Love an epic love story, and today's amazingly beautiful real wedding has a great sceal to go with it. It's a tale of love across the oceans, and who returned to Ireland to celebrate with family and friends and show off the land of their love. Full of special details and gorgeous touches, and photographed […]

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Love an epic love story, and today's amazingly beautiful real wedding has a great sceal to go with it. It's a tale of love across the oceans, and who returned to Ireland to celebrate with family and friends and show off the land of their love. Full of special details and gorgeous touches, and photographed almost entirely on film by Lisa O'Dwyer, Rachel and Ben's story of sweet serendipitous love is one to savour...

Rachel and Ben chose The Millhouse in Slane, Co. Meath as the venue for a three day spectacular, bringing friends and family from near, and very far, together to celebrate their love story. It proved to be the perfect setting for an unforgettable wedding...

So give us the goss on how you got together... "I’m from Dublin and Ben is from Manchester. We met in 2005 at a bar in Dublin. He was over from the UK for a farewell weekend with his friends before he emigrated to Australia. Cheesy as it sounds, our eyes met across the crowded bar and we hit it off straight away and by the end of the night he asked me to move to Australia with him! Within 8 months of flying back and forth from Ireland to the UK we were heading to Brisbane to start our new life together."

The proposal didn’t go as Ben had planned. He took me to the beach and had packed a lovely picnic and placed the ring box in a sandwich bag, hoping that I would pull it out when I went to get some food. However the ring box had made its way to the bottom of the basket and I didn’t see it. It took hours of him asking me to pass him out things for me to finally notice the box, after a few tears I opened it and saw the most beautiful art deco style ring glistening in the sunlight. The funny thing is I had always said that I would want to pick my own ring, and the one Ben picked was very different to what I would have chosen. However, Ben had spent a lot of time searching and chose this ring because he thought it was perfect for me and I love it more than anything I could have picked myself because of the care and thought he put into finding it, and it reminds me how much he loves me every time I look at it.

Our original plan was to have a relaxed intimate wedding on the beach in Australia, but after a while it became clear that many of our family and friends from Ireland and the UK, not to mention good friends from the US, Canada and Dubai, would be unable to make such a big trip down under. Although we didn’t want a big wedding, it was really important for us to have all of our nearest and dearest there on our big day, so we decided that the best thing to do was get married in Ireland. Because we have been living in Australia for 6 years there were a lot of friends that we hadn’t seen in years so we opted to spread the celebrations over three days so that we would have enough time to catch up with everyone. We really wanted the venue to be a place that our friends and family could relax and enjoy themselves and make a mini holiday out of the three days.

How gorgeous is Rachel? The forties style waves in her flaming red hair is stunning, especially when paired with her beautiful cap-sleeved wedding gown by Brisbane designer Paul Cowley. There are definite touches of old school glamour but she added a whimsical twist with her choice of footwear as you will see later...

The important moment en famille before the big trip down the aisle...

Having a three day celebration in The Millhouse is something that Ben and Rachel really savoured, and highly recommend... "It was the best decision we made as it meant we had time to spend with everyone. Guests arrived the day before and all chipped in with the decorations. It took a lot of stress away from us and it meant people could mingle and get to know each other. That night everyone hung out drinking Guinness and eating fish and chips, perfect!" Not a surprise then how Rachel looks so relaxed and happy, she had already had catch up time with nearest and dearest and was prepared for the big day...

For the ceremony, Ben and Rachel opted to go outside to the lawns of The Millhouse that sweep down to the river Boyne. A tranquil setting, with an amazing view, it provided the perfect backdrop to the exchanging of their vows.

I am not going to ask...

What could be more romantic than becoming husband and wife under a canopy of apple boughs, surrounded by all those you love?

While the sun shone, the guests stayed outside, but later, the party really got started... "As we were in Ireland and this was the first visit for quite a few of the guests we had a traditional Ceili. The caller was fantastic in rounding us all up and making it fun and easy for everyone to get up and have a go. We followed this with a DJ and danced till late"

I told you the footwear was special...

And now for the fun shots, starting with the Robot...

What were your favourite memories of the day? "When we took a moment together outside towards the end of the night, we took everything in and it was great to see and hear everyone having fun. The other moment was the night before the wedding when we walked into the lounge and saw everyone hanging out making pom poms, that’s when we knew that it was going to be a fun and relaxed 3 days, all our different groups of friends from all over the world getting on."

Planning a wedding from the other side of the world is far from easy, so it was thanks to a circle of helpers that things came together so beautifully..."We had a lot of help from guests, especially my parents who spent many months before the wedding making decorations for us. Dad made some fantastic chalk boards and hanging lanterns from old jars and some wire. Mum collected various cake stands, and vases and because I wanted large jars to use as vases for the flowers they ate their way through 30 jars of beetroot! Friends of ours brought bunting from their own wedding to hang outside and another friend organised the flowers.

We also asked all of the married guests to send a photo of their own wedding, and hung these up at our photo booth area. It was a fun way to see how wedding styles have changed over the years!

Somebody in this relationship has a sweet tooth - just check out the amazing cake table created by The Perfectionist Confectionist.

For those of you who have been over in Australia, the following will be very familiar...

So what advice would you give to brides and grooms planning their day? My new husband would jokingly say don’t organise a wedding on a different continent but I would say just don’t let yourself stress about the little details as many of them go unnoticed. I gave myself a cut off time of 11am after which I stepped away from any planning and focused on being a bride and enjoying the day.

And as this was a three day celebration, this fun didn't stop here..."The day after the wedding we arranged a picnic and some games and my mum surprised us all with an ice cream van, which was a big hit with the kids and grown ups, not to mention a great hangover cure!" Good tip Rachel!

So have you all recovered from your swooning yet? Yep, didn't think so. Go put the kettle on, and come back for another look...

To Rachel and Ben, much love and best wishes on your marriage, hope everything is going well down under. And of course a huge Thank You to Lisa O'Dwyer for sharing her beautiful work on Rachel and Ben's wedding with us, it is a joy to behold. If you're not familiar with Lisa's work you should defo pop over to www.lisaodwyerweddings.com for a gawk, you will love it.

All the Wedding Details