Trina & Ciaran’s Wedding, 4th February 2011

As a wedding service provider, it’s always our pleasure to take a small part in the planning of such an important day in a couple’s lives, but when the couple involved are friends, it’s even more special! When Trina called me last year to ask me to help organise the floral decor for her wedding, I was only too delighted.

And so, on a very, very windy stormy day, I met with one of our mutual friends (Sheena) who helped load up the Van and we set off on our way to Donegal – Road Trip!! We collected the cake and cupcakes from Anna at GiggleCakes and poor Sheena carefully held the Sponge layer on her knees for all of the 3.5 hour trip!! Anna provided 3 tiers, chocolate biscuite cake on the bottom, then madeira, then fruit, iced simply in ivory fondant and I then decorated with small fishbowls holding red roses between top and 2nd layer, and placed individual rose blooms around the cake.

Trina decided on the classic Grand Prix Red Rose, tied in a posy and finished with soft italian ruscus foliage with pearls hidden amongst the greenery. The 3 Bridesmaids carried creamy vendella roses with soft foliage throughout and finished with a little bit of diamond sparkle.

Joined in the evening by my friend Louise, we together decorated the ballroom of the Allingham Arms Hotel with silver organza sashes over chair covers, silver candelabra on each table, on a mirror base with white petals and crystals scattered for a final detail. On the two family tables we provided a fishbowl with floating red roses, surrounded by tea lights and individual taper candles. The twinkling fairylight backdrop provided the perfect festive finishing touch.

Braving the storms on Friday, we decorated the beautiful church in Bundoran – 2 Large Pedestal Arrangements, a large trailing unity candle Arrangement with gorgeous personalised Unity Candles provided by Theresa at KellyTDesigns. Along the aisle, we placed wrough Iron Aisle stands decorated with ivy and foliage, and continued the candlelight with lanterns along the aisle. Finally, Bay Trees and Lanterns graced the entrance – although I did worry they might take flight in the wind, luckily they all stayed put although we did loose some of the dressing of the bay trees in the gales!

My last job – the Candy Buffet. This was a lot of fun to put together, especially the “quality control” element – ie. tasting each type of sweet as they went into the jars to make sure they were fit for public consumption!! As you can see in the second image of the table – everything went down “a treat”.

It was 5pm before we changed for the wedding and ran in just ahead of the bride and groom to be seated, the meal was gorgeous and we danced until the small hours!!

Congratulations to my dear friend Trina and her new husband Ciaran,hope you have a wonderful honeymoon and looking forward to the catch up and photos when you are home!!

Filed under: aislestands,candelabra,candelabra hire,candelight,candles,Church Arrangement,church decoration,fairylight backdrop,petals,pew end decoration,Red Wedding,rose,wrough iron candelabra,wrought iron — Tags: aisle stands, allingham arms hotel, bundoran, candelabra, candy buffet, co. donegal, cupcakes, fairylight backdrop, grand prix bouquet, red roses, sweet table, wedding cake — Sinead @ 11:07 am on February 7, 2011

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Romancing the Snow

By the time our first wedding of December arrived, on the 4th, I could categorically tell you what footwear does not work well in the snow – firstly, Ugg boots – not waterproof, and wet sheepskin is not very pleasant, and secondly – riding boots – while they may be warmer and water proof, they have no grip – by the end of December, I officially hate snow!!

Let’s get back to our lovely bride Jennifer who was married on 4th December in AbbeyLeix Church, followed by Reception in the stunning surrounds of Castle Durrow in Co. Laois. Jennifer chose our Candlelight Package to set the scene in for the ceremony – Wrought Iron Aisle stands dressed with Ivy graced the aisle, with dramatic candelabra either side of the alter, and Bay Trees at the front entrance, the glow of candlelight adding a little warmth to a bitterly cold winters day!

Playing on the snowy, wintery theme, Jennifer chose bouquets of white roses, green mini-chrysanthemums and fluffy gypsophilia sprayed silver. The bridesmaids, who wore black satin, carried smaller posies with the same flowers as the Bride, who looked stunning on the day, complete with fur stole as she posed for a photo in the Snug Bar at Castle Durrow. We also bumped into Rhona and Susan again from the Powder Room Girls who did (as usual) a fab job with all the hair and make up.

