We love nothing more than to see a couple doing things their own way, which is why we're so enamoured with the gorgeous lovebirds from today's real wedding! Deirdre and Steve threw out the rule book when it came to the bride and groom's party, the speeches and the entertainment, and were left with a perfect, fun-filled and stress-free day at Ballintubbert House and Gardens. If you're currently planning your wedding and wondering whether you can get away with throwing your guests a few curveballs, let these guys be your inspiration! We're also very partial to the DIY elements of their day, which included florals, table plans, desserts and so much more. Ready to see how they changed the game? Let's go!

First though, we've got to share their sweet love story! Deirdre and Steve met at one of Steve's band's gigs in Andrew's Lane Theatre in Dublin. "He asked me what was wrong with my feet which I thought was quite rude!" Deirdre remembers. "I only realised later that my ballet flats hadn’t quite withstood the pretty enthusiastic dancing in the crowd and my feet were covered in sizeable grazes! A few days later I got a message on Bebo (from his band Bebo account, no less!) asking me to go for a drink and I decided to put aside the feet comment. We got on like a house on fire and the rest is history!"

Steve popped the question during a trip to Nice in 2016. "We’d climbed up a hill overlooking the city with stunning views and Steve kept slowing down and smiling at me, saying how gorgeous this place was. I was starving though, and there was a restaurant I wanted to catch for lunch before it closed, so I was like, 'Ah yes, it’s so beautiful... let’s get going!' Little did I know that I was totally scuppering his proposal plans!"

Thankfully, Steve managed to pin Deirdre down long enough to actually propose! "He ended up completely catching me off guard and proposing on the balcony of our apartment that evening. He’d been a bit quiet and pale and I had just said what a pity it would be if he was sick after we’d had these delicious little cakes from an amazing patisserie down the street. Next thing I knew, he was down on one knee!"

Early on in the wedding planning process, Deirdre and Steve prioritised food and music. "We had a string quartet at the ceremony who had such a great variety of pieces in their repertoire. Rather than a traditional wedding band, we had an amazing ska, reggae and Latin band, who got everybody up dancing and really gave the evening that festival feel. Following that, our lovely friend Aoife, who runs Sing Along Social, managed to get us all crowd surfing to ‘Time of My Life’ and reenacting Riverdance!"

Deirdre tied this lovely locket to her bouquet as a way of remembering her dearly-missed Dad. "It was important to us to remember our loved ones," she says. "My Dad loved music and during the ceremony, we had the string quartet play some of his favourite Beatles and Rolling Stones songs, which, for me, was another really special way of including him in our day."

How sweet is Steve’s niece, Caoimhe!? There is genuinely nothing cuter than a baby in a flower crown!

What a breathtakingly beautiful ceremony set-up! This couple were really hands-on with their wedding décor, even arranging their own flowers, but Deirdre admits that they were a little too ambitious about some of the DIY elements of the day. "While I loved designing table numbers and place cards and arranging flowers, I was so grateful for all the help we had, as decorating the marquee took far longer than I’d anticipated. We made a last-minute decision to get our buttonholes made by the florist who grew some of our flowers, rather than do it ourselves. When we were sitting down to make bouquets at 11.30pm the night before, we were pretty glad we’d made that call!"

Deirdre asked her brother and her Mum to walk her up the aisle on the day, and we couldn't be bigger fans of this departure from tradition. "I had my brother as my Man of Honour and both himself and my Mam gave me away," she explains. "The bridesmaids weren’t gender-specific either!" The couple also changed up their speeches. "We didn’t want people to have to sit through a solid hour of speeches, so my speech was before dinner and the rest were afterwards, which seemed to work well."

Deirdre and Steve tell us that they fell in love with Ballintubbert House almost immediately. "On one hand, you have a beautiful, elegant, period house with stunning grounds and hidden gardens and orchards as options for an outdoor ceremony. But on the other hand, it wasn’t stuffy at all, and we could really see ourselves throwing a big, laid-back party with a bit of a festival feel here. The marquee was stunning and the glamping gave people the option to stay on site. We loved the fact that we could have the entire place to ourselves for the weekend and everybody really relaxed into it."

The couple kept their guests in mind throughout the wedding planning process. "When it came to budgeting, our rule of thumb was that if it didn’t help our guests to have a great time, it wasn’t worth stressing about." I love this tip!

