UK bride, Jess and US groom, Ethan met half way (well not quite, but somewhere in the middle!) for their laid-back real wedding in Ireland. A two-day bash that was filled with meaningful moments and beautiful details. This couple, who love to travel (they got engaged where the tectonic plates meet in Iceland!), brought blessings from around the world into their contemporary Jewish ceremony. Planning their wedding from their home in Brooklyn, Horetown House proved the perfect home from home, with the charm and layout the couple were after. Lima Conlon Photography documented this very special celebration...

Jessica and Ethan met at a mutual friend’s beach party on the Jersey Shore six years ago. “Ethan was in his element,” recalls Jess, “Engaging in a never -ending stream of beach sports, hot dogs, and high-fives. I was mostly focused on carefully reapplying my factor 30 suncream. As you’d imagine, we didn’t immediately click – but we ended up sitting together on the train home, and realised that we a actually had a lot in common, and a million things to talk about.”

The couple dated for a while, met each other’s families, and eventually moved in together in Brooklyn, “In 2016 we made the big decision to leave our jobs and travel around the world together for a year. It was a make or break trip, but fortunately we learned that we’re a great team - particularly when the going gets tough - and we came back certain that we wanted to get married.”

The proposal came while the pair were back on the road, “We were travelling - again - in Iceland. Ethan got down on one knee in front of a beautiful waterfall and a large crowd of tourists and neither of us remembers what he said because we were too excited/nervous at the time. Iceland is the meeting point between Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, so there was a geeky yet romantic logic to the choice of location!”

In Jewish weddings, the couple signs a Ketubah ahead of their marriage ceremony - a written document - a contract of sorts - outlining the responsibilities and obligations of the couple.

Jessica and Ethan tell us they were aiming for a relaxed and fun feel for their wedding. “For us, the wedding was an opportunity to finally unite friends and family from opposite sides of the Atlantic, and we wanted everyone to feel comfortable and to have plenty of opportunity to get to know each other.”

The couple received a special memento from their day, “Jess’ Maid of Honour had made her a cookbook as a wedding gift (knowing our love of food) which was comprised of recipes from important people and moments in her life, along with messages and photos. Needless to say, tears were shed.”

This floral chuppah is so pretty - Bella Botanica did such a beautiful job.

When it came to the visual elements of the day, the couple kept the relaxed feel with some stylish details, “The vibe was understated and informal but romantic – we had hand drawn programs, vibrant and unstructured bouquets, long, flowing dresses, and mismatched décor. The ceremony was a collection of readings and blessings from all over the world (there were 12 different people speaking at various points).”

We love it when a couple are deliberate in their wedding planning, and these two had a plan of action from the beginning, “We actually sat down when we started planning and thought very carefully about what we’d loved about other weddings we’d been to. We realised that the most important thing for us was the physical space: first, we wanted to have everything take place in one location, and with plenty of places to sit and chat. Second, a big, open dancefloor was a must, with seating in the same room so the group didn’t have to separate.”

As Ethan is Jewish, the couple chose to have a ceremony with a Jewish structure, conducted by a rabbi, “We were able to make it really personal by adapting the traditional seven blessings – we asked some of our friends and family members to provide blessings from different cultures they were associated with, which included Japanese, Italian, Gujarati and Lebanese (and Irish, of course!).”

Smashing the glass!

The couple opted for an Irish wedding for several reasons, “Jess has Irish family, and spent many happy weeks in Ireland growing up. Both of us felt totally at home in Ireland, and couldn’t imagine a lovelier place to get married. Plus it was between our two family homes, so something of a compromise?!”

Hello G&T bar!

Planning a wedding from afar is daunting, but Horetown House ticked a lot of boxes for the couple, “We loved the different rooms, each with their own character, and the layout was exactly what we wanted. We also liked the fact that we could take over the whole house for the weekend, so the wedding was totally private and we could use the space for a BBQ the day after. We really enjoyed our initial conversations with the team, and hoped very much that they would be able to help us through the process – it’s always hard to tell at the moment of booking, and a bit scary putting your trust in a group of relative strangers to handle your wedding day - in the end we were proved right, and Niamh, Kate, Rosemary and the rest of the team did an amazing job.”

These two have a few words of wisdom for other couples, “Relax, you haven’t forgotten anything! But seriously, we found that there are some key elements that really matter (the venue, the music, the photographer, the dress) and everything else is a bonus. It’s easy to get caught up in all of the small decisions, but you won’t care about any of it on the day.”

One top tip from these newlyweds, “Make sure you’ve assigned someone who isn’t featuring in or taking the photos to run around organising people for the group photos. We did not do this, and it made for the most chaotic and frustrating half hour of our day!”

These guys have an amazing trip planned to celebrate their nuptials, We’re planning a delayed honeymoon in Chile and Argentina. We’re going to be spending most of our time in Patagonia, hoping to strike a good balance between exploring during the daytime and relaxing in some nice hotels during the evenings. And drinking lots of great wine.”

These two are just dreamy - doesn't this look like a shot from an ad campaign? I just love Jess' dress, it's timeless and elegant as well as chic and youthful.

The beautiful reception space in Horetown House doesn't need much decoration, but candles, flowers and hanging lights amped up the atmosphere.

The pretty, personalised stationery was designed by one of the couple's bridesmaids, Becca.

You know we're pretty partial to a cheese wedding cake!

Music was another big priority for this bride and groom, “We spent a long time choosing our bands, including sending out a very lengthy set of questions (many thanks to the patient guys answering our emails!). We wanted to find something which would reflect our taste, but also appeal to everyone. In the end, we were thrilled with our choices – Honeyvoom offered something totally unique, and the Poor Boys were true professionals who certainly knew how to get everyone dancing.”

The couple loved introducing their guests to Jewish traditions, “It’s traditional for guests to perform the Horah, which basically involves guests dancing in a circle while the bride and groom are lifted up and down on chairs in the centre. Obviously this was terrifying for us, and it was even more terrifying for Jess’ parents when the crowd decided that they should give it a try! It did make for some great photos, and we were amazed that our band went to the trouble of learning the entire accompanying song (Hava Nagila) complete with Hebrew lyrics.”

Thanks so much to Jess & Ethan for letting us in on the story behind their day, and of course to Lima Conlon Photography for documenting it all so beautifully.