After just over a year of blogging, it's really exciting to start seeing some of "our own" brides coming full circle, moving from Mrs-to-be to Mrs and see how they got on. Today we're delighted to be able to feature the wedding of a special lovely reader Nora, who married her love Jose in Meath […]

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After just over a year of blogging, it's really exciting to start seeing some of "our own" brides coming full circle, moving from Mrs-to-be to Mrs and see how they got on. Today we're delighted to be able to feature the wedding of a special lovely reader Nora, who married her love Jose in Meath (yay!) a few weeks ago.

While reading over Nora's story of the wedding, something she said really struck a chord with me: "Don’t be pushed onto the conveyor belt wedding if you don’t want that sort of day. Its possible with a bit of imagination and a small budget to have a really exceptional day." If you could sum up the OneFabDay philosophy in one sentence - that is it. Style, creativity and fun way outweigh budget when it comes to having a super wedding, and Nora & Jose's Spanish-Irish wedding 100% lives up to her idea - imaginative, stylish, creative and with a lot of heart, who cares about budget when you put your heart and soul into it... And of course having Noel & Aga of White Tea photography there means you have beautiful images as mementos.

Before we spy on the day, we need to know how this international couple got together..."Well Ladies if ye like a nice sceal, read on! I met Jose in college in Galway. He was doing accountancy (yawn) and I was doing Spanish. Our Spanish lecturer was always telling us that we should sit beside the Spanish students in the canteen and practice our lingo, and we always complained that there were a million of them all huddled together, making it was impossible to get talking to any of them. So she took matters into her own crafty hands...

...and came into class a few days later towing this tall brown-eyed, (easy on the eye!) chap and told us that his English was terrible (in front of mortified Jose who later told me he had no idea what was going on!) and that if he didn’t improve he was going to fail and that it would be of mutual benefit if we talked to him. She added that she wasn’t to see him sitting alone in the canteen. So that was that. My friend Claire and myself talked to him a few times, hilarious conversations really, and so the Three Amigos was born. And three years later after Graduation we got together and have been that way for the past 10 years. His English is perfect by the way but my Spanish is still pigeon…not sure that was the outcome my Spanish lecturer wanted!

We got engaged on the 10^th of the 10^th 2010 (accountants like round numbers..). We went horse riding in Co.Clare near the cliffs of Moher. I love horses but Jose is less shall we say, enthused! Jose's horse was called Max and he was terrified he would throw him off, I remember thinking at the time: what in the name of God are we doing out here when he doesn’t even like horses, but then we came to a fabulous view and a chilled bottle of champagne.

So skip forward a few months and Nora & Jose are walking the aisle of Kilmessan Church in Co. Meath (not going to bore you today with my connections to this church!) and Nora was determined that their ceremony be just as special and personal as everything else about their day "Very often the actual marriage ceremony is overlooked and we wanted to make it special. My Dads cousin is a priest and he married my parents. Fr Paddy made the wedding ceremony very personal and was great fun."

After the ceremony, the happy newlywed couple made their way a short distance to The Station House Hotel, a wedding venue Nora has high praise for "As we only had a guest list of 100 we were finding it hard to get a venue that we didn’t feel lost in. We wanted somewhere small, bit quirky, warm atmosphere, nice outdoor space, staff that made us feel special and preferably not in a city. A friend had her reception in The Station House and highly recommended it. From the minute I saw it I knew it ticked a lot of boxes and I have to say a massive thank you to Derek who could not have been better to us on the day, he was friendly, courteous and took care of us extremely well." There you have it, any of you in search of a special venue close to Dublin, straight from the bride. Watch out for the cutest honeymoon suite in Ireland too - in the old railway guard's office (pictured later on).

Nora and her family did all the flowers for the flowers for the church, the bouquets and buttonholes themselves the night before. "The flowers cost a grand total of €70 and it was lovely that my Mam, Dad, and two sisters all got involved and helped with that."

So how did you plan your day? "I remember looking though books and I hated the idea of just one colour or theme but I knew I had to pick something to semi bring the whole thing together without looking over done. We knew we didn’t want a huge fussy conveyor-belt wedding, we wanted something more personal and a good party. I met with Linda from One of Kind Weddings and she really put me on the right track. So the end theme was sort of homemade meets vintage."

Nora's wedding dress is an original, made from Spanish lace brought over from Madrid, and created by Anne Gibney in Rush. All the little things that tie the bridal party together, that look so sensational, are all homemade too..."My sister Joanne made her own flower headpiece from the leftover pieces of the bridesmaid dress material. The dressmaker who made my dress also made the groomsmen ties from the same material as the bridesmaid dresses."

The opportunity to bring family and friends together, and reflect each of their respective heritages and cultures was important to Nora & Jose, so they forewent things like wedding favours "Instead we had spent money on other elements that we thought our Spanish and Irish guests would enjoy. We bought Spanish and Irish cheese in Sheridans cheesemongers which we had at the cava (Spanish sparkling wine) reception. My friend Dorothy also made her lovely chilli jam to have with the cheese at the reception."

"After the meal, guests filtered outside to have a glass of Spanish liqueur out in the sunshine, where there was an outdoor crepe stall set up. Crepes are Jose's favourite food so that was a surprise from me to him on the day! Olivier Colas of www.crepesandcraic.ie was one of the highlights of the day and all of our guests commented on what great craic he was. He has some deadly moves on the dancefloor!" Lesson there for all brides (and grooms) include a little special surprise to your other half on the day. Everyone, no matter what they say, loves surprises!

The creative touches continued..."We also had pots (from Ikea) of sweets from Spain and Ireland on each of the tables for guests to enjoy before the meal and I used them to stick the table numbers into which I made using lollypop sticks and paper. I had hired vintage lace tablecloths from Pearl & Godiva (I saw them on OneFabDay) which added to the room. There was also a wedding finger print tree instead of a guest book which is such a lovely thing to have today."

And this is too cute - Nora's Mum baked the wedding cake and the same woman that iced Nora's parents wedding cake iced Nora & Jose's! Those scrummy looking cupcakes came from The Perfectionist Confectionist (which Nora first saw on OneFabDay!)

So what was the best moment of the day?

"For me it was sitting outside after the meal and the evening was thankfully fabulous, with my pint of Guinness chatting to friends with the smell of crepes cooking and the laughter of friends and family all around. Unforgettable."

And your words of advice for those of us yet to trip up the aisle?

I was given a piece of advice that I’m really glad I followed through on: I was told to take a few minutes out with Jose to watch our guests enjoy themselves. Noel & Aga had brought us off to a field of buttercups for photos and strolling back towards the hotel we saw everyone outside talking and laughing and it’s a little snapshot I have inside my head.