Deirdre tells us that one of the biggest lessons they learned during wedding planning was, "If you don’t ask, you’ll never know. We were reluctant to be awkward, but we asked our caterer to provide glass and ceramic containers for canapés rather than disposable plastic ones as they were more environmentally friendly. He was more than happy to oblige and we were glad we did."

Deirdre has a plea for other engaged couples, particularly those planning on having an outdoor ceremony, "Please don’t check the weather as much as I did! I checked the weather on the hour in the week leading up to the wedding, despite knowing that it was totally out of our control. We’d planned to have our ceremony outside and lots of guests were glamping so I was worried it would really change the feel of the day."

Deirdre did indeed wake up to torrential rain that morning, but she managed to stay perfectly calm! "There’s nothing you can do, the to-do list is done and you’re just in it and it’s happening. And, magically, the rain cleared off and we still got to have the ceremony outside, so never say never! The few showers we did have were easily navigated with a few umbrellas and didn’t put a dampener on things at all. As one friend said when I had a bit of a panic the week before, 'Relax, we’re Irish - we know what to do when it rains!'"

The couple really wanted their bridal party members to be comfortable on the day, so they gave them the option of choosing their own outfits. "The bridesmaids decided that we would pick gowns together, all the guys went with wearing their own suits, and everyone looked fantastic on the day!" They certainly did! Those sequin bridesmaids dresses are ASOS finds, by the way!

I can't believe we've made it this far without gushing about Deirdre's Jenny Packham gown from Sharon Hoey. "I made the decision that I would sell my wedding dress after the wedding as it was quite a bit over-budget," she tells us. "Friends have asked whether I’ll be sentimental about it, but I got to wear the dress I loved on the day and it makes sense that another bride will get to enjoy it rather than have it sitting in a box." Deirdre completed the look with a custom-made veil by Wilde by Design. How elegant!

The couple were determined to carve out some quality time with their friends and family members on the big day. "You hear so much about how quickly your wedding day flies by (it’s true!) and how much of it the bride and groom can spend stressing or getting oodles of portraits taken during the drinks reception. That was one of the many reasons documentary-style photography was important to us. Our lovely photographer, Tim, suggested short bursts of taking portraits at quieter times, such as when guests were called for dinner. That meant we got these lovely, calm moments to chat together, as well as the feeling that we really got to soak up as much of the party as we could."

Deirdre has got some really practical advice to pass on to engaged couples. "Try to delegate," she says. "People who kindly offer their help genuinely mean it. Even though it might be hard to resist doing everything yourself so you can make sure it works out the exact way you‘d visualised in your head, it might not get done if you don’t share the load and take people up on their kind offers. We couldn’t have pulled the day off without the help of our amazing friends and family."

The couple decided to keep things casual for their wedding dinner. "In keeping with the relaxed vibe, we had a hog roast, with lots of veggie sides, as I don’t eat meat. Everyone was delighted when the Home Fries van pulled up when the dancing was well underway. We had a taco feast the day after the wedding, which also went down well with those of us in a need of a bit of recovery food!"

I am a huge fan of the couple's room-divider table plan! I love how they used parrot-shaped candles as a colourful stand for the individual table names!

The couple's showstopping cake table included a stunning one-tier wedding cake by Ubh Café, and some delectable desserts made by Deirdre's aunt!

This cake has such a cool, naturalistic vibe about it! We can definitely see couples being inspired by the dried flowers and strawberry drizzle decoration.

In the end, Deirdre and Steve were thrilled with how their day turned out. "Our wedding was so relaxed. It was full of music and laughter from start to finish, and just felt like a big party. In the evening, people were either chatting around the little campfires outside the marquee, or dancing up a storm in the tent. While we put a lot of effort into the planning, the day itself was not in the least bit stressful. The thing we kept saying in the days afterwards was how it was like being in this little love bubble."

The couple waited a few months before heading off to Mexico on honeymoon. "We split our time between Mexico City, Oaxaca, Isla Holbox and Tulum and had the most amazing time. It’s lovely to head off on honeymoon basking in that post-wedding glow, but for us, we were delighted that we hadn’t booked our long-haul trip directly after the wedding. We would have spent the first week napping! Plus, it was great to have something to look forward to after the come-down from planning."

What a beaut of a wedding! Thanks so much to Deirdre and Steve for allowing us to fawn over their big day, and to This Modern Love for sharing the beautiful photographs.