Today, we have what has to be the ultimate in DIY wedding efforts - it goes beyond the expression "if you want something done right, do it yourself", Abina and Paddy not only had the help of family, friends but their dream venue Loughcrew House, made a very special effort to make their day perfect, as you will see. The extraordinary effort and thought this couple put into their celebration is truly inspiring, or maybe awe-inspiring is more accurate! The lovely Christina Brosnan was on hand to capture all the magic in intimate detail, and there is plenty to swoon over...
Paddy and Abina had a less than auspicious start to their romance..."We met at work in 2005 and didn’t particularly strike up any kind of friendship, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight; Paddy thought I was a snob and I thought he was a little annoying. Over the years opinions changed but it wasn’t until 2008 when Paddy had moved onto another job that we actually got together on a night out. At this stage Paddy had been asking me out for over a year... As the old saying goes ‘if at first you don’t succeed'
Thank goodness for Paddy the proposal didn't go down the same route. He managed to get a yes first time round: "I had planned to take December 9th off work to do some Christmas shopping. A few days beforehand Paddy said he’d take the day off too and we’d treat ourselves to some pampering at the Buff Day spa in the morning before going shopping, which I thought was a little out of character for him. After our treatments Paddy suggested that we walk down to Trinity to see the Christmas tree in Front Square and he proposed by the Campanile on bended knee in front of all the passing students and a walking tour. I said yes! After a few rather excited phone calls we had a ‘romantic’ €10 lunch at Pizza stop and instead of Christmas shopping we spent the day diamond shopping and picked out a lovely antique engagement ring from Weldon’s Jewellers. As we were walking home Paddy surprised me again by telling me that the Merrion hotel would our home for the night just as we were passing the front door! This was such a lovely treat because I had always wanted to stay there but it’s hard to find an excuse when you just live five minutes down the road. I must say he did a good job!" He did indeed, Paddy, you sneaky devil, clearly that year of asking Abina out taught you a thing or two about how to push her buttons!
As Abina and Paddy chose Loughcrew House for their wedding (more about that later) their wedding ceremony was held in the local church in Oldcastle.
I knew that I wanted a summer wedding, something quite relaxed and informal; I didn’t want top tables or formal speeches and I wanted people to feel like we were the hosting our guests for the day rather than a hotel hosting us. Luckily for me, Paddy and his family are more laid back than formal so were delighted with this suggestion.
I’ve always loved vintage tea party ‘cutesy’ things and liked the idea of a barn dance and Paddy is from a farming background so we went with a ‘down on the farm’ meets ‘vintage tea party’ kind of feel, almost like a village fete complete with lawn games! The pastel colour scheme emerged by way of the vintage tea party theme and tied in with the bridesmaid dress but it wasn’t something I focused on overly coordinating — I wanted everything to look homemade and vintage, like a collection of items that we had accumulated over the years rather than props that we had to specifically buy for the wedding. Even before we found a venue we had bought lovely Avoca bunting and garden lanterns and had started scouring charity shops for vintage cake stands and china tea sets. I guess we fine-tuned our ideas by trawling through magazines (both wedding and home décor) and through sites such as ‘one fab day’ and ‘style me pretty’ for inspiration.
We got engaged in early December 2011 but put our planning on hold until January as Paddy was bestman for his friend over Christmas so he wanted to focus on his duties there first. Once we started planning, the first thing we did was to book our photographer (doesn’t every bride do this?) and then we began looking for a venue that was available on Christina's free dates (two weekends in June to choose from). It was difficult, given that at this point June was only 5 months away but also because we couldn’t find a lot of non-hotel venues in Ireland that fitted the bill and allowed us total creativity over the day. We also wanted to be able to accommodate a large amount of family onsite so we needed a big house. Loughcrew House wasn’t even on our radar as a wedding venue but a friend had suggested renting it for a birthday party the previous year and I stumbled upon her email and said to Paddy ‘what about something like this?’.
The ‘something like this’ turned out to be what we went with! Initially, and right up until weeks beforehand I wasn’t so sure it was all going to come together for the day because the venue needed so much work, but Paddy was confident it would all work out. When we first visited Loughcrew house I loved the house but was a little less than impressed with the wedding space. Paddy loved it and could see past the chipped windows, the horrible red carpet, the broken floorboards, oddly coloured doors, old curtains and the moss growing on the walls of the courtyard. He could see the character of the rooms with the high ceilings, wooden beams and exposed brick walls and the lovely light that came in on a sunny day.
