It's no secret that I love a city wedding, especially when it's in colourful and characterful Dublin, but today's real wedding is a particularly fetching example of how a city wedding can be just as refined and stylish as a country castle bash! Bulgarian bride Simona and Spanish groom Alberto wanted to get married in the town they call home, each bringing splash of their homeland's style to their big day at Smock Alley Theatre. The result is sophisticated, a little bit silly (wait until you see their adorable wedding portraits by Syona Photography!) and absolutely spilling over with chic details.
Simona and Alberto met on a semester abroad in Darmstadt, Germany, where he was studying engineering and she was studying architecture. "We met at his goodbye party," Simona tells us, adding that Alberto didn't make a great first impression after beating her at beer pong. "He just blanked us and walked away without so much as a 'good game' or a handshake. Very unsportsmanlike." But sparks flew later in the evening when they were properly introduced. "We spent the rest of the party talking, getting along shockingly well, despite a language barrier, and then parted ways forever, as far as I was concerned!"
Alberto, of course, had other ideas! "He messaged me some days later, saying that he’d like to keep in touch. A few weeks after that, he flew back to Germany and so began the great chase. For the next two years, we chased each other around a vast number of Ryanair’s European destinations, with frequent trips between Madrid and Dublin. Although we managed to see each other every one or two months, it didn’t make saying goodbye any easier each time." Eventually, Alberto made the move to Dublin and the rest, as they say, is history!
Just look at this pair and tell me that your heart isn't melted!
For his proposal, Alberto chose a quite Sunday morning at home. "I was in pyjamas, mixing pancake batter, and he just handed me a little handmade box. Inside was an origami crane ring, really beautiful and intricate. I flipped and started bouncing around the kitchen... Then he handed me a second box, which held a really perfect, elegant ring from Suarez in Madrid. More flipping and bouncing ensued. Thinking about it, he never actually asked me if I wanted to marry him and I never actually said yes. So maybe it was just a gift and he was too awkward to say anything? Too late now!"
Simona and Alberto knew instantly that they wanted a city wedding - they just weren't sure which city! "Both Alberto and I have grown up in big cities and we love our urban life. The main criterion we had for our wedding was that it would be true to our life and not a pretense. We both agreed from the very beginning that wherever we get married, be it Dublin, Madrid or Varna, that it would be in the city and that the city would be part of the celebration."
When the couple settled on Dublin, it took no time at all to select a wedding venue - Simona had already fallen in love with Smock Alley Theatre during college, when she was given an assignment on the building's architecture. "I remember sitting at a table outside the Cow’s Lane entrance of Smock Alley Theatre, in front of the platform with the constellation mural, and marveling at how this tiny pocket of Dublin was ancient, new, urban, quaint, and historic all at the same time. We are so privileged to have had it to ourselves on such a special day."
Simona and Alberta tell us that their wedding day felt more like a dream than anything they had previously experienced in real life! "The only word I would use describe it is ‘surreal’. Our lives and our relationship is so pan-European – the people we care about are scattered all over Europe, more specifically concentrated in Spain, Bulgaria and Ireland. Seeing so many important people to us, from my childhood in Bulgaria, as well as Alberto’s Spanish family, all having a laugh and chatting with our new family in Ireland was like being in a dream!"
Can we talk about Simona's wedding gown now?! It was made by Bulgarian designer Boriana Stefcheva in her wedding atelier in Asenovgrad. "The dress was put together through email exchanges with Boriana, sending hand sketches, photos and measurements back and forth," Simona tells us. "I didn’t see my dress until it was couriered to me here in Dublin!" It's a brave move, but one that totally paid off!
Glad to see I'm not the only one who enjoys a wacky photo op!
Back in front of that constellation mural years later, only this time as a married woman! I simply can't resist this pun - it was written in the stars!
The couple name check just a few of the people who made their big day extra special, "Our friends who played violin and sang at our ceremony, and Conor at Smock Alley, who was incredibly professional and so on the ball at every moment of the day."
Between the ceremony and the reception, the couple and their 98 guests strolled up Fishamble St. to Darkey Kelly's Pub for drinks and a trad session. A pub pit stop? It doesn't get more Irish than that!
Surprise! The pub was covered in cute DIY photo displays depicting the couple's journey so far! "A friend secretly decorated the pub with candles and photos," Simona tells us. "The trad band at Darkey Kelly’s, who we hadn’t heard play before, were shocking good fun."
Simona's advice for engaged couples is invest in a good photographer. "I cannot stress enough how vital that is," she says. "There is so much that you miss on the day, and so many people that you don’t get to spend time with. Paulina and Rafal from Syona Photography were amazing, calm and 'in the moment' – their photos capture so wonderfully how much fun everyone had and how beautiful it all was."
We cannot stop fawning over the florals that Ciara Harte Barry created for the couple, which included a delicate ceremony arch and Simona's generous bouquet, created in a beautiful palette of pale purples, pinks and greens. "Ciara’s flower arrangements were just beyond anything I could have ever imagined," Simona says. "She somehow saw exactly what I had in my brain and made it ten times better. We were so lucky - everyone who was involved in the wedding, even in a small way, was completely magic."
We promised you details and we're not about to disappoint! Simona and Alberto decorated their dining tables with chic DIY lamps made from mason jars filled with moss and fairy lights, and used laser-cut birds as place cards!
The couple put together some really thoughtful wedding favours for their guests - male guests got pint glasses with enamel-painted sketches of Smock Alley, drawn by Simona, while female guests received Spanish espadrilles called alpargatas from Madrid.
You know we love the drama of a towering, three-tier wedding cake but this square, one-tier wedding cake by Sweet Sunday is very pretty too!
This pair had a straight-up incredible honeymoon, which was organised in its entirety by Alberto. "We started off in Mexico City for food and culture, i.e. tacos, Kahlo and Barragán. We then flew to LA, rented a car and drove around west USA for two weeks – San Francisco, Yosemite, Sequoia National Park, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Sand Diego and LA. And finally, as a treat for all our hard work, we spent the last week tanning and snorkelling on Beachcomber Island in Fiji."
OK, I am officially feeling inadequate about my dance moves!
And that's a wrap! Thanks so much to Simona and Alberto for giving us a peek inside their wedding day, and to Syona Photography for sharing the beautiful images with us.
