We may be in the midst of a heatwave this week, but just in case you thought Ireland was always this sunny, we're throwing it back a few months with today's real wedding. Wendy & Adam got married with a beautiful wedding in Ballymagarvey Village during Storm Emma in March. But this couple, who had been through an intense few months - Adam lost his father just a week before the wedding - were determined have the best day ever. From the thoughtful, personal touches to the emotional first look in the snow, I think you'll agree, their day was pretty special indeed. Make yourself a cup of tea (or pour yourself a cold drink!) and get ready to swoon over the gorgeous photographs by Signature Photography.

Adam & Wendy first met around ten years ago, “We spent some time together before I asked him ‘what the story was’, and if we were taking things any further than the friendzone,” Adam explains. “Wendy politely declined, and we went our separate ways for a few years. After a while, we became good friends again… another few years later, those feelings returned, and thankfully they were mutual! Four years later we married.” There you have it - proof that the best things in life are worth waiting for!

Adam proposed to Wendy in Tenerife on his 30th birthday, “We had been there on holiday the year prior to that, and loved it so much. Our first visit brought us up El Teide volcano, and there was a lovely spot where we got some great photos on our first visit. I knew this was the place I wanted to propose, so when we returned to Tenerife I convinced Wendy that we should go back to re-enact the photos we got before.”

Adam set up a camera to record the whole thing and as Wendy was facing away, he quickly grabbed the ring from his wallet and walked over to her, “I completely panicked and so instead of saying something romantic I just blurted out ‘Will you marry me?’ as fast as possible. I think Wendy was a bit taken aback by how quick it was, but after a few seconds (which felt like minutes!) she said yes! We had both known that a proposal was just a matter of time, and I was hoping to surprise Wendy on the day, but she knew well that it was coming!”

Wendy says she was chuffed to have the whole thing on tape, “Now there is evidence that he cried before I did during the proposal!”

Wildwood Florals created the bouquets and ceremony florals, and Wendy tells us the florist is "extremely talented. Neither of us know that much about flowers, so we just showed Sarah the dresses and discussed colours, and she created stunning bouquets. She also made us a wreath with our names on it to hang at the front of our ceremony room, which may have been a strange request at the time, considering we were having a March wedding, but it ended up seeming far less strange with snow outside!”

Adam tells us why his and Wendy’s wedding was so emotional for him, “My dad was diagnosed with cancer in December and passed away just eight days before the wedding. The funeral was five days before the wedding and we went straight from that into final prep for the wedding, so we were both physically exhausted, as well as emotionally exhausted.” We're sending Adam, Wendy and their family all our love. We can’t imagine a more bittersweet occasion - this pair are absolute heroes for getting through the day.

Wendy says that, although emotions were high, they still wanted their wedding to be as relaxed as possible and personal to them both, “We felt that we wanted the day to reflect our journeys as individuals that led us to the day and to celebrate our new journey as husband and wife. We tried to capture the theme of journeys through our ceremony, photographs around the venue and through our speeches.”

Fair play to Wendy and her bridesmaids for braving this weather!

Wendy says it was really important to her to have a first look with Adam, “Our ceremony wasn’t until 3pm so I wanted for us to be able to get a few photos together before so that we didn’t have to leave our guests for too long after the ceremony. I’m so glad we did as the snow was at its peak during the first look and started to melt away shortly after the ceremony.”

Finding the right photographer was a high priority for this bride and groom, “We both love photographs and having our day documented in a way that recorded it as it happened, instead of having lots of posed photographs, was important to us!” Wendy explains, “We spent a long time researching photographers (we must have contacted at least 25!) and we were absolutely delighted when we stumbled across Signature Photography on Facebook. It was exactly the style we were looking for. What was even better was that Paul was genuinely a lovely guy and he embraced the emotion of the day with us.”

The couple got married during the infamous Storm Emma, otherwise known as the Beast from the East, which, for some, would have been a disaster. For Adam & Wendy, though, it made the day all the more special! “Ballymagarvey is a stunning location at the best of times, but the fact that we ended up having a white wedding in March, made it even more magical. When I woke up that morning and looked outside, I nearly cried! It was like a fairytale! I literally bounced around all morning in the bridal preparation room, so excited that we were going to have a white wedding!”

When it came to the venue search, Wendy and Adam wanted a venue that would look amazing regardless of how it was dressed. “Picking Ballymagarvey Village as a venue meant that the décor was always going to be beautiful, the food was going to be delicious and the service would be of the highest standard! And it exceeded our expectations!”

