Embracing the classic elegance of their stunning Luttrellstown Castle wedding venue, Thida and Stephen planned a picture perfect wedding filled with nods to their Irish and Burmese traditions. Tara Aherne captured the vibe and all the dreamy wedding details perfectly and we are so thrilled to share the results with you today…

Today's couple are quite the globe trotters! Beautiful bride Thida is originally from Burma and lived in Cambodia before settling in New York and handsome groom Stephen was born in Paris, moved to California and then Ireland before settling in New York.

Thida recounts how they met…"We met in August 2010 at a mutual friend's birthday party at the Gansevoort Hotel in New York. He thought I was cute and started a conversation by offering to buy me a drink but I promptly refused because I already had one. My response made him a bit flustered, but he continued on and asked "Would you like to dance?" and I politely declined. Very perplexed, he declared "What would you like to do!?" and I responded "Sit here and talk?" So we spent the evening talking about our experiences of living abroad. That following week, we went on our first date at L'Artusi in the West Village."

Stephen’s proposal was sweet and intimate and a total surprise. Thida tells us, "five years later on the same day as our first date, he surprised me with a proposal at our apartment. I had told him that I would be coming home from work at 6pm, so he had left work early that day to set up candles all around the living room and a heart shape from rose petals. However, I was running late from work and didn’t come home until 8:30 pm, so he was waiting for two and half hours in the dark to surprise me. I was on the phone with my mom carrying packages when I opened the door and was completely surprised."

Thida continues…"As he brought me into the heart made of rose petals and started telling me how much he loved me I started crying when I realized it was going to be a proposal. However, he kept on going and I started to wonder that this was just a surprise and not really proposal. When he got down on one knee, I couldn’t believe it was happening for real. Afterwards, we went back to L’Artusi where we had our first date to celebrate."

Thida dazzled in not one but three incredible gowns, a beautiful strapless Oleg Cassini wedding dress for the ceremony, a traditional Burmese dress from Memory Bridal Mie for reception and a stunning gemstone blue Badgley Mischka gown for dancing. Her stunning pastel bouquet was by Austen Flowers.

Thida and Stephen’s elegant, wedding celebration embodied both their traditions. Their ceremony captured his Irish spirit, and her Burmese culture. Thida reflects on her wedding day and says, "Everything was so beautiful and we were so happy to be surrounded by so much love."

We purposely picked August 8^th since 8 it is an auspicious number in Burma. We were able to host our family and wedding party for two nights at Luttrellstown made the wedding feel so much more intimate. We had friends and family coming all the way from California, Paris, New York, and Cork – it was an amazing feeling to bring everyone together.

Thida details what made Luttrellstown Castle the wedding venue for them…"We fell in love with Luttrellstown Castle and its beautiful grounds, it was perfect that we were able to rent out the entire place and our family and wedding party were able to stay there. It made the wedding feel so much more intimate."

Thida and Stephen have some wedding planning advice…"Being organized is very important, its very easy to get distracted with other tasks for the wedding. Your fiancé and you will disagree on things, but don’t lose sight of your love for each other."

For their Honeymoon the pair jetted off to the Maldives. Thida fills us in, "we went to the Maldives, stayed at the Maalifushi by COMO resort. On our first date at L’Artusi we had talked about how Maldives was our dream destination so when we got engaged and went back for dinner at L’Artusi we agreed we should go to Maldives for two weeks for our honeymoon no matter what."

A huge thank you goes to Thida and Stephen for sharing their magical day with us. A big thank you also goes to Tara Aherne for sharing her work with us. To see more from Tara Aherne visit taraaherne.com

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• Photographer: Photography by Tara Aherne
• Venue  Luttrellstown Castle
• Make Up: EF Creative Studios

The Wedding Details

• Wedding Dresses: Ceremony Oleg Cassini | Reception Memory Bridal Mie | Dancing Badgley Mischka
• Bridesmaids dresses: Weddington Way
• Flower girls: BHLDN
• Shoes: Ceremony Valentino | Dancing Manolo Blahnik 
• Hair: Sian Sharkey
• Groom(smen)’s suits: Bond Brothers

• Accessories: Swarovski
• Cars/Wedding Favours: Mini wine bottles from WineOnline and Welcome boxes from Tesco
• Stationery: PorterLeather via Etsy
• Wedding Bands: John Paradiso Jewelry
• Ceremony/Reception Music: Bentley Boys
• Flowers: Austen Flowers