Uber-excited about today's Real Wedding of Aled & Jenni, who you met yesterday rocking the engagement shoot, I squealed when I opened Jenni's email, it's such a breath of fresh wedding air - she's a real Rocknroll Bride & her new hubby is one cool dude. Jenni & Aled's wedding was a celebration of LOVE, […]

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Uber-excited about today's Real Wedding of Aled & Jenni, who you met yesterday rocking the engagement shoot, I squealed when I opened Jenni's email, it's such a breath of fresh wedding air - she's a real Rocknroll Bride & her new hubby is one cool dude.

Jenni & Aled's wedding was a celebration of LOVE, for which they blended their own individual tastes and personalities - Aled's rock sensibilities, with Jenni's fave 50s style. The couple pulled off one of the most distinctive and fun celebrations, for a fraction of the usual budget (am in awe, frankly!) And it was all captured by photographer Anthony Peyper who produced images as fun and colourful as this great couple...

Jenni gave us the background to their day...

"Our theme was LOVE. A couple of days after we got engaged we went to Philidelphia and visited the LOVE park there. I really liked the idea of the red and black and having the love on our invites and cake. Aled is a rocker so the black had to feature! I also love the 1950s style and short dresses so really wanted that too. We planned our wedding on a really low budget, I think in the end, it came to just under €5,000 so that was a major thing for us. But we had lots of ideas that happened to come together in the end, Thank God!

What can you say? Jenni looks stunning, her make up is flawless and oh-so-glam, her whole bridal style is so perfectly her, with that 50s twist (loving the red lipstick trick there Jenni!) - she has high praise for Sian Sharkey and Alyson Smyth who did the ladies hair and make-up, and you can see why. They look fabulous!

And Aled scrubs up pretty well too - not a hint of nerves there, just pure concentration...

Aled & Jenni's favourite moments from the day were when they made their vows - they opted for a civil ceremony at the Registry office at Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, which they were able to put their own stamp on..."I loved our ceremony. It was amazing, so emotional. Would definitely recommend a civil ceremony as it was completely customised to us and we chose all of the wording and readings. There were tears shed by a lot of people! The day was a lot of fun."

After a few pics outside Sir. Patrick Dun's Hospital, they went for a wander to take the wedding portraits, enjoying that blistering Dublin sunshine on the way (seriously, was this the only day of the summer this year??) "We're big fans of the Dublin Pub so we decided to visit the Gingerman on the way to our venue. We got a group shot taken in Merrion Square and loads of photos taken down the laneways around there."

Attention all Brides & Grooms - this is what you call the formal shots 🙂 So refreshing to see a group of people enjoying the photographs and having fun with it, rather than the stiff, over-posed standard portraits of so many Irish weddings...

Random aside here: I adore this picture. Just had to say it. The girls are like a Rocknroll Bride band - too cute! Back to Jenni...

"We wanted a venue that wouldn't tell us what to do and would basically work around what we wanted. A barman in Toners on Baggot Street recommended we go visit McGrattans as they have a lovely room upstairs. So we went to visit them, thinking we might have a venue for the party afterwards. We didn't realise they did nice bar food and have had the odd wedding there. When we walked into the bar, Aled saw the photo of Phil Lynnott and immediately said “this is it”. They were amazing to deal with and did everything we asked for and more. Could not recommend them enough."

As Jenni explained, she and Aled wanted a very consistent theme of Love at their wedding, and their wedding reception decor shows you don't have to spend a fortune to have an amazing celebration - by enlisting some help and being clever where you get things ..."Our friends and family were amazing. My mother-in-law made our gorgeous cake and cupcakes (which were delicious!) my family helped me decorate our venue." A little attention to detail goes a long way - check out the heart candles, the love heart sweets, and those scrummy-looking homemade cupcakes (Go on Aled's Mammy, you good thing!)

And what you advise other brides & grooms planning their own day? Do your own thing. Don't conform if you don't want to conform. We made our day completely about us and our loved ones. There was no “you HAVE to...” about our day, apart from the legal stuff obviously! Put your own stamp on it, and most of all ENJOY!

Congratulations guys! Your wedding has brought a big fat smile to my face and confirms to me that we Irish are as stylish as any in the world, and that you don't have to spend a fortune to have a fabulous day! Hope married life is sweetness and light, x

Muchos Gracias to Anthony Peyper for allowing us to showcase his great work on Jenni & Aled's wedding - there's lots more eye-popping pics to see over on AnthonyPeyper.com - definitely well worth a look.

All the Wedding Details...