wedding day. You just have to watch this!!

Karen and Tony, we absolutely loved your wedding day – thank you for inviting us (and Orla) to share in your very special day! Here are some more of my favourite photos of your day!

Katie is one my brides over on Instagram page who got married in Moyvalley Hotel & Golf Resort on the 1st of April. 2022. She is kindly sharing with us her top tips when she was planning her wedding and the things she wished she knew before her big day!

Advice Katie was given that she strongly agree with:

• Don’t sweat the small stuff! All the added extra touches are lovely but on the day you won’t mind if they’re not perfect and nobody else will notice.
• The day absolutely flies by so try to take a minute, both to check in with yourself and your husband, to allow yourself to soak up the magic of it as much as possible.
• Have a rough plan or timetable for the morning of the wedding to help make it more relaxing.
• Plan to get dressed an hour before you leave. This way any last minute hiccups or delays can be sorted without stress and you can enjoy a glass of bubbly with your bridal party before setting off.
• Make sure someone is in charge of the green folder and it is not forgotten on the day. If possible leave it in the church or with the priest the day before.

Things Katie wishes she knew before her wedding day:

• If your dress has buttons, pack a crochet needle to undo them at the end of the night.
• I wasn’t prepared for how different the day is as the bride rather than a guest. I felt guilty for not spending more time with all guests but it’s simply not possible … It is a very busy day for the bride but people understand that and don’t expect to see TOO much of you. If making a point of talking to every guest is important to you, have a rough plan about how you are going to get to all of them. It’s harder than you think to get to all of them!
• You’ve put in all the hard work so trust that people are enjoying the day.

I hope you enjoyed reading this month’s wedding blog!

Thanks