Sinead & Cormac

Sinead's stunning gown by Amanda Wakeley is the stuff of bridal dreams - the perfect blend of boho and luxe and definitely the perfect gown for Sinead. The couple's gorgeous venue, Bellinter House is an absolute gem I've only just discovered. What a house, what beautiful grounds and the decor? Seriously to die for. As is the styling of Sinead & Cormac's wedding by their friend Amber. The whole day has been captured beautifully by Eric at Savo Wedding Photography, whose atmospheric style lends itself perfectly to the soft Irish light and dramatic buildings at Bellinter.

The Venue

Sinead The Bride: When we got engaged we knew that we both wanted something a little different, we wanted the whole day/night to feel like a big house party. A friend of a friend had been married in Bellinter House a couple of years previously and I loved her pictures. We fell in love instantly. With it's quirky style and flow from the drawing room to the outdoor terrace we knew it was the perfect setting for us.

The Styling

Amber and I have known each other for many years and as soon as I got engaged I knew I wanted her to work with us. Amber has a creative flair no amount of Pinterest scanning could amount to. I showed Amber my dress and her creative juices started to flow! She was always on hand via text or e-mail throughout to deal with my mad notions and queries and helped with the decision­ making process but I could never have imagined what she managed to create on the day for us. There was so many special extras and little details. It was like Christmas morning going around the venue on the day seeing all her ideas come to life. Having Amber on board with us was one of the best decisions we made and just looking at our amazing wedding video and photographs reminded me of just how special she really is.

The Decor

Amber: When we sourced the invitation design for the wedding which featured a bohemian-inspired antler motif with florals it incorporated much of the colours Sinead was thinking about for the flowers and decor so we built on this and created a colour palette that would tie in the invitations with other aspects of the wedding design. The colour palette was berry and blush with lots of greenery in the wild foliage. We wanted to bring in lots of greenery and foliage into the design to give it that natural earthy feel, taking inspiration from the ceremony setting itself - under the majestic sweeping beech tree at Bellinter. The berry and blush colour palette that we settled on followed through from the wedding invitations, to the florals, the bridesmaids dresses and even down to Sinead's nail colour on the day to create an overall cohesive feel throughout. For the tables we decided on low level urn arrangements and loose ivy along the tables. Fresh figs, pomegranates, apricots and plums also adorned the tables as part of the tablescape. We also used flowy cotton maroon and blush runners on the tables. Ivy garlands and festoon lights hung across the ceiling and an ivy and fairylight wall added to the romantic atmosphere as well as lots and lots of twinkling candles. Lots of greenery and garlanding was used throughout the styling bringing the nature indoors and mirroring the beautiful rolling countryside outside.

The Flowers

I decided that I would like to include lots of foliage and some deep shades in the floral arrangements, I also considered a flower crown and Pat from Carlow Florist kindly made a sample for me to try, I was 100% sure that I wanted one after that. Amber worked closely with Pat to create stunning bouquets, they tied in perfectly with the overall style on the day. Amber: For the unstructured, natural florals we were looking for, Pat created beautiful bouquets using lots of wild foliage including eucalyptus, asparagus fern with blush pink avalanche roses, rich burgundy peonies, hibernicum berries, burgundy astilbe and wax flower. We tied the bridal bouquet with beautiful silk trailing ribbons that I sourced from Silk & Willow which added to the bohemian feel. Pat also created the floral crowns for Sinead and her maids which completed their look.

The Ceremony

We knew we didn't want a church wedding and when we started to look into the options we loved the idea of a Humanist wedding but having never been to one we weren't really sure of the ins and outs of it. We met with Eithne Dempsey and she put our minds completely at ease. A humanist ceremony was everything we wanted and more, we got to choose almost every aspect of the service which was fantastic and it really represented us. We had two readings, one was an extract from Captain Corelli's Mandolin which I think is quite a popular one, I just loved the whole passage and I have to admit I had a little cry when I first read it so I was really sure it was special enough to be a part of the ceremony. For the second reading, we had an extract from The Velveteen Rabbit. I chose this readying as its one of my son (Noah)'s favourite books and we still read it regularly at night time. It has such a lovely simple message. One of my standout memories of the day was walking down the aisle with my dad and Noah, I always thought I'd be a bag of nerves but my dad made me laugh the whole way down. People didn't lie when they told us how fast the day would go by, we had 15 minutes alone before dinner and it was so nice to stop and take in what had just happened. I think up until then we had both been high on adrenaline and nonstop meeting people and chatting. We had our wonderful friend Pauric Qyirke play guitar and sing for the ceremony. He was a gem in the run up to the big day, helping us to choose songs and sending on samples to us. We had a great song chosen for our exit but when we sat down to sign the register the first drops of rain fell. We signed a quickly as possible with me telling everyone to get ready to run...there was no romantic walk back down the aisle we literally grabbed each other and Noah and RAN all the way back to the house, no mean feat in a wedding dress and heels I can tell you!

The Entertainment

Music for ceremony by our friend Pauric & the band Harlequin - having seen Harlequin play at our friends' wedding we knew our guests were in for a treat. We wanted a packed dancefloor and boy did we get that! Shane and the boys rocked the place all night even throwing in some Metallica and Rage Against The Machine. We had amazing feedback from guests about the band with friends even trying to book them on the night for their own weddings. First dance was Pulp, Somethings Changed. Song is one we both love and its very apt in terms of our relationship (having met on Tinder and neither of us being pushed on dating at the time, funny how things work out).

The Food

Suzanne from Cove Cake Design created an amazing three tier lightly textured blush cake with gold leaf and decorated with fresh florals and foliage. We had Lime White Chocolate and Pistachio for one tier and 2 tiers of Guinness Chocolate & Carmelised White Chocolate Cake. It tasted as amazing as it looked!

The Photography

Eric was a no brainer, as soon as we saw his work we contacted him and booked straight away! We absolutely loved his candid approach and when we met him we knew that he would be so easy to work with on the day. We weren't wrong, he's so cool and calm and even gave us a couple of hints and tips on the morning of the wedding. He was so much fun to work with and we didn't feel like we were dragged away from our guests at all. The photographs are beyond amazing!