Here’s to another wedding blog full of wedding tips! But before all that this is a special shoutout to all you flippin’ fantastic February brides … past, present and future … 

Wedding Tips From The Beautiful Bride, Caoimhe 

I am so thrilled to be featuring Caoimhe and Pim’s wedding! Caoimhe is the sister of a very good friend of mine who I have known forever! I heard lots of all the wedding and hen planning through Edel so I am delighted that Caoimhe has taken the time to give us all her top wedding tips! Enjoy the read!

Wedding Tip #1: Picking a Wedding Date

Wedding Entrance

So many people asked Caoimhe “Why are you getting married in February?” February is not the most common month to get married but their particular date only comes around every four years as they got married on 29 February 2020.  So how did they decide to get married on this day? Well the answer is pretty simple. They knew they wanted to get married in 2020 and as early as they could in 2020 (thankfully due to the way the rest of 2020 turned out).

They got engaged in April 2018 and knew they wanted to get married in Ireland. Caoimhe and her husband, Pim, live in the Netherlands and therefore they were arranging an Irish wedding from abroad they wanted it as easy and as stress-free as possible.

They researched wedding venues thoroughly online and fell immediately in love with Palmerstown Manor House in Johnstown, Co. Kildare. It was the first and last venue they went to view. They didn’t have the time to fly over and back to view other venues in Ireland and this venue had everything they wanted. Because they booked it almost 2 years in advance, their wedding coordinator basically had the whole calendar between January and April free and said; “So what date do you want?”. They had no idea what date to pick and said look it’s a leap year that year! How funny would it be to get married on leap day?

They can be quite a quirky couple at times and so this day suited them down to the ground. Every year they will celebrate their anniversary on the 1st of March and every four years they have vowed to have an extra special anniversary. Pretty cool right? So now they had the venue and had to start planning the rest of the wedding.

Wedding Tip #2: Do It Your Way

Bridal Attire

Caoimhe’s biggest tip for brides, is to not let the opinions of others get to you. They had so many people giving their opinions from the start. They booked the first wedding venue they viewed and they even booked their band that was recommended through Palmerstown House without viewing them, only their YouTube channel.

Caoimhe even bought her dress in the first bridal store they went to. She only tried on three dresses in total – when she found a dress with a little bit of pink in it, she was sold! As Caoimhe says “at the end of the day it’s your day. I very much learned to have a thick skin when it comes to these details. We did not need to go from venue to venue, band to band and from dress to dress. Sometimes too many choices make it more difficult to make a choice.  None of it matters on the day and do you know what, everyone loved the uniqueness of our wedding venue, the band had everyone up dancing and I didn’t want to get out of my dress. It was all so perfect in the end so don’t stress about these things.”

Wedding Tip #3: Spend Time With Your Photographer

Bridal Suite

One thing that Caoimhe would really recommend for all couples getting married is to spend time finding your photographer. For Caoimhe, this was probably the most important supplier she hired on the day. They spent a lot of time looking at different photographers’ Instagram accounts and in the end they found their perfect photographer who was from Poland. After skyping him and discussing what they wanted, they knew he was the photographer for them. Plus his packages were Star Wars themed so Pim was instantly sold. He made their photographs so much fun. When they went to do their couple shots after the ceremony, they just laughed together so much. He had them jumping on their bed, playing snooker and just messing in general. 

Wedding Tip #4: Be Prepared For All Weathers

“Your wedding day is really the strangest feeling in the world and for me I was actually quite relaxed the morning of as I didn’t really realise it was actually MY wedding day!” Caoimhe had a glorious sunny morning but just before they had to leave, the wind picked up, the rain started to pour and as they arrived at the venue it started to snow. She did buy a beautiful transparent golf umbrella with the idea that they could get some really unique photos in the rain, however, with the storm that umbrella lasted just long enough for her brother to get her into the car. But that’s all part of the memories right? The weather for them didn’t make a difference to the day. Their ceremony, reception and dinner was all under one roof, so no one had to bear the horrific weather outside.

Wedding Tip #5: Enjoy Every Minute

Bridal Party

Caoimhe’s next tip is to just enjoy every minute as it goes by quicker than you can imagine. The morning of the wedding everyone was saying how calm the house was for a wedding day. Herself and her bridesmaids were so relaxed and everything was going so smoothly…. that was until they had to get into their dresses. She of course needed help getting into her dress so she waited until last. They had half an hour before they had to leave and chaos ensued. Her Maid of Honour had her hands full trying to get the flower girl and page boy ready, who were having issues with the taste of the tooth paste, and one of the bridesmaids spilled prosecco on her dress so they were trying to dry her off before there was a stain. Luckily there was no stain on the bridesmaids dress and her dress was as good as new. Caoimhe just had to step into her dress anyway, so they still had more than enough time for this chaos. But really enjoy reliving all these little moments as the day will never run exactly as you have planned and these moments are the ones that you will remember and laugh about forever.

Wedding Tip #6: Personalise Your Wedding

Fee Bugs

Another one of Caoimhe’s big tips is personalise your wedding day. For this she doesn’t mean that you have to craft every detail of your day, but make it so that the day reflects both yourself and your husband. She had planned to make a lot for the wedding, but she then realised it was not feasible considering they needed to travel by plane for the wedding. Therefore she hired Blissful Wedding Décor to decorate the ceremony for them and her bridesmaids gave me the most amazing gift on her wedding day from Fee Bugs Made With Love, which they hung up in the venue for everyone to see. Palmerstown House took care of their table plan also, so they had no stress for any of this and could put all of their efforts into the ceremony.

Wedding Ceremony

They really had a non-conventional wedding in the sense that they actually got legally married in a free 10-minute ceremony in city hall in Rotterdam with just their parents present. This was so that her brother could do their actual ceremony in Ireland. Caoimhe really wanted her brother to be part of the day and she always imagined that he would do the ceremony. They wrote the whole ceremony themselves, together with her brother. They wrote their own vows and picked the music for the ceremony based on their memories as a couple. She walked down the aisle to “How to Dream” by Sam Phillips (Gilmore Girls fans will know this). Surprisingly, Caoimhe says she never cried on her wedding day, but her brother had left his guitar in the main hall and on the last day in the venue her husband was waiting for her so they could go to breakfast. As she was walking down from the room he started to play this song on the guitar. Safe to say they both bawled for the first time all weekend as they were just so incredibly happy but also so incredibly sad their wedding was over. Watching re-runs of the Gilmore Girls will be even more enjoyable for them now and will bring back so many great memories.

They feel incredibly lucky that they were able to get married this year. If they had chosen a date 2 weeks later, their wedding would have been cancelled. Caoimhe really feels for all Covid brides that had to cancel their wedding due to the pandemic and she hopes that they can rearrange their dream day as soon as possible. Everyone deserves to have the day of their dreams.

Husband and Wife

Caoimhe and Pim’s Wedding Vendors

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and if you are looking for more wedding tips, advice and inspiration be sure to read the rest of my blogs.

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