An incredible location and two special guests - that's exactly what Alison & Caimin chose for their intimate, part-one wedding day at The Village Barn, Tyrellspass. Even with tricky Covid-19 restrictions to navigate, their September 2020 celebration was filled with heart, soul, and so much love. Add in the talented TEN21 behind the lens, and well, it's downright perfection! If you're thinking of having a small wedding, this Little Big Day provides all the inspiration you need.

Bride Alison hails from Dublin, and groom Caimin from Mullingar, where the couple are now based. The couple went on their first date in 2014, to Culture Night in Dublin City Centre. Alison tells us, "we hit it off immediately but it was probably our third or fourth date when we realised that this might be something special. We’d just spent the evening arguing (in a friendly way) about everything and anything."  

The couple got engaged while on holiday in Japan in 2018. Alison fills us in, "it was the 3rd day of our two-week trip, and we were in Matsumoto looking around the grounds of a castle. Caimin just stepped off the footpath and proposed with a Haribo ring. His original plan was to propose the previous day in Hakone where we were meant to see great views of Mt Fuji but it was super cloudy and we didn’t see it at all! We don’t have any nice proposal photos as we’d been travelling for six hours previously and generally looked terrible! We celebrated that evening with some bubbly in our hotel bar."

Alison and Caimin had originally planned to have a Dublin City wedding, their ceremony in City Hall and their reception in Medley. However, like so many other couples over the past year, their plans were turned upside down the week before their wedding, as the country went into Level 3 lockdown, meaning they weren't able to travel outside of their county. With 8 days to go before their big day, the couple made the tough decision to look for a new, last-minute venue and go ahead with only two guests. They planned a 'Little Big Day' with their Maid of Honour (Alison’s bestie Emma) and Best Man (Caimin’s brother Cian) as the witnesses, with a view to having a bigger celebration with friends and family at a later date.

With just a few days to go, the pair frantically Googled to try and find a new venue, and couldn’t believe their luck when they came across The Village Barn, which was available for their date, and just 15 minutes from their home. The couple went to visit the venue and booked it on the spot. "The Village Barn is an oasis in the middle of Tyrellspass," they tell us. "They have a little church-like building called the sanctuary - the walled garden is beautiful and there are lots of cute, vintage touches. It was so peaceful and had so many great seating areas and places to take photos." Alison adds, "our favourite was an area called the Orangery, which is a small conservatory where we had teas and coffees after the ceremony."

Although they may not have been able to attend on the day, Alison and Caimin's family and friends made sure to make the lead up and the day itself extra special for them. Family members dropped off wedding care packages, friends sent flowers for the big day, and Caimin’s cousin Barry was the trusted chauffeur on the day - even wearing a cap to suit the occasion! "People really came through for us, in that difficult time - obviously our parents were disappointed, but completely understood that we wanted to go ahead. We were so grateful for the love and support that we received."

In spite of the strict restrictions, Alison and Caimin tell us that they're still delighted they went ahead with their day. "We ended up doing essentially the opposite of what we had originally planned, and still had the best day and loved every minute of it. So, our advice would be to not worry about it, when you surround yourselves with great people, everything will work out." We couldn't agree more!

Alison looked effortlessly beautiful in a dreamy, embellished Needle and Thread dress with matching cape, and her hair in vintage waves, while Caimin donned a sharp suit and sharp tie from M&S.

Covid restrictions meant that the couple's wedding was a really quiet, relaxed affair. "In terms of the day itself and what made it special, it felt really intimate with both our best friends present, it was so relaxed," Alison says. "One of the most positive things is that we spent most of the day together, which I imagine that some people miss out on when there are many guests to chat to. It felt like we had all the time in the world, and we didn’t have anywhere in particular to be so we could just enjoy the moment. We had worked really hard on the ceremony with Emer, our celebrant, so we felt like it really reflected both of our personalities. We did video calls with our parents after the ceremony and that was really special."

The French Touch created the prettiest of bouquets filled with lush greenery, pink and white roses and a show-stopping King Protea.

After the ceremony, the couple, along with their mini wedding party and photographer, took some time for romantic portraits around The Village Barn, before heading for burgers and drinks with friends who live locally in the local pub that evening.

Although they had to reluctantly forgo their original venue choice Medley, the couple have planned an ‘Evening Do’ there in March 2022 and tell us they, "can’t wait to have a night of dancing with our family and friends!"

Due to travel restrictions, the couple have put their original honeymoon plans on hold, and instead spent a couple of nights in Dunbrody House after the wedding. Alison says, "The food was great and it was so nice to relax after a stressful couple of weeks. The plan was always to go to Japan for a honeymoon in the summer of 2021, but we’ll just wait a bit longer so that we can safely travel."

Thanks so much to Alison and Caimin for sharing their gorgeous micro wedding wedding with us, and to TEN21 for providing the beautiful imagery! There are even more photographs to swoon over in the gallery below, and a sweet video by TEN21, too.