When I look at wedding photos, any wedding photos, I must confess, the first thing I look is the bridal bouquet, followed by the bridesmaids’ bouquets…..and then the wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses!! Seems like the wrong order, I know, but it’s a habit I’m not going to shake!
Such was the case with the recent wedding of Irish actress Amy Huberman and Irish rugby star Brian O’Driscoll in the Parish of Aughavas in Co. Leitrim followed by a reception in the nearby Lough Rynn Castle Hotel. Amy made a stunning bride, her dress was purchased in Myrtle Ivory Bridal Couture , Anne Lane, off Grafton Street, Dublin 2 and was designed by Welsh designer, Stephanie Allin, an ivory strapless gown in true fairytale style and her bridesmaids wore knee length dusty pink dresses in different styles by Irish designer Fiona Heaney of Fee G.
As is usual with me, I was drawn to the stunning bridal bouquets, created by local Florists Josephine & Brendan of Calla Floral Design. I have blogged before that we have seen a lot of pink bouquets this year, really one of the more popular choices with our brides this year. The Bridal bouquet was a simple, elegant hand-tied posy of sweet avalanche roses, beautiful and timeless, and complimented Amy’s dress perfectly. The Bridesmaids carried posies of white and pale pink roses, one of the most popular combinations we have seen this year – again, timeless and elegant choices.
With thanks to John Reynolds of John Reynolds Photography for letting me use his amazing photos in my blog entry today.
A chance meeting with Theresa Kelly of KellyTDesigns (Handmade invites, favours and unity candles) led to the planning and design of Aoife and Gareths’ Wedding in Marino on the 5th June. Theresa, a family friend of Aoifes’ designed the wedding stationery and together with Aoife and Gareth, came up with a Grecian theme for the Big Day. RosieDays were asked to supply the bouquets and decorate the church and we were only too happy to!
When I spoke with Aoife, she had her mind set on something traditional, but a little different, with lots of ivy!! So, with that in mind, I suggested the bridesmaids carry 3 different toned pink roses to compliment the mink grecian style dresses, Aoife requested white roses for her own bouquet so we mixed avalanche and akito roses and gave the bouquet a lush variagated ivy collar with some trailing ivy to reflect the general theme in the decor of the day. The 3 bridesmaids bouquets, one deep pink “Amalia” Rose, one bright pink “Aqua” rose and one pale pink “Barbie” Rose were all finished with ivy collars.
Perhaps the cutest flowergirl ever – Aoife’s Daughter, carried a basket filled with grapes and ivy, and wore an ivy headdress.
St. Vincent De Paul Church in Marino provided the perfect backdrop for the Grecian theme with it’s bright interior and impressive columns reflecting the stands draped with white satin! We hung bunches of grapes and draped natural ivy on the aisle stands, with luxurious white satin drapes on alternate pews.
The Grand Candelabra were filled with lush foliage and grape centrepieces and we added a unity arrangement to show off Theresa’s fab unity candles! Aoife made was a stunning bride and a pleasure to deal with and the Groom didn’t scrub up too bad either!! The weather was absolutely amazing and myself and Lorraine got to take 10 mins outside the sacristy with a cuppa while we waited for the Christenings that were being held that morning to finish! Huge thanks to the wonderful Anne who let us set up the aisle stands and arrangements in the Sacristy while the Christening Ceremonies were being carried out and who fed Lorraine with tea and biscuits during the wedding ceremony.
Noreen & Corrie were married on 28th May in the scenic surroundings of Glendalough in St. Kevin’s Church. My sister and I delivered the bouquets to Noreen who was staying at the reception venue of Brooklodge and we took the “scenic” route from here to Glendalough over hills and dales in the Wicklow mountains!
With Lorraine away on holidays, I was a bit lost and was very grateful to have my sister along for company even if she was slightly terrified on the way with the hills and sharp turns!! And we met again the lovely Ian from Fireworks Video who had filmed my friend’s wedding in the same venue last year!
Noreen’s bridesmaid was to wear deep wine/red and so we selected a bouquet of the palest pink sweet avalanche and avalanche roses for Noreen and the same for her bridesmaid with added wine hypericum berries to catch the colour of the bridesmaid dress.
The bridal party all wore avalanche rose buttonholes with hypericum berry detail.
In St. Kevins, we dressed the pew ends with Ivory Tulle and a Sweet Avalanche Rose and for the Unity Candles we created an arrangement with fresh foliage including “Red Robin” to reflect the wine tones, hypericum berries and sweet avalanche roses with white freesia.
A beautiful sunny day and a fabulous setting for AnnMarie and John’s wedding on the 16th April in LadyChapel just outside Maynooth. There is just something about LadyChapel, it’s so quaint and set in such beautiful surroundings – right in the middle of fields and country side with little traffic passing and the sounds of nature, it has almost a calming effect!
AnnMarie had fallen in love with the style of a bouquet we had provided for one of our Christmas Bride’s and picked it for her wedding. We arranged it slightly differently, using the hand tied method as apposed to a bridal holder. Her bridesmaids wore deep cerise pink dresses which were perfectly complemented by the deep pink tones in the cymbidium orchids we used in the bouquets.
The bridal bouquet was hand tied in a teardrop fashion, using avalanche roses and cymbidium orchids and the bridesmaids carried sweet avalanche roses tied in a posy with orchids. The flowergirl carried a pomander ball of gypsophilia with orchid details.
In the Church we provided a unity candle arrangement using roses and orchids, a pedestal arrangement for the rear alter, pew ends of ivory tulled with a stem of orchids on each and at the entrance, a dramatic arch framed the doorway, using lots of fresh greenery including ivy and ruscus, with some rose and orchid detail.
Did I tell you, that we finally got our worktops organised in the workshop? A chance mention by a visiting Groom-to-be and 1 week later we are happily working at waist-height counters – so much better for our poor ould backs!
Olive’s Wedding, in Ardagh, Longford on the 27th February was the first wedding we got to test run the new benches on! Such a pleasure to have SO Much space to work with, sure beats the days of getting 3 weddings in a weekend prepared in my not very sizeable kitchen – not to mention the toddler “helping”!
Olives’ bridesmaids wore deep red and she had requested one of our most popular bouquets – the fabulous Grand Prix Rose Posy Bouquet – timelessly elegant and velvety rich textured roses. The Bridesmaids carried white avalanche roses, interspersed with large round hypericum berries and all of the bouquets were wrapped in luxurious red velvet embossed satin ribbon.
We also arranged a Unity Candle piece for the Alter and 2 Large Traditional Style pedestal arrangement for the rear of the Alter and Lorraine delivered the bouquets to another happy RosieDays Bride!
