Today we have the most gorgeous of wedding celebrations, in the most overlooked of Dublin venues - Sinead & Enda's summer shindig was a triumph of beautiful decoration and personal touches, all in a symphony of pastel shades in the Burlington Hotel! Sinead transformed the Sussex Suite at the grande olde dame of Dublin into […]

By

Today we have the most gorgeous of wedding celebrations, in the most overlooked of Dublin venues - Sinead & Enda's summer shindig was a triumph of beautiful decoration and personal touches, all in a symphony of pastel shades in the Burlington Hotel!

Sinead transformed the Sussex Suite at the grande olde dame of Dublin into the sweetest confection you've ever seen. So it was just as well she had picked some of our favourite photographers to capture it all for her. Lisa O'Dwyer specialises in a fine art photography style which matches perfectly Sinead & Enda's wedding style. And she had as her second-in-command, Christina Brosnan, so it was a double-whammy of great photography.

But the thing that is most inspiring is Sinead's attitude to their wedding day: "I am terrible at DIY. Absolutely useless! But, like I said I wanted people to feel involved and wanted it to be a very personal day." Proving it's all about giving it a go, and you never know the results might just look as amazing as this...

Wanna hear a love story...

"Like many Irish couples, we met in a pub. Not very original ;-). I shared a house with Enda’s friend. One night, I went out for a drink with my housemate and was introduced to Enda. I wasn’t interested at all, but he kept asking for my number. Eventually, I caved and gave him my number and agreed to go on a date. We met up for a few drinks the next week and had a great night. We laughed all night, and seven years later we’re still laughing. God, that sounds so cheesy but it’s true."

And how did himself propose?

"In 2009, we were moving to Malaysia because of Enda’s job, so we had talked about getting married. But, he surprised me... by proposing on Christmas morning. We went for a walk on Dollymount strand. We reached the statue of Our Lady Of The Port Of Dublin and he got down on one knee. It was the quickest proposal you’ve ever seen. His knee barely touched the ground before I screamed “Yes”, then cried, then everyone started looking at us so we ran back to the car. It was over in a nano-second."

While Sinead & Enda's wedding looks perfectly and meticulously planned to the nth detail, in fact it didn't happen like that at all - it was a very organic process of the couple finding the things they liked, putting them together as Sinead explained: "I didn’t really set out with a theme in mind. It was in July so eventually fell into a theme of summer colours — light, fresh, pastel colours. But, that kind of happened naturally as they’re the colours I like. I didn’t worry about matching things perfectly. I don’t like things to be Matchy McMatcherson so wasn’t carrying around my pantone charts checking that the napkins matched the bows on the chairs ;-). I would have driven myself insane if I did that. By the end of it, it kind of turned in to a summer festival theme."

A special shout out for all the gorgeous flowers must go to The French Touch who created all of the arrangements.

"Without a doubt, my favourite part was the church ceremony. We were really lucky in that our priest was really relaxed and made us feel so comfortable. From start to finish, the ceremony was relaxed, informal and even funny in parts. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. The singer we hired as well — Laura Kelly was amazing. We went down the aisle to Oh Happy Day and everyone in the church started singing and dancing, it was brilliant."

"We had our first date in O’Donoghues pub on Merrion Row. So after we got our photos taken in Stephen’s Green, we walked down to O’Donoghues for a cheeky drink by ourselves. It was brilliant. Walking through Dublin in my dress was hilarious, to see everyone smiling and wishing us the best, and something I’ll never forget."

Meanwhile, the guests were making their way to the reception at the Burlington Hotel, which was a surprise choice for Sinead & Enda, but was definitely meant to be, Sinead explained...

We got engaged in 2009, but only decided in February 2011 to get married in July 2011. And to make matters a little more complicated, we were living in Malaysia at the time. So, I came home in February to start planning. After a week at home, we had a dress, church + venue. My mum and myself were patting ourselves on the back, and then we got a call from the hotel to say they had to cancel our booking. But, it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

I was out walking the next day and walked past the Burlington Hotel. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten to call them. So, I popped in and asked to see their rooms. I saw their Sussex Suite and booked it there and then. It’s a beautiful room, if anyone is considering getting married in Dublin, you should really check it out. It’s so beautiful.

I've been in the Burlo manys a time and never seen it look so pretty, Sinead totally transformed it, but how?

I hired a ton of things from Pearl and Godiva. Loads of beautiful vintage china, cake stands & candelabras. Pearl also has a great photo booth, which is essentially an mdf wall with vintage wallpaper and an ornate frame. We got loads of funny noses, fake glasses + moustaches etc and our photographer Lisa O’Dwyer took individual/group photos of all our guests with the props. The photos are hilarious and are a great keepsake for the day. I’m printing them all out and including them in the thank you cards.

I also bought a beautiful custom made wishing tree from Papertree. It is such a beautiful idea, which I stole from my friends wedding. Underneath the tree, I placed photos of both our parents on their wedding day...

...The tree comes with beautiful origami decorations and wish tags for people to write their wishes for our future. Again, it’s a really nice keepsake for us. It was funny to read them the next day. Some people wrote three and four messages, the handwriting got more and more illegible as the night went on. I’m going to arrange the tags in a frame. It’s a better idea than a guest book, which you’ll never use." Sinead also created two small collages of photos of our two families. "I got this multi frame pack from Dunnes Stores for €15 each and included family photos of both families. Both sets of parents loved it." So for a woman who professes to being terrible at DIY, she could have fooled me for one!

What advice would you give to brides and grooms planning their day?
Do it your own way from start to finish. You don’t have to invite Aunt Nelly who you haven’t seen in 20 years. It’s about you and your partner so organise a day that reflects you both and that will make you relaxed and comfortable on the day. Do what suits you both. I still don’t have an engagement ring - I’m not that interested in jewellery. I’ll eventually find something that suits me, but wasn’t going to get something just for the photographs.

Don’t listen to anyone being negative.Everything is possible, so don’t listen to the naysayers. Everyone has an opinion on what you should do, just nod your head, smile and do your own thing.

Lastly, enjoy it! Enjoy every minute of it. Don’t be nervous, don’t stress, don’t worry about pleasing everyone. It will be great and you’ll look gorgeous on the day.

Huge thanks & Big Congratulations to Sinead & Enda - thank you so much for sharing your day, and inspiring us so much with your can-do attitude 🙂

And of course to Lisa O'Dwyer, super wedding photographer who shared her gorgeous pictures with us, and those of Christina Brosnan who was her wing-man on the day. I'm sure you can agree - a real dream team. Check out lisaodwyerphotography.com

All the Wedding Details...