After sharing Amanda & Gareth's wedding video, we craved to see more from their big day and learn more about this fun-loving couple! So, today we're delighted to share more from their (pre-Covid) wedding day all captured by Wild Things Wed. Festival lovers Amanda & Gareth chose a fabulous glitz and glamour theme which featured lots of bang-on-trend elements such as dried flowers, hanging floral installations and metallic touches, which looked amazing dotted throughout their ceremony and reception at Ballymagarvey Village. As the couple are big music fans, their day was also filled to the brim with festival style details! It’ll take you no time to fall in love with this epic day, just like we have!
Bride Amanda is Dublin born and bred, with parents from Vietnam and Hong Kong, and groom Gareth hails from Dungannon in Co. Tyrone.
The pair are both now based in Dublin - Gareth moved there from Belfast to live with Amanda after less than 6 months of dating! When you know, you know, am I right?! Amanda tells us that they first met at Glastonbury in 2011. "Gareth was a music producer and recording artist in an Electronic Dance Act called The Japanese Popstars. He’s travelled the world several times over, gigging at clubs and festivals all across the US, Europe, Asia, Australia etc. He’s played Glastonbury a few times and as fate would have it - Gareth was playing at Glastonbury 2011. In a muddy field, full of 220,000 people, we crossed muddy paths! Gareth was flanked by his bandmates, manager and agent, who were all on the way to see The Chemical Brothers play the Main Dance Stage, when he ran into me and my best friend Maura, wearing full-length '80s wedding dresses (purchased that morning on site), complete with veils, charging in the opposite direction. Given that we couldn’t see, we quite literally bumped head first into the lads!"
Amanda adds, "If you hear this story from me, you’ll be told it was serendipity (c’mon, I met him while wearing a wedding dress!) If you hear this story from Gareth, you’ll be told that I was out husband-hunting!"
The couple got engaged on Christmas Eve 2014 after coming home to spend time with family and friends for the festive period. "At the time, we were actually living in London and we would always come home to spend time with our families at Christmas. He’s told me he had originally planned to do it on one of our holidays but he wanted us to be able to share the good news and celebrate with our families in person, which I love."
Amanda had no idea the proposal was coming and almost scuppered all Gareth's plans! "We always make sure we have drinks and lunch in The Shelbourne every year at Christmas together - it’s so festive and we love it there. So he booked lunch there for 12pm and had planned on proposing there. Since we actually lived in London at the time, coming home at Christmas meant serious socialising with friends, and, despite Gareth’s best efforts to get me to go home early, I stayed out the night before until the bars closed resulting in an extremely hungover version of myself. Unable to get myself together for 12pm, we arrived in town having missed our lunch reservations and, unbeknownst to me, this was the beginning of Gareth trying to nervously come up with alternative plans! I wasn’t very helpful, as you can imagine. He suggested we walked through St Stephens Green which I immediately knocked down, as I was wearing heels. He suggested taking a horse and cart (yep, would have been cute!) but I knocked that down too, telling him it was cold!"
"Christmas Eve lunch is impossible as everywhere is always booked but we were lucky and managed to get a table in Peploe’s," she continues. "We got some champagne and I was just chatting non stop to Gareth (who was a bag of nerves after I ruined all his planning), when he asked me to be quiet for one minute. Obviously, I was confused and then he got up, came around to me and got down on one knee! I couldn’t speak! Of course I said yes, but I literally was so surprised I couldn’t eat, drink or speak afterwards for about an hour! We ended up meeting some friends for the usual Christmas Eve quick drink and it was strange having to keep it secret (we wanted to tell our family first). We had dinner with my family that evening and shared the good news, and then off to Gareth’s family in Dungannon the next day to surprise them on Christmas Day. It was so great to be able to be with our families and share the news."
When it came to planning their day, the couple's top priorities were, "our wedding outfits, venue, food (had to be somewhere with delicious food as we both love food!), photographer and videographer (memories are so important). We wanted the wedding to be fun, fabulous and modern. We just wanted it to scream our personalities and emulate us. There was a huge emphasis on fun and togetherness - our friends and families from both sides welcomed each other and it was so nice to see everyone really mixing with intention rather than staying in groups."
