Lots of couples want to structure their day differently to make it more 'them', but aren't quite sure how it will work. Well, let Laura and Tara from today's real wedding at 25 Fitzwilliam Place, show us how it's done! This pair planned a formality-free, pre-pandemic city wedding in Dublin. Stylish, elegant, and romantic, it was very much their day, their way. From having their legal ceremony in advance so the one on the day could be more personal, to hosting a separate evening reception for a larger crowd in a second venue, this organised couple tailored their wedding to make it their own, including their dapper son Tom every step of the way! Olga Hogan Photography documented the day, and we're a little bit in love with the canal-side photo session!

Laura and Tara tell us about their very Dublin first encounter, “Like so many same-sex couples in Dublin, our eyes met across a crowded dance floor in the George! We bonded that night over a late night curry across the road in Charlies and have been inseparable ever since!”

The couple got engaged on Christmas Day, “We were surrounded by our family and it involved some Polaroid photos taken months previously with the help of our nine-year-old son,” says Tara. "Laura was prompted to get moving on the proposal when, in the run up to Christmas, Tom asked, in front of a group of her friends, ‘Eh, when are you engaging Mummy!?’.” Fair play to Tom for getting the show on the road!

The pair describe their wedding day was ‘completely relaxed and full of love!’ “We both got ready together with our ‘bridesmates’ and our family in our home. Once we arrived at the venue we met some of our guests as they arrived to the ceremony and as we were taking our photographs by the canal. It was so nice to feel their excitement at seeing the couple before the ceremony!”

Just your classic pre-ceremony coffee pit-stop!

We love that the couple captured these gorgeous quintessentially Dublin shots ahead of their ceremony.

Both Laura and Tara wanted their day to feel authentically them, from the style to the ceremony. “We had an image in our heads of what this would look like and we kept this front of mind throughout the planning phase. Especially important to Tara was that her outfit was a statement of her and her style. That wouldn’t have been possible without the team at Best Menswear making that happen,” Laura tells us, “We also wanted to make sure that Tom played a big part in our day and we let him choose his part, walking me up the aisle and welcoming the couple into the room before dinner!”

The brides knew that 25 Fitzwilliam Place was ‘the one’ from the moment they walked in, “We had always wanted a city centre wedding and were keen that the venue was both welcoming and elegant. The service we got on our day was the icing on the cake, they really could not do enough for us and made us feel so special.”

The personalised ceremony was a major highlight for the couple, "We got legally married earlier in the week, meaning we were free to have our ceremony ‘officiated’ by Laura’s best friend Christine. This completely set the tone for the day and created the intimate wedding that we were looking for. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as Christine told the story of how we went on our journey of becoming a couple and a family.”

These two tell us their number one planning tip is to be organised, “Our day ran so smoothly because we had everything planned to allow us to have a stress free day. We wouldn’t have been able to do that without the support of our families who were heroes in the run up and on the day.”

A honeymoon for three was in order for these guys, “We went on a familymoon to Lanzarote directly after the wedding. The real honeymoon will come when Tom is a little older.”

Thanks so much to Laura and Tara for sharing your day with us, and to Olga Hogan Photography for capturing it - make sure you visit the gallery below to see the evening's festivities and more details from the day.