You know us OneFabDay girls, we love a good wedding, especially one where all the stops have been pulled out, and we can live vicariously in serious designerville, but it has to have heart and personality, and reflect the couple not just a rollcall of must-haves. So we are very excited about showing you today's […]

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You know us OneFabDay girls, we love a good wedding, especially one where all the stops have been pulled out, and we can live vicariously in serious designerville, but it has to have heart and personality, and reflect the couple not just a rollcall of must-haves. So we are very excited about showing you today's feature about Susan & Mick's recent Dromoland Castle Wedding. It has it all, from the blue SATC Manolos and Vera Wang guna, to the doteyness of hand-knitted wedding favours and a fun photobooth with charity shop props.

Photographer Fionn McCann must have been exhausted keeping up with this energetic couple and their amazing day, but he caught a lot of lovely pictures we are delighted to share with you...

Let's start with some lustworthy accessories, to whet the appetite...

Ok, so give us the goss, how did you two get together? "Mick and I worked together in a nightclub near home (The Valk, Ballinrobe, County Mayo) at weekends while we were at college. I fancied him but I couldn’t tell if he felt the same. We had worked together for 5/6 months when at a staff Christmas party, after several (many) drinks, we were having a bit of banter and I told him I thought he was a bit of ladies man. It was meant as a joke but he took it to heart. Later in the night I felt so bad I decided I would tell him what I really thought of him. So at the end of the night, with lights on and no music for cover in the nightclub, I found him and told him that I really didn’t mean what I said, that I actually fancied him rotten and that I’d like to snog him… He forgave me and we’ve been together since."

And did he get down on one knee? "Mick suggested that we go away for the May bank holiday weekend last year. He organised it all and booked everything as early as March. We were due a weekend away so I didn’t think anything of it. We went to the north Antrim coast and Mick had booked us a suite in a beautiful B & B near the Giant’s Causeway. We drove out to the Giant’s Causeway on the Saturday morning. Mick was huffing and puffing the whole way there but he blamed it on being full from the huge breakfast we had had in the B & B (he later told me it was the nerves). We walked out onto the causeway and sat down to take it in on the part that juts out furthest into the sea. After a few minutes Mick took me to my feet, and started his proposal. When I realised what was happening I got such a shock that I told him to ‘Shut Up!’ but he persevered (thankfully), got down on one knee, produced the ring and popped the question. I said yes and started crying. A group of Australian tourists nearby came over to congratulate us and take pictures."

For her dream wedding, Susan had originally thought of having a pastel theme with pale lilacs, pinks and peaches but when the girls found the perfect bridesmaids in raspberry the plan changed a little and the palette was adjusted to a combination of raspberry pinks, gold and ivory. Hints of these colours were used throughout the day from the raspberry and purple votive candles on the tables, to the gold ribbon on the stationery.

My first thought on seeing Susan and Michael's was The. Dress. (no offence there Michael) it's a real showstopper, and comes from no less than the Queen of Bridal Gowns, Vera Wang, and it has quite the story as Susan explained "Because I travel to the US with work a lot I was lucky to be able to purchase my dress from the Vera Wang Madison Ave boutique in Manhattan. I had tried lots of dresses in Ireland with my bridesmaids, mum and mum-in-law to be (and loved every girly second of it), and then last September my mum was able to join me when I was on a business trip in the US and we spent a weekend in NYC dress shopping. I realise how very lucky I was to be able to have the dress of my dreams and to buy it in NY. Everything about the dress became such an adventure from then on: all the visits (around business trips) for measuring and fittings and then eventually bringing it home. My dress was Eliza and when the girls and I spoke about the dress (as we frequently did) we referred to it as Eliza and it was like talking about a friend!"

The bridesmaids also wore Vera Wang from Madison Avenue, but their dresses didn't steal the show but complemented Susan's Eliza perfectly, with the sash effect to mirror her dress and the reverse of the bow had grey material which tied in perfectly with the boys’ grey suits. Completely agree with Susan that they looked fantastic on the girls.

Susan had special praise for her florists "Mark and Raytus from Yes Flowers did an amazing job on the flowers. They also rented us beautiful urns and vases for the displays as well as stunning candelabras for the banquet hall. They not only delivered on all the ideas I had but they also added extra touches that made the dÃ©cor magical. For example they used the votive lights and holders that I had provided to make a stunning top table candle display. We hadn’t discussed this and it was a beautiful surprise when we entered the hall for dinner."

I know what you're thinking - did Susan really give Mick this for his wedding gift?? Actually, no, that's Mick's gift to Susan! They're both golf-mad, so Mick organised a framed replica of the 2008 British Open 18^th Hole pin flag, which he had gotten signed by Padraig Harrington (who won the Open for the second time in a row that year), wishing Susan luck for the day. The 2008 British Open was the first golf tournament Susan and Mick went to together so it was special and intimate gesture.

And Mick wasn't alone in organising the special surprises. Well aware that so often a wedding day becomes all about the bride, Susan also peppered the wedding day with little unexpected gifts to her beloved groom, the first of which was renting a 1978 Porsche 911 as a surprise for Michael to drive himself to the church, he was delighted, and didn't he deserve it -it was also his birthday after all!

