A unique and charming Northern Ireland wedding.

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Having fallen in love in Madrid, Irish bride Lucie and Brazilian groom Henrique decided to return to Lucie's home of Northern Ireland to celebrate their wedding. Incorporating a fusion of Northern Irish and Brazilian traditions, Lucie and Henrique had a one of a kind wedding at Orange Tree House all captured by Fraser Stewart. Showcasing how beautiful Northern Ireland is and the welcoming nature of Irish weddings - today's real wedding really is a pleasure to share.

Fraser Stewart Photography Orange Tree House wedding | onefabday.com

Henrique and Lucie first met by total chance in Madrid, where Belfast girl Lucie was studying French and Spanish and Henrique was living at the time. Out with friends and in search of a good bar Lucie stopped Henrique on the street to ask for directions. They chatted but Lucie had to rush of with her friends so thought that was that - but luckily fate intervened.

Lucie fondly remembers..."Very randomly, I saw him again that same night and we started chatting (in Spanish) and he told me he was moving to England and was wondering if I did English lessons. I’d never given an English lesson in my life, but of course I said yes! We met up the next week and I gave him an official English lesson. After one lesson he realised I wasn't as good a teacher as I had made out, so we left the English lessons to the side... I was actually nearing the end of my year abroad in Spain, so when he moved to London in the July, I went home to Belfast for the summer and then did my final year of university up in Leeds. We did long distance for a year before I moved down to London to follow a career in PR and where he was working as a chef."

Seven happy years later Henrique surprised Lucie with an amazing proposal right back where their relationship began, Lucie filled us in..."One day I came home from work and Henrique told me he’d managed to get a table at an amazing restaurant in London in a couple of week’s time, but the only time free was 5.30pm so I’d need to leave work early to get there in time. I put my foot down and said that wouldn't be possible as I’d just started a new job and there was no way I could ask to leave early just to go to a restaurant. He was a bit sheepish, but I didn't think anything of it. A couple of weeks later he text me and said, remember you’re getting out of work early on Friday and I text back saying, remember I said I can’t? He then said, look, just tell your boss your boyfriend is taking you away for the weekend, you never know, it could be true."

Lucie continues..."Once again I didn’t think anything of it (I just thought he was really keen to go to this restaurant!) until I got home from work on the Thursday and there was an envelope on the kitchen table saying ‘surprise’. He was out at work so I opened it and it was our passports and two plane tickets to Madrid (where we first met), leaving that Friday night. At that point I had an inkling it might be happening, but when he actually did it (at 11.30pm on the Friday night, in a square in the middle of Madrid, just after we had landed and were en route to the hotel) I was completely taken by surprise. We then had a perfect weekend in our absolute favourite city." What a keeper!

Originally from Northern Ireland it was important to Lucie to tie the knot back home. Along with Henrique she organised a trip home to visit venues and at the last minute decided to pop into the brand new Orange Tree House..."One of my bridesmaids mentioned that she had seen there was a new venue (still a building site) being built by the side of Strangford Lough in Greyabbey and that it might be worth calling in to see if we had time. As soon as we met Jan and Simon and saw the beautiful building we knew it was the ‘one’. They were both so welcoming and accommodating and although it was a building site you could just tell it was going to be perfect. As Henrique is a chef and I am a bit of a foodie, the food was a really important element for us and Simon was more than happy for us to work with him to tailor the menu to us."

Having booked an Irish venue Lucie and Henrique really wanted to ensure their Brazilian guests felt welcome and so their vows were said in both languages. Lucie remembers..."We did our vows in both English and Portuguese – something that was very important to us as we had a number of Henrique’s family/friends over from Brazil and we wanted to make sure they felt included. I thought I’d be really nervous about doing the vows in Portuguese in front of all the guests, but it was actually one of my favourite parts of the day as I could see how important it was to Henrique and his family."

To showcase the beauty of Northern Ireland to all their visiting guests Lucie and Henrique had an outdoors drinks reception with shots of Guinness and Brazilian beers, followed by dinner, homemade wedding cake and late night personalised pizzas.

Not a big fan of traditional princess wedding dresses Lucie found her Charlie Brear gown at a friend's bridal boutique, which she then accessorised with a vintage veil worn by both her mum and grandmother.

The wedding reception was then kept simple and fun, with mini whiskey wedding favours, good speeches, a playful photo booth and lots of dancing.

Lucie's wedding planning advice? "Just relax! Also, work out your budget early on (make sure you include a contingency!) and from there work out your priorities and what you’re willing to spend a little bit more on vs. where you’d like to save. For example, we knew that having the right music and photography were really important to us, so we made sure we had enough room in the budget for suppliers we really wanted. I also got lots of inspiration/ideas from websites like One Fab Day – they used to be my night time read before bed!"

After their Orange Tree House wedding Lucie and Henrique went straight to Brazil for a second celebration with Henrique's family before honeymooning in Bahia and Sao Paulo. A huge congrats to you both and thanks so much for sharing your wedding day with us all!

A big thank you also goes to Fraser Stewart Photography for sharing his work with us. To see more from Fraser Stewart Photography visit www.fraserstewartphotography.co.uk