This evening we bring you the real wedding of Linda and Neil, who infused their Summer celebration at The Millhouse with splash of personality and a dash of style. It's a happy, fun and sun-filled celebration of love, that will bring a smile to your face. We're delighted to be able to showcase this wedding photographed beautifully by Christina of Brosnan Photographic, and to bring a ray of sunshine to a cold winter's night...
Linda was in Galway studying law when she met Neil around 12 years ago. Neil worked with Linda’s older brother in Galway and they met at a party at her brother’s apartment. Linda remembers Neil because everyone at the party was laughing at everything he said. The two met on a few social occasions over the next few months but it wasn’t until Halloween 2001 that they finally got together. The weekend before they got together they hung out at a Halloween party — Neil was dressed as Thomas Acquinas and Linda as a dominatrix - scary stuff! They started going out and quickly moved in together in Galway.
They moved to Dublin in 2006 so Linda could train as a solicitor and have been living together since then. Neil proposed to Linda in September 2010 on a trip to Vietnam during a thunderstorm on a balcony overlooking a candlelight river to a chorus of bull frogs. 11 years after that Halloween party and it is still going strong — and they both still love a good fancy dress party!
The central idea of wedding was a relaxed garden party vibe. They wanted it to be chilled out and pretty. It all started with an obsession with collecting bunting and it just grew from there.
Linda worked in Drogheda for a number of years and her work colleagues there had suggested that the Millhouse would be perfect for the relaxed vibe they wanted. They checked it out and loved it instantly but decided to hold off and look at other venues for comparison. They knew they wanted a civil ceremony in a private house and they didn’t mind where in Ireland they got married. This meant there was a lot of a choice out there!
After months of spending each weekend travelling to all four corners of the country looking at private wedding venues they just couldn’t get the Millhouse out of their minds and knew they had to book it.
The beauty of the Millhouse is the freedom for you to do what you want to the venue and it really feels like your own house for the weekend. The staff are friendly and fun and will do whatever they can to help you in achieving the look you want for the venue. They were also delighted a few weeks before the wedding to learn that the venue had a new option available for a civil ceremony to be held in the old mill itself and they quickly had the room approved and started replanning their ceremony for the fantastic old mill!
Neil and Linda agreed that the ceremony was their favourite part of the day. It was funny and emotional and a really lovely moment. They also remember the day being really chilled mainly down to the amazing weather they were so lucky to get. It meant that all the guests could chill out beside the river, sipping prosecco and soaking up the rays.
Linda made her bouquet herself from vintage and modern flower brooches that she started collecting when they got engaged. This included one of Linda’s granny’s brooches as Linda’s granny had passed away a few years before the wedding. It also included a fabulous vintage brooch she got from her hens as a gift on her hen weekend in Kilkenny.
We love slick groom style and Neil certainly stepped up to the mark - his slim-fit blue suit and tangy orange tie more than match Linda's gorgeous Jenny Packham wedding gown in the style stakes.
Putting their own personal stamp on things was vital for Linda and Neil, and the flexibility of The Millhouse as a venue allowed them to bring their country garden party theme to life in lots of little (and large) decorative touches. Niall, a friend of Linda and Neil’s is an excellent photographer and was so nice to get photos of the wedding guests holding a polka-dot blackboard with an individual message for the couple. It was even better when Linda and Neil arrived back from honeymoon and received a beautiful photobook from Niall with all the messages and other great pictures of the day.
Neil is an avid photographer and designed the table numbers himself using cool photos of numbers he had captured over the months before the wedding. Neil also designed the save the dates, the invites, menus and the order of service and they used recycled paper from Daintree for much of their printing. Linda also made bridesmaid survival kits for the bridesmaids with everthing they would need for the day including tissues and booze!
Neil’s parents arrived on the day before the wedding with a car full of flowers from their fabulous garden in Barna and these were used all over the venue and used to frame the entrance to the ceremony room and the altar. Lisa, one of the bridesmaids, along with the other bridesmaids organised a surprise ‘paint by numbers’ portrait for the bride and groom which was set up on a painting table just outside the reception room. The guests all bonded while trying to paint the bride and groom’s portrait. It was a lovely surprise and has pride of place in the couple’s sitting room now. Neil’s aunt also arrived with lots of yummy home made cake for the party.
So having made such an enormous effort and created such a personal celebration, what advice would you give to brides and grooms with similar ideas? "Keep a list of the things you need to do and tick them off as you get them done you get a real sense of progress and achievement. Also realise that you can’t do absolutely everything you see on blogs and in magazines. Pick a few key things you love and work on making them a reality. Use Etsy and Ebay to source those little touches and accessories they have great handmade and vintage items available for reasonable prices. Also brides, think about making a speech - Linda was really glad she did and had so much fun writing it and giving it on the day."
Wise words - I couldn't agree more - too much ambition can kill your creativity when it comes to wedding decor, choose a few touches you really can invest time and effort in. An altogether inspiring wedding, and a super couple - thank you so much Linda, Neil, for sharing your day with us - it's really exciting to see Irish couples putting their own stamp and style into proceedings.
If you loved Linda and Neil's wedding photographs, you simply must pop over to Christina Brosnan's website www.brosnanphotographic.com to check out the gorgeousness
- Venue: The Millhouse, Slane
- Photography: Christina Brosnan
- Wedding Dress: Eden by Jenny Packham @ Sharon Hoey
- Bridesmaids dresses: Monsoon
- Shoes: Awear
- Bridesmaids' bouquets: Forever Flowers, Monasterboice
- Make Up: Aileen Duffy
- Hair: The Orangeroom, Drogheda
- Accessories: Accessorize, Sharon Hoey.
- Cake: The Brown Hound Bakery, Drogheda and Groom’s aunt Peggy.
- Stationery: Homemade with paper from Daintree, Dublin
- Groom: Paul Smith
- Groomsmen: Marks & Spencers
- Wedding Bands: H. Samuels
- Ceremony: RIAM Strings
- Reception Music: The Bentley Boys