The wedding ceremony was held in Ennis Cathedral. "It's a beautiful cathedral situated in the heart of vibrant Ennis town — so I think it suited us perfectly. It is a beautiful building and interior, but it also has the buzz of a large town around it. I have to mention the church musicians. We used Musa, three female singers with heavenly voices. They are extremely talented, well trained, experienced, professional singers and musicians and the music really was amazing. I hadn’t heard them in person before the wedding, I had only heard the recordings on their website but they sounded as good as their recording on the day, if not better."

But there was also one very special musician in the church ready to play them down the aisle - Susan's brother Robert, who had gone to some trouble for his sister - "My brother Robert also learned the Ukulele especially for me. He played the ukulele and sang Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours as Mick and I left the church. I love the sound of the ukulele — I think it’s such a happy sounding instrument and so perfect for music to celebrate a wedding!

After the ceremony, the happy couple made the traditional brief detour for a pint of the blackstuff, popping into Michael Fawl’s Select Bar across the road from the cathedral, where they toasted their marriage with traditional local honey mead ( & Guinness!) compliments of the proprietors.

After the ceremony, and their little celebratory clinkies, the happy couple headed to their wedding reception in the sumptuous surroundings of Dromoland Castle. "We were spoiled for locations for photographs in the grounds and the weather that day was beautiful. Margaret Daly (Dromoland Wedding Coordinator), and the hotel management and staff were amazing and everything went so smoothly on the day. Due to the fine weather we were lucky enough to host our drinks reception in the castle’s spectacular walled garden. Our jazz trio, Trio Royale entertained the guests in the garden."

So remember I said golf is a big passion for this couple? Well it was a bit of a running theme for the wedding "We decided to name the tables at our reception after golfers. To add a little something extra we decided to tweet some of the big golfers on twitter to ask them for a quote on love or marriage. We got a huge response including top golfers such as Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, John Daly, Zach Johnson and we got enough quotes for all our tables. A lot of them were funny and some serious but it was so much fun getting the responses in. The response from John Daly was even Tweet of the Day on CNN’s golf.com."

Don't be deceived by the designer style, Susan was a bride who was all about putting her own personal stamp on things and getting crafty, she actually made all the wedding favours by hand, and they were pretty special "I knitted little 2” brown teddy bears for the men (with a dark grey tie) and cream bunnies for the ladies (with pearl and raspberry bead necklaces, lace veil and raspberry bow) and I put little magnets inside them so they could be taken home and stuck on the fridge, and presented them in little gold boxes"

Eschewing the traditional guestbook (did you see our post on the Fingerprint Tree guest book idea) Susan and Michael decided to have a bit of fun with it, and add some personality: "We put our guest book on a table in the main banquet hall along with a polaroid digital camera. The pictures printed out with removable sticky backs so the guests could stick them into the guest book beside their note. We also had stickers and gel pens and markers they could use. We had a basket of props that guests either used for the photos or on the dance floor. We bought pink cowboys hats, feather boas, pink and purple wigs, fairy wings, tiaras, inflatable guitars, saxophones and microphones from €2 shops. We also had a big empty picture frame (from a charity shop, painted gold). The props encouraged people to take funny photos and get out on the dance floor. My Dad also set up an FTP site so that people could upload all their digital pictures from the day for us. He printed the instructions, together with pictures of Mick and I onto stickers and put a sticker on the inside of everybody’s placecard so that they could pop the instructions into their pocket/bag and bring them home with them. Our guest book is great and we also have the digital copies of all those photos. There is also a hilarious video in circulation of Mick and I on the stage playing inflatable guitar to Journey, Don’t Stop Believing"

And one last big surprise for Mick - Susan got up and sang two songs for him with the band: Hallelujah, I love him So and Imelda Maye’s Big Bad Handsome Man. Now that's a bride with gumption.

What was your favourite moment of the day?

Mick: There was so many memorable moments but for me my favourite was my new bride singing to me during our reception with the help of our band.

Susan: One of the stand-out moments for me though would be arriving at the top of the aisle to Mick. My Dad gave me a big hug and told me he loved me and then handed me over to Mick. It was the happiest moment of my life to know that ‘that was it’, I was really going to marry the love of my life and the rest of our lives together started then!

What advice would you give to brides and grooms planning their day?

Mick: Don’t get too caught up in the whole thing. Try your best to enjoy planning the wedding and try to have fun with it.

Susan:

I really enjoyed all the girly nights in and days out with the bridesmaids and the mums, making up invitations or shopping or cake tasting and so on and if you do things before they become critical you won’t be under pressure and can enjoy them.
Make lists.
Take help when its offered — even if you think you don’t need it, you probably do and as well as that if people offer they probably want to be involved so why not share the excitement!
Try to put a little bit of yourselves or your personalities into the wedding. I think that’s what will give the day the extra little edge for yourselves and your guests.
Take time to meet the vendors and suppliers who will be spending time with you on the day and try and pick someone who is on your wavelength.

So there you have it, a sneak peek inside a very special day, clearly a lot of love and thought went into Susan & Mick's celebration, so we are delighted to share it with everyone, and huge thanks to them for telling us all the goss!

And of course big thanks to Fionn McCann for sharing his lovely pictures

All the Wedding Details