If you are part of the many couples in the midst of wedding planning dreaming of eloping, today's wedding is just for you - Anne and Brian did just that. They popped off to Italy with a couple of close family to tie the knot in the beauty of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, relaxed in the […]

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If you are part of the many couples in the midst of wedding planning dreaming of eloping, today's wedding is just for you - Anne and Brian did just that. They popped off to Italy with a couple of close family to tie the knot in the beauty of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, relaxed in the sunshine, and then returned home for a celebration in style.

Sounds like an idyllic way to celebrate a marriage if you ask me, and add in Anne's gorgeous dessert table of sweet treats at the Irish reception and it's altogether perfect. Thanks to Lisa O'Dwyer we can show you their monochrome city chic reception in the heart of Limerick and hear the grand sceal of how these two lovebirds tied the knot...

So how did the big love story start? "Brian and I had a lot of mutual friends, and Limerick is a small enough place socially. So we met a few times over a few months at various places. Then one night at a house party, Brian told me he was going on holidays for a week. I told him jokingly to bring me back a present. I text him the next day to say have a good time, and he replied asking would I meet him for a date when he got back. At the date he had a present for me. It was a model Peugot 207 world rally car. It was pretty amazing that he remembered I not only loved wrc, but that that was my favourite car. It's safe to say he impressed me a lot that day."

You'll all be glad to know Brian didn't give up once he'd got the girl either. He is still impressing Anne to this day, and the big proposal was a great example... "We went to New York on holidays. We checked in to the hotel, I started unpacking, and Brian said he was going to the shop. After 45 minutes I rang him starting to worry. He said he had wandered into computing store and I took no more notice. He wasn’t in a computer store though, he was in Tiffany’s getting a promise ring. When he came out it was rush hour and no cab would stop, so he ran ten blocks back to the hotel. I didn’t know any of this, and he was acting so strange when he returned, I remember asking him was he okay. He went in to the bathroom and when he came out, he had the little blue box in his hand. He came over to the bed, and started to ask would I marry him? I said yes, and then as relief flooded his face it was my turn to get flustered."

Anne and Brian opted for a double celebration "We never wanted the big Irish wedding. We had planned to elope, but thought it would be nice to have someone there we knew to celebrate our day with us. We had a tiny group, just six people, very low key, which was exactly what we wanted. I love Italy, and Brian was happy to go anywhere so long as it was abroad, so we picked Florence. We had a fantastic week in Florence.

My favourite moment of the wedding was in Italy, when I walked in to the Sala Rossa (red room where the ceremony was held) and Brian met me at the door. I thought I was going to be nervous, but I wasn’t at all. I was just really happy and excited to see him.

For Brian it was ‘when we arrived at Il Salviatino for our reception, we had a few minutes to ourselves before the others arrived, and there was an amazing view looking down over Florence’"

"For the reception at home the venue was very important to us. Because we only had an evening reception I wanted a room with a little extra something. When I saw the room on the sixth floor of the Strand Hotel, with its floor to ceiling windows and sweeping views of the entire city, it fit perfectly with my idea of a modern chic city wedding."

"When I got engaged I discovered the most amazing online resources for all things fabulous, wedding blogs. I didn’t know that weddings could be so personal or have themes. I love gerbera daisies and wanted white ones with the black centre as my bouquet, so to tie in I went with a black and white theme. I had a very specific vision for the desert table and I was delighted with how it turned out. The huge pieces of slate looked great on the white linens."

On the dessert table I had bullseye sweets. I lived with my grandparents till I will 15. On Friday nights my grandfather Stevie would go to his local for a few pints, and every night he would bring a bag of bullseyes home for my granny Nancy, so I included bullseyes on the desert table. I also bought loads of Italian sweets back from Italy for it, some never made it to the table, they were so delicious.

"My mother is a florist so she did the flowers. It was lovely to carry a bouquet that she made for me. I made my own invitations. I designed the dessert table and made the labels and gift boxes. I loved doing the dessert table and the guests loved it too, it was a new concept for most of them."

So having had a double wedding and experienced celebrations both in Italy and Ireland what advice do you have for those just engaged or in the middle of planning? "Do what you want for your wedding. It was very hard for us at times, people can be very opinonated about what they think you should do, or on what you are doing for your wedding. Just remember it's your day, no one else will regret what you did for your wedding."