Mix two graphic designers, a 14th century abbey, the eclectic and original Huntington castle, super weather and a dash of creativity together and you come up with a One Fab Day!

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Mix two graphic designers, a 14th century abbey, an eclectic and original castle, super weather and a dash of creativity together and you come up with one fab day. From the very beginning Ciara and Charles focussed on what was important - a reflection of their personal style and a day that their guests truly enjoyed. As they said themselves "we wanted to strip away the 'formality' of weddings and instead focus on the times where our guests could mingle" and what better location than the beautifully eclectic Huntington Castle with its 600 year old yew walk where they could dine in style before dancing the night away. This is one special wedding, and we're delighted that Eric of Savo Photography shared it with us today.

So before it all kicks off, we must hear how it all began... "Charles and I met in college. We were both in the same class studying Industrial Design in IT Carlow but it wasn't until the end of third year that we took a shine to each other. I lived in Carlow and Charles lived in Cobh so for our first date we met halfway and we each got the bus to Waterford. It was a sunny June 1st when Charles greeted me with a yellow rose and it was only apt that 8 years later we would choose this as our wedding date."

Over to Charles for the proposal story, which is only fair really, as he was the one who had to steel his nerve..."For a long time I knew I wanted to marry Ciara and I wanted to pick a day to pop the question that we'd always remember. Instead of picking New Year, or Christmas, I picked the day that Ciara ran her first marathon. I had planned to ask her as soon as she crossed the line but the busy streets meant that we didn't get to meet up so I waited until we were home and then I asked her when she was too tired to put up a fight and say no!" I'm sure that was not the case Charles! If these pictures are anything to judge by, you made her the happiest lady in the world!

The couple were married in the grounds of Huntington Castle in the ruins of the 14th Century Abbey just on front of the main door. This was a choice the couple considered very carefully and planned to perfection... "We wanted a non-religous wedding ceremony, and to be legally married, we had a civil ceremony the week before-hand (just us and our witnesses). With all the legal stuff out of the way, this allowed us to have a truly personal and unique ceremony. We asked our close friend Frank to officiate over the ceremony and our friends Footzy, Emer, and Kingsley to play the music. We wanted it to be personal, so we sat facing our guests and passed the wedding rings around so all of our family and friends could bless or make a wish for our future together."

Huntington is an unusual choice of venue, not many couples have been married there since we first featured the venue in our secret venues around Ireland post. So we were curious to find out how Ciara and Charles found it..." First we visited the hotels that we considered to be the best in our local area. We then realised that a hotel wedding was not for us as none of the hotels were willing to do things our way and always wanted us to fit into a pre-planned package. After some research we found a number of country houses and castles and visited each one and met with the owners to discuss how we envisaged for our day. In general we found the owners of these premises to be much more open-minded and creative. Once we visited Huntington Castle, we knew immediately it was the perfect venue for us. We found Alex, the owner, to be completely on our wave-length and just as enthusiastic as we were to make our day completely unique. As soon as he suggested dining al fresco, we were hooked!"

The moment we were shown the Yew Walk (a line of 120 yew trees which bend over to form an arch and thought to be the oldest Yew Walk in Europe at over 600 years old) we knew we had to use them! We dined under the Yew Walk, with platters of barbequed lamb and mackeral, breads, and summer salads. All finished off with lemon sponge wedding cake served on vintage china.

As the couple have a shared love of wine, and even worked together in O'Briens wine shop in Carlow for a time, they collected old wine boxes from their time there and made them into centrepieces which held beautiful floral arrangements made by their Best Man's mum (always great to rope in a few talented friends!)

We wanted to give our guests a wedding favour that would really remind them of the day. We screen-printed tea-towels from IKEA with a deers head (our running theme) and our wedding date and our guests used them as napkins. As our guests would be eating outside, we wanted to make sure they wouldn't get cold. We bought blankets from IKEA and attached our own custom tag (again with our deer symbol and date).

What advice would you give to brides and grooms planning their day? Have your speeches before the meal, we did and we were so happy. It meant we could both really enjoy our wedding meal without being nervous throughout! A great tip I heard before I was married was to spend time on the day with your husband. All too often your friends will produce their photos from the day and you will be in it without your partner as you've been apart from each other for most of it. Make the effort to spend a lot of the day together, you'll be pleased in the end.

All the Wedding Details

Venue: Huntington Castle
Wedding Dress: Ronald Joyce/Victoria Jane Style 17407 from Amarra Bridal Boutique
Shoes: Next
Groom’s suit: asos.com
Best man's suit: Jacamo.ie.
Accessories: Bespoke Stag Boutonnaire from Sea of Bees Jewelry