The Venue
We fell in love with
Riverdale Barn as soon as we walked in. The stunning scenery, the laid back barn feel. The reds and stonework were a photo opportunity waiting to happen. It was perfect for the laid back evening wedding we wanted. We chose to use
Old Barn Catering to supply our wedding meal and opted for a relaxed hog roast and so fresco bbq style meal. They couldn’t have been more helpful, and made sure every second of the day ran smoothly. I didn’t have one second of concern and everyone commented on how wonderful the meal and especially the desserts were. We also hired
Papa J ice cream hire to provide cones for our guests, which turned out to be a godsend as it was an absolute scorcher of a day.
The Entertainment
Myself and Simon are huge magic fans. It was a no brainer that we would have this as entertainment at our wedding. I hired
Rod Hogg to entertain our guests and he had them enthralled. His mind tricks baffled and he left our guests in awe. For music I asked a local acoustic musician Justin Black to sing for us during our ceremony and then perform a live set before the meal. It kept in with our laid back theme and he sang some wonderful classics as well as learning Take That’s 'Rule The World' as a special request for my walk down the aisle. Our evening entertainment was provided by Aaron at
DISCO NI and he did a great job of getting everyone up dancing till the wee hours.
The Styling
My florist Rebecca Gourley (
Floralicious Designs) was an angel. She literally took on everything for our day. She organised my seating, she provided entertainment for the kids in attendance and decorated every inch of the venue in flowers and candles.
Nothing was too much trouble and even when the heatwave threatened to kill all the flowers and melt the cake she took charge. I couldn’t recommend her epic talents enough.
The Cake
My beautiful four tier semi naked cake was provided by Lee at
Relax Cakes in Newtownards. It was stunningly accurate to what I had envisioned and tasted AMAZING.
The DIY Projects
This was the fun part, I had every idea under the sun for favours and little delights but without the permitting budget I had to pace myself and decide on only a few. I had wine bottle labels made with our wedding dates and names and spent a gruelling afternoon with my mum soaking wine bottles and removing the original labels. (The bonding time was fun)! We also had special sweet bags made as favours and filled jars with every childhood favourite and my bridesmaids mum Beverly made beautiful and delicious heart shaped shortbread to complete our sweet cart delight.
My final favour was mini bags of dried rose petals that we filled ourselves and had personalised stickers on for each of our guests. It’s the small things that people remember and I had so much fun creating them.
The Photographer
This for me was THE most important decision and a trailed the internet for inspiration. My wedding pictures will be my lasting memory of our special day frozen in time and I needed them to be perfect. I hate the idea of staged pictures that take hours to do and everyone having to miss the party to stand about posing uncomfortably. It was important for me to find a photographer who would go with the flow and capture the special moments with ease and class.
A colleague of mine put me in the direction of
Carla Blain Photography and from the moment I saw her work I was hooked. The soft angles, the effortless style. Having a reportage style was important. So without hesitation she was booked and she dutifully flew herself over to help complete my day. She was funny and blended in beautifully, and I’ll treasure her art (and ability to make me look awesome) forever.