We also dressed the Candelabra for the reception with lots of fresh ivy. This really complimented the graceful ballroom at Castle Durrow and we had a hairy few moments at the side of the N7, in the snow, in the un-water-proof Uggs gathering some fresh ivy as we ran a little short!!

After all the work was completed, we decided to warm our poor cold, wet feet by the open fire in the Snug Bar at Castle Durrow and ordered a tasty lunch – smoked salmon on brown bread and a big pot of comforting tea, before heading back to Abbeyleix to collect our stands and get back to the workshop to clean up.

Filed under: aislestands,avalanche rose,candelabra,candelabra hire,candelight,candles,Christmas Wedding,Church Arrangement,church decoration,pedestal,pew end decoration — Tags: aisle stands, Candle Stands, castle durrow, Christmas Wedding, pew ends, powder room girls, PRG, silver bouquet, Smoked Salmon, Snow, Ugg Boots — Sinead @ 9:26 am on January 11, 2011

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“Star Quality”

I first met with Olivia (one of our RealWedding Brides) way back in Autumn 2009, we had a lovely meeting (at my kitchen table) and decided on bouquets and flower types! Then the ideas changed, a few times and we met again in our office in April to finalise all the information! Olivia works as an editor for the Star newspaper and Shane for the Indo – hence the title!

We decided on a posy-style bouquet of mixed purple toned calla lilies with white crystal blush mixed throughout. The bridesmaids carried posies of bright purple “picture perfect” gerberas mixed with deep purple calla lillies and tied with navy satin to match their dresses. Olivia’s bouquet was finished with satin and lace ribbon and her “something blue” an ornate jewelled brooch belonging to her late nana.

Olivia and Shane were married in the picturesque St. Anne’s Church in Boharnabreena on 11th June 2010 and we provided 2 Traditional Pedestal Arrangements either side of the alter, using lots of the gorgeous purple gerberas and purple alium, we also created a unity arrangement into which Olivia’s unity candles were placed amongst the flowers and greenery! We dressed the pew ends with white duchess satin drapes and a posy of gerbera, bear grass and an alium. Outside, Bay trees guarded the entrance!

With thanks to Darren Purcell at Visionary Photography for the use of some of the images here.

Filed under: Church Arrangement,church decoration,pew end decoration,pink gerbera bouquet — Tags: bay trees, bohar, Boharnabreena, bridal bouquet, calla lily, real weddings, realweddings.ie, st. anne's church, visionary photography — Sinead @ 10:29 am on June 30, 2010

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Going Grecian in Marino

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.

Filed under: aislestands,avalanche rose,button holes,candelabra,candelabra hire,candelight,Church Arrangement,church decoration,pew end decoration,pink rose bouquet — Tags: aisle stands, flowergirl, grecian themed wedding, headress, ivy, marino church, pink rose bouquets, st. vincent de paul church — Sinead @ 12:18 pm on June 7, 2010

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Star of the Sea

On 29th May 2010, Aisling and Albert were married in the Star of the Sea Church in Sandymount, followed by a reception in the gorgeous Brooklodge Hotel. It was the final wedding of my crazy weekend, 3 weddings in 2 days with no Lorraine (who was busy enjoying the last day of her holidays in Peurto Rico!)

Aisling and her mum first met with me back in Autumn 2009 and we had our meeting with a cup of tea at my kitchen table! The one request Aisling had was that Lily of the Valley featured in her own bouquet. So, from there we decided on the bridal bouquet of white roses, heavenly scented lily of the valley and delicate mini white calla lillies.

The three bridesmaids carried simple posies of white calla lillies finished with ivory organza and the 3 flowergirls carried posies of white hydrangea and purple freesia.

Aisling and her mum fell in love with the idea of using blue Hydrangea in the church decor, and we designed 4 pedestal arrangements, 2 larger arrangement for the base of the aisle, 2 medium for the Rear alter using hydrangea and delphinium and and an arrangement for the alter into which we placed the unity candles (supplied by Theresa Kelly and now available through RosieDays).