Awash with touches of gold and plenty of laughter, our real wedding couple Cara and Edwin exchanged vows in the spectacular Ballybeg House in Co. Wicklow. In the surrounds of the charming country home, the couple's special day featured a joy-filled ceremony with Irish comedian Tony Cantwell acting as celebrant and fabulous red velvet bridesmaid dresses. Wonderfully captured by Keith Gordon Photography, check out Cara and Edwin's colourful celebration below!
Before diving head first in the details of their fabulous special day, let's get to know the happy couple a bit more! After matching on Tinder, Ed who you might recognise from hit TV show Bridget and Eamon, stalked Cara on Instagram and immediately blew his cool by telling her what he had done. He told her that they had stand-up comedian, Tony Cantwell and his wife Terri as friends in common. Cara checked with Terri that Ed wasn’t a lunatic, and she still has Terri's voice message saying, “yeah… nice guy,” while Tony shrieked, “Ed's the best, marry him!" in the background. And as it turns out, she did just that!
Fast forward to their sweet engagement story: "It was pretty clear to us both from our first date that there was something really special between us - in fact on our second date, I introduced Ed to my brothers and their wives!" They were together about four months when lockdown hit on a holiday to Cara's godparents in Waterford. As they were walking along the cliffs at sunset laughing happily, Ed dropped to one knee, and it was the perfect moment.
Sharing a lovely first look before her ceremony, our radiant bride wore a chic Mikaella gown paired with an embellished tulle cape. To complete her look, Cara wore a pair of metallic vintage boots that she found in a charity shop, a statement Kyna Maree gold feather crown headpiece, Inné jewellery and a colourful bouquet of crocosmia and bright pink roses. Alongside the stylish bride, dapper groom Edwin injected a pop of colour into his own ensemble with a warm-toned velvet tux jacket which picked up the gold accents wonderfully.
Surrounded by the historic grounds of Ballybeg House, Cara and Edwin tied the knot in the venue's rustic, stone-walled Ayres Ceremony Room: "We knew as soon as saw Ballybeg that we loved it, but chatting to the wonderful Paddy O’Toole who owns the property was the icing on the cake. It’s such a unique place with an incredible history and Paddy clearly takes great joy in sharing it with people for what will hopefully be one of the best days of their lives!"
When it came to the decision of who should marry the couple, Cara and Edwin had only one person in mind: "Tony Cantwell set us up on a blind date and was the only choice to marry us. His ceremony was beautiful and filled with love and joy - exactly what we wanted."
Music played an important role in the couple's ceremony, with Ed's friend Andrea Farrell singing Ellie Goulding's How Long Will I Love You as Cara walked down the aisle, before ending with a "loud and boisterous rendition" of The Beatles' All You Need is Love as the ceremony wrapped up with everyone joining in. The couple included a reading of All I Know About Love by Neil Gaiman, which was their favourite ceremony reading of the day.
Cara and Edwin had this advice for any couple's embarking on their own wedding planning journey: "Get great people who love what they do to guide you and you won’t need to stress about any details knowing it is all handled."
"We had to move the date of our wedding a few times, then Cara's beloved mum died unexpectedly, and we got pregnant with our son Luke, so having a big celebration with everyone we loved was so important to us. We are both really relaxed people and completey trusted Tee Corkish our wedding coordinator, so we didn’t sweat any of the details. The only things we felt strongly about was that everyone knew how much we appreciated them being there to celebrate with us and that the food and wine was delicious!"
The couple chose photographer Keith Gordon to capture their special day in all its glory: "Having Keith at our wedding was like having another really funny friend with a camera. He was so organised, knew exactly what shots he wanted and worked so quickly to get them."
How fabulous are Cara's bridesmaids in their draped deep red velvet gowns?
Describing their October day as "very chilled and a bit quirky" like the couple, Cara and Edwin's reception went on to include a first dance to Taylor Swift's Lover and plenty of speeches: "Ed and most of his friends are comedians so it was a particularly funny affair." After their busy wedding festivities, the couple jetted off to Malta for two weeks for their well-deserved honeymoon.
A very special thank you to Cara, Edwin and Keith Gordan Photography for sharing this magical Ballybeg House wedding with One Fab Day. There are also plenty more gorgeous photos from their stunning special day to check out in the gallery below!
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