Covid19 Wedding Full of energy, love, music and happiness – Doolin Barn by MrsRedhead
Control the controllables
and
get a lot of the finicky stuff done early on so that you run into as little last minute rushing as possible.
Do create a budget and try to stick to it, giving yourself a bit of wiggle room. Once the day comes, whatever happens happens.
Just roll with it and enjoy yourself! Make time to be really present with your new spouse at some point after the ceremony-it is your first day as husband and wife after all!
Olga (Mrs. Redhead) was a joy to work with.
On the day she was full of energy and yet totally calm and organised, allowing our preparations and ceremony to unfold in front of her yet managing to capture the perfect pictures all the way through. She took us out to the cliffs and caught such relaxed, natural, fun pictures that really reflected us as a couple and the day as a whole.
The whole wedding spoke about how wonderful and personable she was, and I could not recommend her highly enough, she’s a fantastic photographer and a really lovely person to have around on the big day. 10/10!
From the moment we stepped into the barn in Hotel Doolin we knew that was the space for us.
It was a beautiful venue but also felt really relaxed and we knew our guests would feel free to let their hair down there. The food in Hotel Doolin was absolutely second to none which was also really important to us, and their ethos about being carbon neutral and protecting the environment made us feel very happy to support them as a business. The team at the hotel proved us right in every regard, we could not have asked for more in terms of service or support, particularly in terms of the pandemic and the ever-changing rules around weddings.
The build-up with Covid had been so stressful that we found we really pared back the day to what was important-people having fun and a celebration of our love.
People needed a reason to celebrate and everyone brought such incredible energy and love and appreciation to the day, the feeling of togetherness was amazing! We were so lucky to have incredibly talented friends who took photographs, videos and performed music for us throughout the celebration, and we livestreamed the event so that friends and family could still be a part of the day from afar.
It was really important to us that we clicked with our vendors and venue, particularly those who would be working with us throughout the day itself, and I could not have been happier with them all.
Our celebrant Billy Mag Fhloinn was also a friend of ours, and having someone marry us who had a personal connection to us was a really moving experience.
We also kept a lot of elements of the day in Irish and in English-Billy welcomed our guests trí Ghaeilge, we had one of our readings in Irish with the English translation in our booklets. We also wrote our own vows and I said them in Irish, with Phil saying them in English. That was really important to us. Our friends and family played double-duty throughout the wedding in terms of music and tech, and it was brilliant to feel the love as they gave their talents to our special day.
What’s your love story? How did you meet originally and get together? (we love a good sceal…)
We originally met when I went to Smyths bar in Limerick with my sister and Phil was the barman behind the counter. I lost my ID that night and he seized the opportunity to find me in Icon nightclub to return it to me, and we went from there!
How did the proposal go, if there was one?
Phil took me up to Donegal for a birthday weekend away, but actually managing to propose was much harder in practice than anticipated. He had been flying over and back to London on the pretext of sorting bank issues from our time spent living there, when in reality he had been getting my dream ring made. He’d first planned to propose on Keem Bay in Achill, a part of Ireland that is really special to us. When we went there however a status yellow warning was in and the wind and rain made it impossible to even leave the car, much less get down on one knee! We then decided to stay for a night in the nearby Mulranny Hotel that has a beautiful romantic Victorian pier. Phil made his excuses after dinner saying he had to get my present, and left me in the bar while he spent 30 minutes trying to get tealights to stay put down the pier in the pitch black darkness while a storm built up. Eventually he had to admit defeat, reappear in the bar and tell me my present was broken. The next day he decided to try again on Sliabh Liag cliffs in Donegal but when we got there it was so misty you couldn’t see anything and we nearly got blown down, so he had to abandon that plan. When we finally reached Portnoo that night though, our beautiful Air B&B overlooked the lake and the owner had kindly left the place lit up with fairy lights and the stove on. It was so cosy and romantic and perfect that Phil took me up to the viewing area in the lounge, went down on one knee and asked me if I’d like to grow old with him. I burst into tears on the spot and said yes!
Photographer : Olga – MrsRedhead Photography
Venue : Hotel Doolin
Wedding Dress: Bán Bridal, Limerick City
Videographer Rob Sutton
Bridesmaids dresses: Katie’s Kloset, Askeaton, Co. Limerick
Shoes: Rainbow Shoes (online)
Flowers: White Dove Flowers, Limerick Milk Market
Groom(smen)’s suits: Louis Copeland
Accessories: Steven Matthews (bride) Keane’s Jewellers (bridesmaids)
Cake: Hotel DoolinCars/
Stationery: Save The Date wedding stationary
Make Up & Hair: Emma Sheehan MUA and Kristina Byrnes O’Dowd hair stylist