Are you a June bride? Have you come across of my monthly wedding blogs?
As with each new month, comes a new monthly wedding blog to my website. These monthly blogs feature real brides who got married in the month in question to give you brides lots of wedding inspiration.
Real June Bride Inspiration
My Mum and Dad’s Wedding
First up is my Mum and Dad who got married 42 years ago! As a little girl I always loved looking through my parents wedding album. It is no different now but I did ask my Mum to pick out her favourite photos and here they are!
When I was chatting to Mum about her wedding I asked if there was anything she would change about their wedding day. The one thing she would do differently would be to get a photo with her brother in law! The reason this didn’t happen was because he was their wedding photographer! And a great one at that!
When we were moving house Mum decided it was time for her wedding dress to go to the charity shop but before it went we both tried it on!! I will always treasure this photo!
Lisa – A June Bride
We had the pleasure of being invited to Lisa and Gareth’s wedding in June 2011 in Killashee House. Lisa actually caught my wedding bouquet so I am adamant that because of this I played a role in Gareth’s proposal!! Lisa has lots of wedding tips so be sure to read on!
Her first tip is not to get bogged down in the little details. She remembers starting to panic a few days before her wedding day because the yellow of the chair ribbon was not the same shade as the yellow on the bridesmaid dresses!! But she quickly realised that no one cares! It was only when she stood at the rehearsal the night before and practiced her vows with her soon to be husband that she realised that the only thing that really mattered was her, him and the promise they were making to each other.
This is an important tip from Lisa and one if it does happen to you on your big day please remember it! Don’t worry about the weather you can’t control it. Lisa and Gareth picked the 24th of June to wed as it was the last day of the Leaving Certificate and it’s always sunny right? Wrong!!! It was torrential rain all day long and they did not get one photo outside in the beautiful wedding venue she had chosen but it did not affect them one bit !!!
This was the happy couple leaving the church inside the wedding car keeping dry!
Lisa talks about when choosing the venue she did a drive from the church to the venue on a Saturday morning and it took 40 minutes. However, they got married on a Friday and they hit rush hour traffic in Naas in torrential rain so it took about 1.5 hours to get to venue. Remember to consider all this when choosing venue and test the route!
Leading on from this the only other thing she would have done differently is more food for guests on arrival to the venue after the church and after the long trek she thinks they deserve to be fed and watered
I love this last piece of advice from Lisa “Lastly as everyone says, slow down, take time (stolen moments in the chaos) with your new husband, relax and enjoy. It was one of the most amazing days of my life apart from the children being born. Marriage is a rollercoaster make sure you are strapped in right from the start”.
My brother, Lee, was a groomsman so I was delighted to get this pic of him and Gareth
Alison’s Big Day in Clonabreany House
I had actually thought we were at lots of weddings in June but it turns out the month of July has been our busiest month for weddings! So what I decided to do was ask if a June bride would like to be featured in this month’s blog and Alison kindly contacted me! And would you believe it she only lives down the road from me! They got married on the 15th June 2017 in Straffan church and headed onto Clonabreany House afterwards. I am not going to lie I just loved having a nose at all her wedding photos! What struck me most was how personalised their wedding was to them making it extra special!
Alison is a big fan of afternoon tea and China cups so this love was incorporated into their day so beautifully! I love the cups at the church door and then the bride cup – wow! You can clearly see the theme of china cups and flowers throughout their wedding photos.
Alison and her Dad made the seating plan ladder themselves (how lovely to have your Dad so involved in your big day!) because she couldn’t get the distressed look she was wanting. I just adore that she had a vision for her day and made sure she got it! They used teabag and vinegar to paint the ladder and steel wool to get the distressed look. The frames she used for her seating plan were from the Range. They love to travel so they used places they had visited for the table names and then each table had photos of the happy couple at that place. What a lovely touch!
And now for some photos of the bridal party!
Ailbhe and Rónán’s Wedding June 1st 2019 in Borris House
Ailbhe is a dear cousin of mine and when I asked her to give us some wedding tips she didn’t hesitate at all! Herself and Ronán have just celebrated their 1st year wedding anniverdsary! Ailbhe wrote so beautifully about their special and her tips as well as including lots of photos so I have been lazy and just copied and pasted. To start amending it to the rest of the style of the blog would dilute her story … enjoy the read
“Planning a wedding was something I’d never really put any detailed thought into so I had a clean slate to plan towards, which was exciting and a bit daunting! Pretty early into our wedding planning, I was gifted May’s My Wedding Planner which was a godsend as it really helped me and Rónán understand what was involved in planning a wedding. (Turns out it’s a lot, but you’ll get there!)
One of the key tips I’d like to share is to figure out what elements of the wedding day are the most important to you, and spend the most time researching and budgeting for them! Then you can try to balance your budget to ensure you could get the highest quality in the things you really want. One of the most important parts for us was photography and how the photos would capture the atmosphere of the day and the beauty of our family, friends and the venue. So we spent a lot of time researching our photographers. We were delighted when Weddings by KARA confirmed that they were free on our day! They were a joy to work with and so skilled at what they do. They really helped us to capture the atmosphere of the day and they took some really incredible photos which required amazing teamwork on their part. We particularly love the photos of the bridal party on the nearby viaduct!
Another tip I’d have is focus on what you and your partner want, as you’ll never please everyone! But if you have a reliable bridal party, like we had, you know you’ll have a wonderful day, and they’ll help solve a dozen little problems in the run up (and secretly on the day itself)! Neither of us felt the need to conform with all elements which were typically part of a wedding. One of our biggest deviations from tradition was when I decided I wanted a wedding band, while my husband didn’t. So we didn’t have rings included as part of the ceremony, although the celebrant forgot and asked for the rings! But it made for a very funny and memorable moment!
One tradition I’ve always loved is a wedding veil, and in particular I love my mother’s veil from her own wedding so I was delighted to use her veil with my dress. I felt it really tied everything together and really brought out the vintage theme we were going for! It also definitely ticked the traditional “something borrowed” box!
Another tip I have is to give DIY a go! Everything we put our hands to worked out better than we could have expected. Plus we had the benefit of personalising everything, making it unique and meaningful, as well as giving us a sense of pride! My sisters, mother and I made our bouquets with flowers and greenery, which I either grew specifically or which we already had within my mother’s beautiful garden. This added a lovely personal touch to the day… even if it was a bit frantic at times! Plus my Mam’s magnolia tree blossomed again this year just in time to be a beautiful reminder of our anniversary! We also used living plants as our centerpieces and encouraged our guests to bring a plant home with them as a keepsake!
My husband has also been making his own beer and wine for years, so we actually made lots of the drinks served on the day, including red, white and rosé wine, cider, from juice pressed by a local orchard, as well as my personal favourite, blackberry wine, which we picked ourselves from brambles growing near our parents’ houses in Wexford! A real labour of love!
Overall I’d encourage the couple to take a few pauses throughout the day together to reflect and different moments together. It will pass by in a flash if you let it so make sure you have build some private time into the day. We really enjoyed having a few minutes together alone before the meal was served!”
Beautiful Ailbhe and what an amazing day of celebrations! You had so many personal touches that I was loving picking them out! And that wine!! Oh my ….
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