Francesca & Phil

Bride Francesca is a cake baker by trade so as you can imagine the cakes at this wedding are pretty immense, and along with their invitations probably inspired the sweet pastel colour scheme. Think delicate pinks and soft greens mixed with fairy lights and rustic decor in a dreamy barn at Ballymagarvey in Ireland, and you have some pretty incredible inspiration to pore over. Francesca & Phil originally opted for an Italian destination wedding and came across the lovely Nastja Kovacec Photography, but soon decided to tie the knot near their hometown in Ireland instead. They still adored Nastja's photography so flew her over over to captured all their loveliness. We're so pleased they did as this collection of images is the epitome of dreamy in every way. Get ready to swoon.

The Dress

Francesca the Bride: I bought my dress in Switzerland, I was born there and I wanted my grandma and mum to be there, since I knew my grandma wouldn't be able to fly to Ireland for our wedding. I wasnt too fussed about accessories so just picked pretty earrings I saw on etsy, and I had two pair of shoes, one pair I accessoriesed with blue bows, the same colour as Phils bowtie.

Grooms Fashion

We liked the idea of navy suits for Phil, we both decided that a bowtie would suit our relaxed theme better then a tie, Phil was wearing dark brown shoes with the suit

The Venue

My grandparents are from near Venice, and our first choice was to get married abroad, we saw a beautiful castle online but when we went to see it it wasn't what we expected. Back in Ireland we had three venues picked, we wanted something different not your usual standard hotel. As soon as we walked into the banquet hall of Ballymagarvey Village we knew this was our wedding venue, the fact they had a beautiful ceremony room to get married in on site was what sold it to us. Ballymagarvey Village is just so different then anything else we have seen and the staff is just brilliant there

Colour Scheme/ Decor

I had the wedding invites picked, and all the decor and colours were created around the invites, the invites were a salmon and pink colour, the flowers were the same shades and also the Bridesmaids dresses, since I'm a cake decorator and have done floristry and wedding planning I did all the decor myself, I added lots of little touches to the venue.

Flowers

I first wanted to do all the flowers myself since I did floristry myself, but at the end it would have been too much, since I did all the other decor and cakes and dessert buffet myself. I just wanted something romantic, and pastel colours that would go with the colours of our invites

Wedding Party Attire

The bridesmaids were each in a different colour one in salmon and one in mint, just like the wedding invites, the groomsmen were in grey suits and each of the guys in a different colour tie to match the bridesmaids. The flower girls were wearing white dresses with each a cardigan matching the bridesmaids

Ceremony

Our ceremony was very relaxed, we wanted something personal that represented us. We did a sand ceremony with sand from places that meant something to us, I had black sand from Lanzarote, my grandma gave me the sand so I had something of hers at the wedding

Entertainment

We had a pianist at the drinks reception and a band and DJ in the evening, we also had a photobooth to entertain the guests.

Food

The food was very important to me, I'm a chef myself so the food was a priority for us, we couldn't have asked for better food on the day, we picked the goats cheese tartlet as starter, pear, parsnip and rosemary soup, as main was grilled pork belly on mash or fish on risotto, and we had a dessert plate to finish it all. As a cake maker I took on the job to make the main cake and the dessert table for the dinner reception. I loved every minute of creating everything for our wedding.

Photographer

We saw Nastja’s work on an online site, we actually looked at the wedding venue in Italy because of her, we saw the shots she took of the castle and fell in love with her style of photography, we hired her to take pictures at our Italian wedding, but since we didn't get married in Italy i just asked her if she would fly to Ireland instead, I was thrilled when she agreed. Nastja and her sister did such an amazing job on the day, and it was the best decision to fly her and her sister over. One tip I would give to future brides is, make sure your photographer knows you and what you want on the day, Nastja knew exactly what we wanted and everything was so relaxed.

Videographer

Phils brother in law took on the task to video our wedding

Advice

My tips for future brides, dont stress over the small things, on the morning of the wedding it was raining, and I was so stressed over it that I didn't really enjoy the getting ready part, it stopped raining for the ceremony and the sun came out, but even if it rained it wouldnt have made a difference the day would have still be perfect. don't let anyone tell you how many people you have or don't have to invite it's your day and you should really have people there you want to have there. Enjoy the taking pictures part with your husband as it will be the time the two of you will be by yourself, I enjoyed that part the most of the whole day. Because our venue had a big outdoor place barely anyone was dancing, everyone was enjoying the warm evening outside, if I had to do it again I probably would just get an iPod and play music from there. I provided loads of small bits around the venue, flip flops, bathroom baskets, blankets so people could snuggle outside, candy table, i'ts all those small things that people will remember.