As the weeks ticked on and the date approached I agreed that Paddy could go ahead and book because I couldn’t find anywhere else (although I think Paddy had secretly stopped looking from the moment we visited Loughcrew)! Paddy worked with Emily from Loughcrew over the next few months to deal with my list of concerns and turn what I thought was an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. The Loughcrew staff really excelled and showed that they wanted to turn Loughcrew house into a high quality wedding venue, even hiring a full time manager before our wedding day rolled around. They put down new flooring, re-conditioned all the windows and doors, painted all the internal walls and put up new curtains amongst many other random requests that were asked of them.
When it came to this wedding, Abina and Paddy did the ultimate in DIY: "We only hired an empty courtyard stable room and decorated the whole place ourselves; everything from tables, chairs, crockery, food, drink… everything was organised and set up by us. We even built our own bar and made hessian table runners which took a lot of patience to hand cut all 35 metres of them. nvitations, mass booklets, cushions for the party tent and bean bag toss game, the paper mache letters, the menu board, the table plan and place settings, the table numbers, the canvasses on the wall, the table runners and the cushioned hearts that were at the back of the bridal party and family chairs were all made by us. Once I got started on the arts and crafts trail, we found that we both quite enjoyed making things and took on more and more challenges.
Paddy and his family are quite the wedding workforce - his uncle, cousin, sister and brother-in-law, all joined in the diy efforts, making everything from signage boards, rebaling round straw bales into square ones for seating to creating the bar for the reception room! His brothers even filled the old wooden wine crates Paddy and Abina had sourced with flowers on the day before the wedding.
The wedding cake, a three tiered Victoria Jam and Cream sponge, was made by Abina's sister, who was also a bridesmaid to boot and assembled on the morning of the wedding with the help of her cousins. The cake stand was a charity shop find which Paddy sanded and painted for the day.
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Looking back from our perspective it was all these things that made the weekend so enjoyable. Our families probably thought we were a little mad beforehand but once they saw all the madness come together it was great. We had a lot of fun along the way and found family members with creative talents they themselves didn’t even know they had.”
Again the decision to have a BBQ/Hogroast rather than a traditional meal was based on keeping the day more casual. Adare Farm catering were brilliant to work with, supplied amazing food and a lovely Ice cream cart but it was their super personal service that fitted with our relaxed theme and made us feel like they were part of the guestlist.
So what advice would you give to other couples contemplating doing a bit of DIY?"Don’t be afraid to break with tradition, and do something a little different, as long as you are prepared to do a lot of hard work. We found that once you stick to what you love and know what you want to achieve it makes all the work so much easier. Adding personal touches and doing as much as possible yourself makes the day so rewarding seeing all the hard work pay off. Also never estimate the importance of a ‘To Do’ list!"
After all of that, all I can say is Fair Play Abina and Paddy, you're some pair, a real inspiration to those of us with dreams of craftiness. Thank you both so much for sharing your day with us.
And to Christina Brosnan too, of course, for sharing her beautiful work on Abina and Paddy's day - as always a pleasure. If you like her style, be sure to check out the rest of her real wedding features
All the Wedding Details
- Ceremony: St. Mary's Church, Moylagh, Co. Meath
- Reception: Loughcrew House
- Photography: Christina Brosnan
- Wedding Dress: Aibheil, Adare
- Bridesmaids dresses: Dresscode
- Shoes: Dune
- Flowers: Appassionata and Joe Duffy & Sons Smithfield Market
- Groomsmen suits: Paul Costello @ House of Fraser
- Birdcage veil: Kathy Enright Millinery
- Car: VW Beetle
- Stationery: Invitations were homemade by the Bride and Groom
- Make Up & Hair: Valerie Roe from Cowboys and Angels
- Wedding Bands: Sax and the City
- Ceremony Music: Miller string Quarter with soloist Matthew Gilsenan.
- Caterers: Adare Farm
- Chair and Cake stand hire: Grace & Saviour
- Crockery, Tables, Glasses & Linen Hire: Shaw’s of Belfast