For Wendy and Adam, spending as much time as possible with their guests was essential. “We chose to have our ceremony in Ballymagarvey itself as we didn’t want to have to travel between venues. Because we also chose to do a first look before the wedding ceremony so that we could get some of the photos of us as a couple and with our bridal party before the ceremony, which meant we had lots of time mingling with our guests. It was something Adam had always wanted to do, but it was also really practical.”

Wendy says she’d seen event a photo of the venue three years ago and it became the dream to get married somewhere like Ballymagarvey, “When we went to the open evening, my eyes welled up the first time I entered the banquet hall and I knew that was where I wanted to get married! Thankfully, Adam loved it too!”

Wendy & Adam advises other couples to settle on two or three priorities. “There are lots of things that you may need to compromise on, depending on budget, dates, availability etc., but try your best to prioritise the things that are important to you both. For us, a personal wedding ceremony that reflected our faith, a great photographer and a beautiful, non-traditional wedding venue, were our priorities.”

Unfortunately, a few guests weren’t able to make it to the wedding, because of the snow. “We tried to keep the numbers small so that we could have our nearest and dearest there! We ended up with just under 100 guests.”

The couple had an intense few months leading up to the wedding and hoping Adam’s Dad, Joe would make the day. “Unfortunately, we found out a week and a half before that his time was short so we went into the hospital and had a wedding ceremony with him. That was the last time we saw him awake. We exchanged rings during the ceremony that night, which meant that we were already wearing them the day of the wedding celebration in Ballymagarvey!”

“Sadly, Joe passed away the week before the wedding. At the funeral, which was just five days before the wedding, I read a passage from Ecclesiastes 3 that included the line, ‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…a time to mourn and a time to dance.’ It encapsulated our week perfectly.”

It was so important to Adam & Wendy to include Joe on the day, they tell us. “The family brought a photograph of him. We took a family photograph with it and had a special toast for Joe during the speeches. Joe had started writing his speech in the hospital and Madeline, Adam’s mum, read it out. It was a day of mixed emotions, but one that was really special for both families.”

I just love how loved-up this pair are throughout the whole day!

For the styling of their day, the couple were eager to create a rustic, homely feel. “Ballymagarvey is full of character and we loved it from the first time we went there. We also used log slices in different elements of the wedding to add to the rustic feel, including them in our table centrepieces, using small log stands for the polaroid place names and choosing a log theme for our wedding cake, which was created by Primrose Lane Bakery.”

Each guest received an individual note, “We knew that we wouldn’t be able to get around to all of our guests and be able to catch up and thank them for coming, so it was our way to at least let them know that we were delighted to have each one there.” Adam tells us, “The credit goes to Wendy for those as she wrote about 96 of the 100 we had put together!”

Wendy tells us how she and Adam got involved in the pre-wedding prep. “Adam is a graphic designer and I am a wannabe creative, so we designed all of our wedding stationery together: invitations, order of services,  table centrepieces, menus, etc. We really enjoyed designing them and helped it feel personal to us.”

The couple added lots more personal details to their day, “Our table numbers were random numbers 1, 9, 189, 2169, etc. which were all based on numbers that are significant to us in some way, whether it was the number of years we’ve known each other, the number of days we’ve been engaged, the number of kilometres between our childhood homes or the number of countries we’ve been to together. We had a little fact underneath the numbers too. It was a fun way of sharing different parts of our story with people.”

Before the speeches, the couple also had a fun quiz for their guests! “We had everyone stand up and as people got a question wrong, they had to sit down, until there was one person standing. It was great fun and it meant that people were relaxed and laughing before the speeches started!”

Wendy has one last tip to pass on to other brides or grooms. “Enjoy every part of the day, instead of thinking about what is going to happen next! From the breakfast and pampering that morning, to dancing the night away, I made a conscious decision to be present and enjoy every moment as it was happening, even when we were freezing cold standing in snow with our guests for our group photo!”

How gorgeous is this timber-effect wedding cake!?

A well-deserved honeymoon was in order for this pair, don’t you think? “We went to Riveria Maya in Mexico. It was an all-inclusive package in a 5-star hotel which meant we didn’t need to worry about money at all once we got there, and were able to relax and spend time together by the pool or the beach.”

What a beautiful wedding! I can only imagine how difficult it was, but I'm so glad these two got the happy day they deserve! Thanks so much to Signature Photography for sending these gorgeous photos our way and to Wendy and Adam for showing us how they put the whole day together!