Prepare to swoon ladies, today's gorgeous wedding features a beautiful bride, a very handsome groom and an amazing garden wedding, and for those of you dubious about Irish weather and outdoor weddings, it rained on the day, and it still looked and felt fabulous! Another reason to fall in love with this wedding - the proposal story is epic. Like something from The Notebook. Love, love, love. I bring you Susi and Sepp's Garden Wedding by Carmen & Ingo...
We actually met first in 1998 when he was 15 and I was 17. My best friend and his best friend started dating and introduced us. When I first met him I thought that boy is way too young but he somehow seduced me and we became a couple our two best friends are not together anymore but are still our and each others best friends and were our best man and maid of honour.
We have a certain place at a lake in our area where we always go (his parents own a piece of land there) so we spent a Saturday in early summer there. We had a picnic first and then took a rowboat and an air mattress and went out on the lake. When we got back we passed a wooden platform on the waterfront which was decorated with pillows, roses, balloons etc, all lovey-dovey and very romantic. I just said "ohhh look, someone is getting a proposal!"
As my boyfriend rowed closer I just told him to go on, not to disturb whoever was planning something there. But he just kept rowing and I then realized that there were also clothes on the platform. I remember saying "oh look, the girl has he same dress I have!" without even realizing what was going on. Just when he said “think about that" I finally twigged what was going on!
So we entered the platform, I got a super sweet proposal and we drank a bottle of champagne, all perfect. Of course I asked who helped him, and he said it was our best friends (those who introduced us) but he sent them home because he wanted to be alone with me. Then he said I should get dressed (we were still in our bathing stuff) and we would continue rowing to a restaurant further down the lake to have a romantic dinner.
But when we got closer to our destination I saw my best friend Eva, and then another friend of ours, at some point music started and then I realized that there was a big party going on and everybody waited for us. He had invited all our close family and best friends and they had prepared a big open air potluck dinner with music at the lakeside. It was simply amazing!
And here's the man himself - he might be an incredible softie but he's also super sharp. Wowsers we're swooning over the handsome grooms this week in the office (did you see Aaron on Monday, and of course my little bro Caomhan - have to say that don't I?)
Like an ad for Tom Ford.
Susi is biologist and has a great love of nature so she really wanted something simple, easy, fun with an outdoor feel. They didn’t want a long ceremony, the main aim was to just have a relaxed party with family and friends. So the couple found Die Alte Gartnerei (in English, the old nursery - plant nursery that is). With its beautiful gardens and glasshouses, the location offered the perfect backdrop completely surrounded by nature. While the weather wasn't kind on the day, and it did rain, it didn't really matter in the end, though the original plan was to tie the knot outside, it didn't matter, the ceremony was held inside, but it had a very outdoorsy feel...
The most important thing for the couple was to feel relaxed and that the whole day felt like it was "them" apparently with a little bit if DIY. Well, Susi did anyway! "The most important thing for us was that everybody would have fun and remember the whole event as a big party. It was more about our guests than about us."
How gorgeous is Susi's lace wedding gown? Well if you're thinking you'd like something like it, you're going to have to get sewing. Susi's talented Mother-in-Law created it for her! The two collaborated on the design, they sourced the lace and silk in Paris and she made it by hand. What a wedding DIY project. Not for the fainthearted, but what an amazing gift to welcome Susie to the family.
Design must run in the family, because you probably spotted the fab stationery at the top of the feature, and that was created by Sepp the groom. Must have picked up some talent from his mum, he works professionally as a product designer.
Such a stunning gown...
Whoo hoo! Dinner time!
We had the perfect atmosphere from the beginning. We did not want a big programme of events, no games etc. so we only had one speech held by my dad and a slideshow with pictures of us. It was really special because we've been together for more than 15 years and our best friends have been part of our relationship from the very first day. So you probably can imagine how many pictures, stories etc there are… we also had a sweet video created by our friends, and, best part, we had a flashmob, which actually managed to get all the people to dance that early. Everybody on the dance floor even before dessert was served and people continued dancing until early in the morning. Everybody had fun, just as had wanted.
Susi has some very sage advice "Don’t get stressed out. If you feel you won't can't manage to finish something just skip it. NOBODY will know it's missing. Just do what you wanna do, don’t listen too much to friends and family. Follow your heart, if you don’t like something, don’t do it. And... stay relaxed!"
For their honeymoon, they headed off to the Seychelles, La Digue island, the day after the wedding for a week, it was magic. And as we were writing this before Christmas, they were due to go on a “second honeymoon”, we are traveling to Tanzania to climb Meru mountain, do a self-drive safari and dive with whalesharks in the waters of mafia island. Hope it was amazing guys!
A huge congratulations guys! A big thank you goes to Carmen and Ingo for sharing their work with us at One Fab Day! To see more of their work pop over to blog.carmenandingo.com
The Wedding Details:
- Ceremony: Die Alte Gaertnerei
- Photographer: Carmen and Ingo
- Shoes: Jimmy Choo
- Flowers: Die Alte Gaertnerei
- Accessories: Hacken Viertel
- Cake: Reis Solln
- Make Up & Hair: Phonenix Agentur
- Wedding Bands:Ivan Chevillotte
- Ceremony/Reception Music: : Gabriele Ricci & Benny Bundt
