Today I am really excited to show you this Real Wedding for two reasons. Firstly it’s my first real wedding post for One Fab Day as a guest blogger (yeah!) but more importantly, I get to show off the stunning photos from the talented Erica Irvine of the gorgeous, autumnal wedding of one of my oldest and dearest friends Patrick and his equally fabulous wife Karen.

This wedding was one that blew me away. Karen (and Karen alone I suspect!) put a huge amount of effort into planning each and every aspect of the day, from the stylish vintage tea party in the church hall after the service to the framed photograph of each and every guest at the wedding and it was well worth it judging by all the guests’ great reactions to the attention to minute detail.

Karen carefully chose a beautiful, elegant, modern Carolina Herrera gown which was a perfect fit for their classic elegant wedding and showed off her fantastic figure.

Patrick surprised Karen with a gorgeous gift on the morning of the Big Day - a thoughtful book with memories of their relationship and his hopes for their future together...how cute! Take note H2Bs!

Karen hired her stunning head piece, Acacia 2 by Jenny Packham, from Elegant Wedding Creations which perfectly complimented the beautiful embellishment on her wedding gown.  I love the idea of wearing a head piece as an alternative to a veil as it can be worn into the wee hours to maintain a glamorous look for the entire day.

How cute are these two blondies all loved up at the altar! What a beautiful intimate moment captured fantastically by Erica.

Knowing the amazing effort that Karen put into planning their big day, I asked her what her favourite moment was…

“Oh it’s very hard to pick just one moment, we were on such a high the whole day.  The Church service was probably our favourite part from arriving with my Dad, to walking down the aisle and seeing all my friends and family in the Church and Patrick at the top (awhh..)  I came down the aisle to the Goo Goo Dolls song Iris which is Patrick’s favourite song and that was a surprise to him as I had told him I was coming in to the Portuguese Love Theme.  We both really enjoyed the service.  It was a protestant church with my minister but we also had our good friend Tony Coote share the service which was lovely and meant a lot to us.  The music was beautiful and my friend Lesley who is an incredible singer sang a Leonard Coen song which we absolutely love called “If it be your will” and then two other friends sang during the signing of the register.  Other friends did readings and prayers and it was so nice to have our friends take part in service.

Karen explained how she decided on her colour scheme...

"I ended up getting black bridesmaid dresses just because Joanne, one of my bridesmaids and myself spotted the dresses in Reiss sale in January way before I had picked my dress, so the monochrome colour scheme came from there.  I decided it needed a splash of colour so I went for colourful flowers to brighten it up plus I’m a bit of a girlie girl so love pink!”

I asked Karen if she had a visual theme or central idea for their wedding, and if so what inspired it?

“Birdcages! I just always liked them and thought they invoked a vintage and romantic vibe. I love vintage things so they were true to my style." Karen used birdcages filled with flowers in the church windows and on the tables at the reception and use a large one for the table plan, carrying the theme through from the wedding stationery.

Yes, the bridesmaids sure are hot...and the groomsmen don't look too bad either!

The underlying theme of the wedding was a little unusual — cross-border! Karen, an Omagh native met Limerick man Patrick while they were both studying medicine in Dublin. Their love brought them around the world and back again to settle in Sligo.  When the two got engaged in Chicago, they set upon planning a North meets South wedding.  It was really important to Karen to get married in her local church, the gorgeous Lislimnaghan Parish Church, Omagh, Co. Tyrone but they both wanted a seriously fun Irish shin dig for the reception and where better to scoot off to but across the border to Co Monaghan for a stunning reception and rip roaring party at Castle Leslie.  Karen used this cross-border theme to make a bit of fun. Taking inspiration from Will & Kate bunting she bought in London early last year which she decorated their house with leading up to the royal nuptials, Karen created union jacks and tricolour bunting with pictures of herself and Patrick as a nod to their cross border/religion marriage!

This portrait is simply stunning and a sure fire way of convincing most of you brides-to-be to decide on an autumn date. The natural rustic colours outdoors make for truly stunning wedding photos.