The couple spent the morning of the wedding getting with their bridal party in the lavish Iveagh Garden Hotel penthouse. For wedding day glam, Amanda's super talented sister Judy did a gorgeous glow-y bridal look with bronze smoky eyes and light peach lips, and her hairstylist created a sleek and wavy half up pony tail style, inspired by JLo! Her look was finished with a showstopper bridal crown and statement earrings by Irish Designer Finu.
Before joining their guests, the couple did a first look and took some portraits around the streets of Dublin, as well as at their pal's Georgian home with photographer Caroline from Wild Things Wed. "We love Dublin City so much, and wanted to take pics in the heart of the city, where we spend so much our time." Amanda says. "After searching for wedding photographers, I finally found the absolutely incredible Caroline from Wild Things Wed, she was the first wedding supplier I secured. Her aesthetic is right up my street and when we met for a coffee, we clicked straight away! She’s fun, personable, really wants to know all about your vision and then, she makes it happen."
The perfect venue for this pair was Ballymagarvey Village. Amanda tells us that, after attending weddings there as guests, the couple knew they wanted it to be their venue. "Ballymagarvey Village is a dream venue. It’s so special! All the twinkly lights in the driveway on the trees, the open “kitchen-like” area where the grazing plates were, it felt like you were just in someone’s home and gave me all the cosy feels. The tiny snug where you could grab drink added so much character and then when you walked into the dining hall - it is just beautiful. Two other things stood out - the food (it’s still the best wedding food I’ve ever had in a venue in Ireland and I’m such a foodie!) and the incredible warmth of the staff. When we went to do our viewing in Ballymagarvey Village for our own wedding almost 10 years later, there were some nice changes but ultimately the feeling was still the same. The venue oozes magic, the staff are so warm and caring and the food was outstanding. A real compliment to the food quality and standard there is that several of my guests went out of their way to comment on the food as the best wedding food they’ve ever had."
Amanda and Gareth choose dried flowers to use throughout the day. "I invested in gorgeous dried flower bouquets for myself and my bridesmaids, and boutonnieres for the groomsmen and parents of the wedding party. I got to keep my bridal bouquet forever and pop into a vase in my house!"
This couple tell us their best wedding planning advice is to "prioritise what is important to you as a couple and then don’t sweat the small stuff!", and we are here for their wisdom! They add, "When you plan your wedding there are a lot of things you get told you 'have to do' or 'have to have' at wedding. But that’s not true. Throw out the rule book and do whatever the hell you and your partner want! Look at your budget and allocate the bulk of it to your top 5 most important items, then work around that and just cut the stuff that’s not important to you. Gareth and I focused on our top 5 which were; wedding outfits, venue, food, photographer and videographer."
It's official!
Okay, it's time to discuss this epic bridal look! Amanda stunned in an embellished MillaNova wedding gown which featured a subtle, soft peach underskirt. To add in some extra personality, she accessorised with a silver sequined and ostrich feathered cape, the dreamiest silk head-dress and to die-for-gold Dolce & Gabbana shoes. "I love fashion and enjoy being fashion-forward and standing out from the crowd so brought my passion and knowledge in those areas to our wedding look. Anyone who knows me and my personal style will tell you I’m a sucker for sequins, sparkles, feathers, headpieces… basically everything fabulous and extra!"
Gareth also wowed in his wedding day attire, which consisted of a classic, yet modern tux, an oversized velvet bowtie and a velvet turquoise blazer. The bridesmaids' gold sequin bandeau jumpsuits were a clever ASOS find.
Colhoun Creation's is the cake designer responsible for these delectable delights, which Amanda tells us were, "not just pretty to look at, truly delicious too!"
After all the festivities, the pair headed off first class to Zanzibar on honeymoon, which they would highly recommend. "We treated ourselves to first class flights with British Airways and it was fab. We were spoiled from start to finish with endless champagne, delicious three-course meals, gorgeous Matthew Williamson goodies and PJs, it was a long-haul experience we’ll always remember - the cabin crew even gifted us a bottle of champagne and lovely card when we disembarked." The lucky ducks!
The couple surprised their guests with a 360 video booth, which they tell us went down a treat! "Our guests all walked away with multiple fun live 360 selfie video clips, which they could share on social media. It was a super cool and a modern update on the classic photo booth!"
That's a wrap on Amanda and Gareth's gorgeous day! We have to say a huge thank you to the couple for letting us take a peek into their big day, and to Wild Things Wed for providing the beautiful imagery! There are lots more images in the gallery below so be sure to click through for a look.
