Nimah and Brians Hollywood Wedding Story

This post is dedicated to the Wedding Story of Niamh and Brian. A real-life Hollywood romance full of twists and turns but in the end, they get their 
"Happy Ever After".

Niamh and Brian meet online in 2014 and their love blossomed over chats on horror stories. They had talked about meeting up but for one reason or another, it didn't happen. As faith would have it they meet randomly on a night out in Dublin. 
Now In Hollywood, this moment would be known as a"Meet Cute" a scene in a film where a future romantic couple meets for the first time. From their "Meet Cute," their romance blossomed. They dated, met each other's families and friends and soon became inseparable. 

In May 2015 they found out that they were expecting and Brian popped the question on Christmas Day, which was Niamh’s due date.  “Harley Rose was born on January 5th 2016 and after a couple of months adapting to life as parents we started our wedding journey” 

Both Niamh and Brian work in the Wedding Industry, Brian works in Love Suits and Niamh is a bridal makeup artist. From being in the industry they both had an idea of what they wanted and a traditional wedding is something they definitely didn’t want. 

“As we’d started our journey on the topic of horror films we thought it’d be great craic to do a Friday 13th wedding. Great craic indeed!

  The Dress

Niamh found it all a bit “cray, cray”, she found nice dresses everywhere but nothing that really made her go WOW! this is the one. She visited eight different bridal shops and put a €500 deposit down on one dress in the heat of the moment and she was very lucky to get it back.

Her first dress of choice was a stunning lace dress by Stella York in the Dublin Bridal House, Rathfarnham. “It was subtle and beautiful. I was in love with it completely until two weeks before the wedding when I went back to the same store to get a ‘day after dress’ and fell in love with the stunning Badgley Mischka gown I wore on the day. The minute I put it on I went “WOW!”

 Niamh’s advice when it comes to shopping for your wedding dress : 

“Don’t rush your wedding dress shopping and for the love of god don’t buy the first dress you see! If you can’t stop thinking about it, it’s for you. If you can’t stop thinking about whether or not it’s the right one, it’s not”

 The Venue:

When it came to their venue and location, originally, they had wanted to go abroad as it would be something different. They liked the idea of people coming and making a holiday out of the celebrations. Unfortunately, the logistics of having a wedding aboard didn’t work out so they opted for Clonakilty in West Cork, a place Niamh spent a lot of time as a child and somewhere that is important to her family.

“We chose the Fernhill House Hotel within Clonakilty because the outdoor area was exquisite and they were extremely flexible.I had some ideas I knew were a bit different and they were very easy and laid back about it all. Suited us down to the ground”

Just as everything was organised and settled for Nimah and Brian's big day, disaster struck! The weekend of the wedding, Storm Ophelia decided to hit and it was a complete washout. The beautiful outdoor scenery didn't matter anymore but they had the stunning decor of the venue to fall back on. 

The wedding carried on and the theme was Sparkly and twinkly with neutral tones! I’m a bit of a magpie so I wanted twinkly lights, sparkly draping, glitzy everything but done the classiest way possible” No tack allowed (I did need to be reigned back in now and then)”

Room Decor:

The room was lit up with backdrops and detail was added to their tables with lanterns candles and light up table numbers. A really good tip here….they asked their venue to lower the lights as it was an October evening and it was dark outside. All the guests walked into a beautiful twinkly candlelit room. 

The staff and photographer connected to the venue said they’d never quite seen anything like it.

They also had personalised beer buckets on every table, personalised bottle openers for people to take home and all of the ladies got a party favor of a makeup brush with the bride & grooms name and wedding date, this detail represented Niamh’s work as a Makeup Artist perfectly.

The Ceremony:

The wedding ceremony represented Niamh and Brian as a couple, from saying

“I do” right down to the music. Friends and Family played a big a role in the day making it very unique, entertaining and very personal to them and their guests.

Their Best Friend Graeme carried out their ceremony, he is an actor and stand-up comedian.He knows them best as a couple and he delivered an incredible ceremony. “It was beautiful, meaningful and hilarious, all in the right places. He made it a day we’ll never forget” Niamh’s sister in law and a best friend sang throughout the ceremony. Niamhs Mother and Aunts created a beautiful rendition of songs that held meaning for them growing up.

Instead of a band, they had a DJ to start, followed by a silent disco followed by a 
guitar session in the lobby until 4am. The music flowed all night and there was something for everyone.

When it came to planning the wedding Niamh loved it all. They were engaged for nearly two years so she felt it was easy to space it out and do it all gradually.   

 "If I felt overwhelmed by any one area I left it alone and came back to it later. I never let it take over but I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish”

Their tips for engaged couples

"Don’t let the wedding consume you, try to meet in the middle when one person really wants something and the other doesn’t. It’s all about compromise. Try and enjoy it, after all, you’re planning the biggest party of your life, try to remember that’s what it is and stop worrying about everything being totally and completely perfect".

When it comes to suppliers choose wisely and do your research, don’t go on recommendations from people. Look at their work and see the results for yourself before you book and pay. Niamh and Brian had this experience with their photographer but luckily for them, their videographer came to the rescue.  

 “When you put so much thought and planning into one day you want it to be captured in the best way possible”

"The day went exactly how we’d pictured it in our head. Well, after storm Ophelia, the torrential rain, the electricity cutting out in the rental house that morning before anyone had showered, after hair and makeup both got the vomiting bug that morning! But like I said, Friday 13th was always going to be eventful"

The Honeymoon

  

And for their Honeymoon, as Mr & Mrs.They had a three-part Honeymoon. They have a two-year-old together and Brian has a ten-year-old. So they weren’t in a position to go off to the Maldives for three weeks. They went to “Playa Den Bossa” in Ibiza right after the wedding and went back again for five nights six months later. For their anniversary on the 13^th October, they are going to Sorrento for five nights. I like this idea keep the celebrations for as long as you can

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Thanks to Niamh and Brian for sharing their wonderful wedding story.  

Mary 

xxx

The Suppliers

Venue - Fernhill House Hotel, Clonakilty
Grooms suits - Love Suits Dublin
Wedding dress - Dublin Bridal House
 Bridesmaid dresses - Quiz Clothing
 Flower Girls/ Page Boys outfit - Monsoon
Music - HeadPhones Disco
 Cake - Jens Couture Cakes
Ceremony/reception music - Matt Churchill, Clonakilty
Makeup and hair - Ali Dee Hair and Deborah Aungier
Shoes - Buffalo
 Flowers - Bernadette
Venue Décor Company - Rosewater.ie
Videographer - Vector PM Weddings