From the moment David proposed, Anne and David knew they wanted an unassuming, low key wedding that would be great craic, with no unnecessary crazy spending. Deciding on a city centre wedding, and prioritising what really mattered (no favours, but wonderful cakes, no paper invitations, but an amazing band) Anne, David and their 83 guests achieved just that. Elisha Clarke was on hand to capture the day perfectly..
Not usually associated with romance (or at least a long lasting romance!) Anne and David met at music festival Oxegen. "We were gone past the age of tenting it, so a gang of us rented a campervan and went ‘posh camping’. He was the campervan driver! I was given the heads up from a friend that he was the ‘rugged’ sort and that I might be interested. She also said as he was a quiet kind of guy and I might need to make the first move… so I did. He liked a lot of the same music as I did, whereas the others in the group wanted to see different bands so it was easy to spend time together. The only problem was David was all set to go travelling for a year to Australia and New Zealand a few weeks after we met… Having given up his job to go and the tickets booked off he left as planned but he only lasted 3 months before he came back. He made sure I was still interested by writing to me every week while he was away, updating me with funny anecdotes about his travels and drawing little comic strips about fun times we shared before he left. It worked a treat."
Long distance became a bit of a theme for Anne and David. After David came home from Australia, and they'd been together a while, both Anne and David moved to Singapore for almost 2 years. After the 2 years David returned to Ireland, but Anne stayed on working. The day after Anne got home David arranged a romantic weekend away and planned a picnic to have for the journey down. "We stopped at Glendalough and when I unfolded the picnic blanket he had written “Will you marry me?” in pretty gold paint. He had the ring down his sock! He chose the ring himself, in fairness he probably has better taste than I have and he has a good idea of what I like - his craft and creative skills extend to choosing great pieces of jewellery fortunately! It was really unexpected at that time as I was only just back from Singapore - any later I might have suspected! We toasted ourselves with beers and kept it to ourselves for the weekend…"
Quite a casual pair, Anne and David wanted to keep their wedding very low key and relaxed. They narrowed down the guestlist to under 100, and really prioritised what they needed and what they didn't. Even their invites were effortless as they used Paperless Post email invitations with everyone RSVPing online.
"It was a relatively small wedding of 83 guests, as small as we could get away with considering I come from an immediate family of 10. We kept the vibe intimate, relaxed and fun! It was a bit of a mix match of things we like I suppose, both traditional and quirky, vintage and bright colours – a party kind of feel."
The ceremony was held at Newman University Church, and as Anne used to sing when she was younger, music played a huge part. Both friends and the Clarendon Street Choir contributed. "I am so lucky to have lots of family and friends who are professional musicians- they were amazing, arranging some of our favourite pieces of music for the unlikely mix of instruments that we had amongst us and serenading us throughout the ceremony. Seeing their smiling faces and hearing the beautiful music it was really hard not to be an emotional wreck through it all! We also had singers from the amazing choir of St Theresa’s church in Clarendon street. I used to sing as youngster with some of the members of this choir and they were outstanding during the ceremony. They sang some of the mass in latin which really added to our ceremony. The music and ceremony was incredibly special."
Believe it or not Anne found her amazing GEMY Couture dress on Done Deal! Even more unbelievably, Anne had spotted the dress in a magazine weeks before and thought it would be the perfect one for her. The dress, as you can see, was in pristine condition so all Anne had to was get it slightly taken up at Fitz tailors and alterations on Drury Street. Her fab shoes were another bargain online find, this time on Amazon.
Keeping with the thrifty theme, Anne and David decided against a wedding car and instead walked from the ceremony to their stout reception at The Library Bar in The Central Hotel, followed by an even shorter walk to dinner and dancing at Fallon & Byrne.
For the reception Anne and David kept things simple, with the main focus on the food and flowers, which were put together by the brilliant Olivier at Les Fleurs. "Olivier is a wonderful florist, so creative and knowledgeable about flowers. He really listened to us and created some amazing pieces for us. Onlookers on the street even came up to us to ask where we got our flowers on the day. He really cares about what he does and the results really reflect that."
As a sentimental touch Anne had subtle baby pink streaks added to her hair for the day, a nod to the day when she met David at oxygen, with dyed pink hair.
A DIY groom David fashioned a rose out of old music paper, which Olivier at Les Fleur then worked into the boutonnière. If you (or your groom) are looking for some fun boutonnière options be sure to check out our 16 Alternative Boutonnieres for Grooms post.
Anne and David both love food, and are regular diners at Fallon & Byrne, so it was a natural choice for their city centre reception. (Not to mention a great spot for some cool wedding portraits by Elisha Clarke.) "Our photographer Elisha was outstanding. She really made our day. I couldn’t have imagined our photos turning out as wonderful as they did. She makes us look far cooler than we actually are! It was really important to us that we got lots of candid shots and that there wasn’t a big camera clicking in our face all day. Elisha has a lovely unassuming manner and unbelievably subtle given the amount of photos she took that I have no recollection of her taking! Couldn’t recommend her highly enough."
If you're in the middle of planning, and especially if you're starting to get a little stressed, Anne and David have some helpful words of advice. "Try not to get overwhelmed by it all. Stick to your guns and do what suits you. Most weddings follow a certain formula, which is a great starting point but it shouldn’t dictate the day. There were ‘traditions’ and notions about weddings that I had never heard of up until getting engaged… some of them sound quite sensible but others are downright bizarre! Ignore anything that doesn’t make sense! Other practical things - make sure you eat the morning of your wedding even if you REALLY don’t feel like it. You will be starving once you get over the nerves…"
For their honeymoon Anne and David flew to Zurich and thhen took the scenic train route over the alps to St Moritz, where they stayed for a day before continuing the train journey down into Northern Italy. Huge congratulations to you both, and thank you so much for sharing your beautiful day with us!
A big thank you also goes to Elisha Clarke for sharing her wonderful work with us, to see more of Elisha's work pop on over to www.elishaclarke.com