Although I’ve known Patrick since I was 7 years old, I thought I better ask the bride for the love story to get some real detail…

“We met in our mutual friend Emer’s apartment in Dublin at a Christmas Party in 2004.  She had been telling each of us separately for few years that we would be good together but we had never met.  That night we chatted for a while but nothing more happened despite ending the night in Leggs! (Slow mover Paddy!)  The next week we met in Turks Head on a medicine fundraising night and Patrick had to work on the door for a bit and told me not to leave until he got back. I tried to play it cool but I hung around and he came back and asked me to dance! We’ve been together ever since but we did spent year apart when I was in New Zealand and Australia.  Patrick then joined me in Perth in July 2007 and we spent 6 months there, then 6 months travelling and moved back home together.”

At the time I got a text from Patrick to break the news about their engagement and was dying to hear the gory details from him but needless to say, they were sparse! I asked Karen how the proposal really went…

“We went on a trip to the States to visit Patrick’s brother Tommie in Chicago. I first thought something was up when we checked into the hotel and the receptionist confirmed that we were upgrading to a suite, to which I said we weren’t but Patrick said he had, which I thought was strange!  (How sweet!) But then nothing happened for the next two days so I was thrown off the scent a bit until our last night he said he had booked dinner somewhere (again strange as I always book places for dinner!).  I was late back to hotel as I had been shopping so I didn’t have time to shower or glam it up before going out!  So we went to this little fondue restaurant and the waitress was all over us and seemed really annoyed that another waitress had given away the private little booth Patrick had reserved for us so I was again a little suspicious that maybe he would propose here but again he didn’t!  Then on way back to hotel he asked the taxi driver to stop at the Bean. After having a quick (and probably nervous for Patrick!) look around, he pulled me away over to the side where no one was and finally produced a fake ring and asked me to marry him.  I told him to get down on one knee and do it properly!  I was really chuffed he had rang my Dad the day before and I know that meant a lot to my Dad.  We enjoyed the next few days shopping for ring in Chicago!”

Karen explained that they decided to have a fancy dress photo booth as they are both well known for loving fancy dress.  Karen noticed no one really used the photo booth properly but everyone had great craic wearing the fancy dress stuff on the dance floor anyway!  This proves the point that there's no need to stress if things don't go to plan so don't sweat the small stuff - if people are having a good time that's all the counts.

I ADORE these black and white pictures of the first dance... they look like they are straight out of a beautiful old Hollywood movie.

Finally, I asked Karen what advice she would give to brides and grooms planning their day...

“Be organised well in advance so you have as little to do as possible in last week and you can enjoy the excitement of the run up to the day.  On the day relax and don’t worry if things don’t go as planned as no-one else will notice, just enjoy the day and spend time with your guests and each other as it goes way too fast.  It really was the best day of our lives and I am so glad we were able to relax and have the craic.”

A huge thank you to Karen & Patrick for sharing their special day with us and to the lovely Erica Irvine for sharing her photos and I can vouch that it was even more beautiful and fun a day than even these gorgeous pictures could capture…

All the Wedding Details

Dress: Willow Moon

Shoes: Badgley Mischka

Bridesmaids dresses: Reiss

Bridesmaid Shoes: Bourne bought on Amazon

Bouquets: Floral Temptations

Groom: Ted Baker 

Groomsmen’s suits: Magee

Accessories: Bride — Hairpiece Acacia 2 by Jenny Packham, hired from www.elegantweddingcreations.co.uk.

Bracelet bought from Vintage Wedding Fair, London.

Bridesmaids jewellery from Parchment and Pearls

Fur stole: Vintage Wedding Fair, London

Cake: Bride’s Aunt Elizabeth Finlay

Cars: Glendale Limousines

Wedding Favours: Donation to STOP charity in lieu of favours

Stationery: Gold Link Stationery

Make-up: Paddy McGurgan

Hair: Couture Hair

Flowers: Austin Strong, friend of family.