At the beautiful Ballymagarvey Village.

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Together for 12 years, it was no huge surprise to family and friends when Olivia and Alan got engaged - the biggest surprise was when they found out they were expecting a gorgeous daughter, Ava. Olivia, Alan and Ava celebrated their charming family wedding at the amazing Ballymagarvey Village with lots of pretty pink details and an intimate humanist ceremony. Elaine Barker and Emma Russell captured all the prettiness, which I just know you will adore...

Ballymagarvey wedding, Elaine Barker Photography // onefabday.com

Olivia and Alan met at a job interview, where they both got the job. Olivia explains... We are together 12 years. We met in May 2004 when we were both going for an interview as fitness instructors. We both got the job! We became good friends working together and finally decided to become ‘an item’ at a work Christmas party. Alan always says it was me who made the first move but it was definitely him.

After being together for such a long time, Olivia and Alan were often subjected to the usual wedding bells comments from family and friends. Even still, when Alan proposed while on holiday in Portugal it was a surprise to Olivia. She tells us... So to pop the question, Alan got his friend (the best man) to take photos in 4 of our favourite locations each of him holding a board with the words that read ‘Will’ ‘you’ ‘marry’ ‘me'. He hid the frame with the pics in his suitcase to take on holidays, but in true airport fashion the suitcase was overweight and I tried to get at his bag to take some of the items out….you can imagine his pure panic trying to keep me away from the bag he was sweating and I couldn’t understand why! After some words were exchanged I agreed that we would just pay the overweight charges and forget about it.

Olivia continues... Fast forward to the second day and Alan had made big plans to go to our favourite restaurant, have a nice dinner and come back to the apartment and ask me the big question with the frame, however, I decided to go for a swim before getting ready to go out. When I got back to the apartment after my swim I looked in the mirror and my hair was bright green….The pools water had turned my freshly dyed blonde hair totally green! I was freaking out and didn’t want to leave the apartment so Alan thought to himself, there is only one thing to do to turn this disaster around he went and got the frame, came into me sitting on the couch so upset and handed me the frame. It took me a couple minutes to catch onto what was happening but of course, I was more than happy to go out that night to celebrate - green hair and everything.

Not long after Alan proposed Olivia got a second happy surprise - she was pregnant with their gorgeous daughter Ava.

The family of three made things official at Ballymagravey Village - where both the ceremony and reception party were held. Olivia explains what made it the perfect venue for them and their daughter... It was important for us to have a venue where it was just us and our guests there. We wanted to feel at home but yet have the aspect of luxury and feeling of being looked after. It was also important to us that the venue was ‘child-friendly’ and welcoming of our daughter. Ballymagarvey ticked all of those boxes and as soon as we walked in to view the venue we just knew it was the one. The staff were amazing, especially our wedding planner Eimear Jordan, who really went above and beyond over the year leading up to the day. There is honestly not one thing I could say to fault the venue. Our guests were equally as complimentary about all aspects, especially the friendliness of the staff.

With Ava in mind, Olivia and Alan chose to have an informal humanist ceremony with poems read by friends and family and lots of giggles from Ava, and Olivia and Alan's nephews and nieces.

Olivia's dad thoughtfully made a thumbprint tree for the reception, which everyone inked their thumbs on in different colours. The print now hangs in Olivia and Alan's home and acts as a reminder of the day. Such a simple and thoughtful little gesture.

How cute is little Ava and her mini bouquet...

To end the night Olivia, Alan and guests danced under the twinkling lights of Ballymagravey to wedding band & DJ The Panoramics. After, Olivia and Alan brought Ava to Portugal, followed by a trip to London.

Olivia offers some wedding planning advice... Our advice is probably very typical as so many people said it to me prior to the wedding day. On the day some things may not go as you plan no matter how well organised you are, there are things out of your control and you just have to let that go and enjoy the day as it goes by very quickly.

Huge congratulations to you both, and to little Ava too, and thank you so much for sharing your wedding day with us all. A big thank you also goes to Elaine Barker and Emma Russell for sharing their work with us. To see more from Elaine Barker visit www.elainebarkerphotography.com and to see more from Emma Russell pop over to www.emmarussellphotography.ie