Today's real wedding has a really beautiful atmosphere to it. Dublin couple Jack and Aoife were nervous about the idea of having a small wedding, but in the end, their day was all they'd hoped for, and then some. With the luxurious Temple House in Sligo as their home for the weekend, the couple and their guests were free to relax in the country pile and soak up the historic grounds. On the day itself, they gathered in the garden for speeches, before heading inside for a night of singing and dancing. With glamorous style, minimal fuss and lots of laughter, this one shows small weddings can be big craic! This one was captured beautifully by Wojciech Koza Photography...

Jack tells us about meeting Aoife on New Year’s Eve 2014 at Dice Bar in Dublin. “Aoife was out with her pals, one of whom brought along her friend Triona who happens to be one of my oldest and best friends. I was at home with a few of the lads thinking of celebrating the New Year without going out at all until Triona texted me to say that she was talking to a lovely girl who she thought I might like.”

Unfortunately however, Aoife had decided on “No men in 2015” as her new year's resolution, but that didn’t put Jack off, “Before you know it, myself and the lads were in a cab into Smithfield. A few twirls on the dance floor and shots at the bar and the rest is history,” the groom tells us. “When we got engaged, I asked Triona to be my “Best Person”. We thought it would be appropriate to have Triona beside me on our big day as without her there would have been no big day!”

Aoife carried a beautiful bouquet of pink roses mixed with dainty wildflowers.

Jack popped the question on Christmas morning, but Aoife says, she wasn’t expecting it. “I didn't see it coming at all. I had been quite under the weather and frankly was afraid I was in for a miserable Christmas but it turned out to be the best Christmas of my life.”

The groom-to-be pulled out all the stops with a romantic treasure hunt, “…with poems and gifts to be found throughout the house, in the guise of letters from Santa, before finally leading me up to our converted attic where there was a photo of him holding up a sign asking me to marry him surrounded by the final poem of the day, roses and candles,” describes Aoife. “I couldn't believe it. It was a huge surprise and the best gift ever.” Go Jack! What an incredible way to propose!

The thing I love about intimate weddings is how invested all the guests are - it makes for a more emotional day!

That 'just married' high!

Aoife explains that she was really nervous in the lead-up to the wedding that something would go wrong. “I suppose that is natural but I realise now that I had no reason to be. It was, by far, the greatest day of our lives. We decided to go with quite a small wedding with just our direct families and each of our ten closest friends in attendance. Again we were unsure about this at first but such small numbers really helped the atmosphere on the day and we got to spend time with all of our loved ones.”

Can't. Handle. The emotions.

When it came to figuring out their priorities for their wedding, a stress-free day was high on the list. “We wanted to just enjoy ourselves,” says Jack. "It was also important that our guests enjoy the day too. It was a priority to be surrounded by the people we love in a beautiful setting with good food, drinks flowing and a great party to round it off.”

The couple had their bridesmaid and their best person by their side for their big day.

With its beautiful interiors and idyllic grounds, Temple House ticked a lot of boxes for the couple, “Temple House is incredible. I couldn't recommend it highly enough. It was the first and only venue we viewed,” Jack tells us. "Once we went to view it in January we knew it was the place for us and we tied down a date. There is the ruins of a Knights Templar castle on the grounds, a stunning lake and the place is full of history and character.”

While the beautiful venue needed very little decoration, Aoife tells us lots of the couple’s friends and family chipped in to make their day special, “Jack's best person Triona helped design beautiful table plans using records (Jack's second favourite thing after me!), my friend Elaine made our wedding cake, Jack's brother-in-law drove the wedding car, Jack got to get up and play with the band and rather than having a DJ towards the end of the evening we invited all of our family and friends to join in a sing-song. It was a very intimate and personal wedding which epitomised all that we wanted.”  

The tables were decorated with beautiful wildflowers, each bunch unique to each table. Along with those Bon Jovi records of course!

The couple and their guests made the venue their own for the weekend, “For the two days of the wedding the owner Roderick Percival allowed us the run of the house. It was important to us that ours was the only event on in the venue the day of our wedding”, says Jack. “Aoife has made me promise I will bring her back every year on our anniversary. I have no problem with that!”

Outdoor speeches are more and more popular, and they're a great way to bring your guests together early in the day and bring an informal feel to the celebrations - it works particularly well for smaller weddings.

For Aoife, after the initial neves, the day was everything she hoped it would be “We wanted our wedding day to be about us getting married and celebrating our love and that was exactly what happened.”

The speeches clearly got lots of laughs!

“Relax and enjoy every minute of it,” is Aoife’s top tip for other couples, “The day flies by and I wish I could go back and do it all again. Do it whatever way you want to do it. Any worries or nerves I had in the run up were completely unfounded. Believe everyone who says that it will be the best day of your life”.”

How have we got this far without talking about what a babe Aoife is! Her vintage style wrap gown is so stunning, it's stylish, timeless and glamorous, and was paired perfectly with her blue heels and birdcage veil.

After all the build-up to their big day, this pair enjoyed some well-deserved R&R,  “We went to Sicily and had a great time exploring the ancient sites, enjoying the sunshine and the Italian cuisine,” says Jack. “Hiring a car in Sicily was an experience in itself! We didn't go until a couple of weeks after the wedding which I'd recommend as we were both exhausted after the big day. It is a great place and not too far away. We wanted it to be the most relaxing trip we'd ever have and didn't want to go long haul. I've heard too many stories of people spending half of their honeymoon jet-lagged. That's not how it is supposed to be”. Great advice Jack!

And finally, a great wedding band was a key detail for the groom, and we can see why! “I play a little so I tied down Mark Penny who I used to play with years ago. His band were excellent and knew exactly what we wanted. The night finished with a traditional sing-song where plenty of our guests did a party piece.”

What a wonderful wedding - I say this was a special one to have been a guest at too! Thanks so much to Aoife and Jack for sharing it with us, and of course to Wojciech Koza Photography for sending it our way.