Welcome to the November Bride Blog

In this month’s wedding blog I am featuring our friends, Joanne & Eric, wedding and their top wedding tips! Joanne is my only friend who is a November bride!! It appears that November is not one of the popular months to get married which I am surprised about.  I love this time of the year when it is cold but crisp, winter but not freezing, dark evenings but brilliant light at dusk for photos …

Are you a November bride? 

At this wedding Seán was only 4 months old (attending his 2^nd wedding) and we had had a tough couple of weeks as Seán had to have a surgical procedure and my Mum was also very sick! So this wedding was a celebration for us in a way as both of them were on the mend (and all great now, TG)

I often wonder am I bothering my friends and putting them under pressure to be part of my wedding blogs but when Joanne tells me how lovely it was looking through their wedding photos to pick out photos for this blog I was so delighted to hear this. We are all terrible at printing off photos and when we do we are even worse by not looking at them after we get them printed or put into albums!

Joanne, was saying it had been too long since she’d gone through her wedding photos and it made her very nostalgic. A wedding tip of mine is to take time to look through your wedding album (Niall and I must do this some evening over a glass of wine!)

Enjoy having a read of Joanne’s wedding tips below:

Their wedding day was a bitterly cold late November day but it was lovely as Joanne was able to accessorise her wedding dress with a little faux fur jacket to keep her warm!

When we got to the reception at the Springfort Hall Hotel there was a big open fire and lots of candles and fairy lights which created a warm and cosy atmosphere.  I remember this well as there were a few Christmas decorations up too!

Their wedding photographer was amazing and got some fantastic photos that really captured the natural beauty of the winter landscape.  Even though it was freezing cold Joanne’s wedding tip is to embrace the cold as the photo afterwards are so worth it.

Joanne really enjoyed adding some personal touches like the sweet table that herself and Eric put together. Shopping for quirky jars and bowls for the display and picking out all of their favourite treats to fill them was also a welcome distraction from all the little stresses before the big day. I have to say this sweets table was so fabulous – I might have spent some time here!! Joanne also put some tealights on the table which really added to the romance of the day.  If you are doing your own sweets table be sure to check out my blog – My 10 Top Tips To Create Your Wedding Sweets Table

Joanne found it lovely to include family members in the wedding planning. Joanne and her mother in law to be made the wedding invitations together and with her aunt they made the wedding cake together.  Joanne has some lovely memories of the fun she had shopping with her bridesmaids for dresses shoes and accessories. 

Joanne loved every minute of the planning and the wedding day itself. The day goes so quickly so it is so important to enjoy and savour every single minute of it. Her top wedding tip is to enjoy the lead up and all the preparations – soak it up!

Thanks Joanne and Eric for letting me share your special day on my wedding blog.

Seóna and David’s November Wedding

A lovely follower Seóna who married David in November last year kindly allowed me to share their beautiful wedding story and her top wedding tips. 

They both live in the UK and organised their wedding in Ireland from there. She is Irish and David is from England. David knew that she always wanted to get married in Ireland and when he proposed (on her birthday) he said ‘I know you want to get married in Ireland but I do ask we get married in a Castle’. How can a girl turn that down?!

When they came home for Christmas in 2017, they had lined up a few visits to potential venues but once they arrived into Markree Castle they were just blown away! They didn’t consider having a ‘Winter Wedding’ but when they saw the castle decorated in Christmas trees, candles scattered around as well as the big open fires, they just knew this was ‘their’ venue! They found Markree wonderful to work with and as a bridal couple not living locally to them and not even in the country they made the planning process so simple and straight forward. Nothing was too much for them! 

One of Seóna’s biggest wedding tips is that if a venue can organize and look after most of the wedding preparations, let them do it! Markree provided the catering, the decorations (it was Christmas time, so they didn’t require any more décor!), furniture etc. Markree also have a Chapel onsite which made their whole wedding so much easier in terms of logistics and transport.

This was another favourite of theirs; having all of their guests, who are travelling from all over Ireland, the UK, France and Australia, arrive to the venue and then just sit down and relax whilst also experiencing a beautiful ceremony in the Chapel and the reception was fantastic!

Markree insisted that when dinner was called that they took the newlyweds away for approximately 20 minutes for them to have some ‘us’ time. They sat down, had a drink and just chatted! They quickly realised how they actually hadn’t spent much time together as they were too busy chatting with their wedding guests! This was such a special moment that they really enjoyed and would recommend that other couples do the same thing!

They really enjoyed the process of wedding planning. They booked their ‘big’ suppliers such as the photographer, band and venue quite early on.  They found this to be a good plan and would recommend it to other couples. It allowed them to save as well as not ‘stress’ about booking them. Whilst they involved their family in the wedding they kept the booking of suppliers to just the two of them, this way they avoided too many opinions and any upset or drama being caused.

They tried not to the let the wedding ‘take over’ their lives. They made sure to make time for them and no ‘wedding talk’. Whilst this can be difficult, they found this to be helpful and allow them to really enjoy the process. They would definitely recommend this to other couples.

One of the last suggestions they would make to couples is to not buy into the little things. They didn’t provide wedding favours for their guests but instead made a donation to the SVP; who then provided little thank you cards for their tables. The wedding guests really appreciated this simple but meaningful gesture.

Overall, enjoy the moment! It does go in a flash! Dance, laugh, love and enjoy!

Thanks for reading