Clonabreany House

Our Proposal? I LOVE this story! If you ask Pete his version, he always says "I dragged her down a pier." Here's my version: It was the end of November and I said to Pete that we should start our Christmas shopping on the Sunday. Pete was pretty non-committal and on the Saturday evening he said to me that he'd prefer to get up early and go take some photos on Dun Laoghaire pier while the sun was coming up. I should have really copped that something was up at this stage but I really had no clue! He'd mentioned a few weeks previously that he wanted to go do that so I didn't think anything of it when he suggested it. Anyway, he woke me up really early that morning and we set off for Dun Laogahire (me with a hot water bottle stuffed down my coat!) We walked to the end of the west pier and were sitting on a rug snapping away our photos of the sun coming up (him with his fancy SLR and me on my iphone camera). It was a really clear crisp morning, the pier was deserted and the sun rise was gorgeous. After a while pete asked me to take a look at his photos and in my head i was thinking "Why don't YOU look at my photos I TAKE GOOD PHOTOS TOO! So anyway I started scrolling through his photos and suddenly they weren't photos any more, they were words - about our life together and the reasons why he loved it and me, a kind of powerpoint, he had put on the camera and "our" song was playing and the very last photo just said the words: "Sophie T will you please, please marry me?" He presented me with the ring and my answer was "Yes Please!

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We had a colour theme. Raspberry Pink and Grey. I drove my poor now brother in law (aka our long suffering wedding stationary graphic designer) mental with my requests for all things raspberry! Bridesmaids were in raspberry and our flowers were all shades of pink. The boys were all in grey suits but I'm not into the whole matchy matchy thing so it wasn't a really strict colour theme - and I didn't force pink ties on them!!

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Pete is a cousin of one of my friends from school. Keith. Keith and one of my very best friends, Sarah, got married in 2009 and Pete and I met at their wedding in Spanish Point, Clare. I launched myself at Pete on the dancefloor during a overenthusiastic rendition of 'I've Had The TIme Of My LIfe'!

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Our ceremony was pretty traditional, although we did add our own personal touches (Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid was played while we signed the register and one of our readings was a song "I Wanna Grown Old With You" from the film The Wedding Singer).

We got married in my family church, where my grandparents were married so It meant a lot to me to be married in that church.

There are too many "favourite bits". We had THE best day, but I think walking up the aisle with my Dad was a very special moment. I asked Pete his favourite part while we were on honeymoon and he said it was when our Minister pronounced us man and wife and I did an (involuntary) jump up and down of joy! The congregation found it pretty amusing too!

I actually had my heart set on a different venue. We had appointments to see it and Clonabreany on the same day but Clonabreany stole my heart as soon as we got there. We loved the relaxed elegance of it. It had tonnes of character, was just ours for the day, private, exclusive, really unique and had beautiful courtyard cottages on site so our guests could stay over. We loved the cozy res bar down in the courtyard and that the honeymoon suite was in the main house which Pete and I had all to ourselves.

The staff at Clonabreany could not have been more helpful! and answered any question I had, including how many toilet rolls do you go through in a night!!! (I promise I had my reasons! I was ordering special wedding toilet paper!). The executive chef also helped us choose our bespoke menu and tailored it to meet all our requests (the chocoholic bride wanted a chocolate milkshake shot included with desert which he kindly did for us).

Frog Prince did the fabulous lanterns in the marquee. They are the only supplier Clonabreany will deal with for these and after the wedding I found out why - they were installed seamlessly and the toughest job we had was choosing what colours to have! I think the lanterns really injected a sense of fun into the marquee which helped create the laid back atmosphere that we wanted for our big day.

The little touches were one of my favourite parts of planning our wedding. From the lanterns, to our wedding toilet paper. Attention to detail was crucial to me for our big day. We tried to pull everything together subtly, without having a really obvious theme but there was a heart and arrows motif that ran throughout the day. We picked a few things to focus on that were meaningful and important to us rather than sweating every single detail.

Our photography was done by Weddings by Kara - AMAZEBALLS! We wanted really relaxed photography that was not posed but more candid and natural. Karina and Rachel were amazing. In the best possible way we didn't really realise they were there half the time. They captured our day beautifully without imposing upon it and have given us the most amazing photos to remember our day by.

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We had our speeches just before dinner was served. My dad was pretty nervous about his so we wanted to have them early so he could relax and start enjoying the vino! The speeches as far as I knew were to be my Dad (Gary) Pete and the best-man Kieran, but one of my bridesmaids, Jennie, surprised me by making a speech which really was one of the highlights of the day for me! I kept it together for all the other speeches but bawled during hers! My dad's speech was pretty amazing too - props and all! He had both a Leinster flag and my dress from when i was a flower-girl for my aunt when I was 6!!

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Enlist as much help as possible from your friends and family. We had so much help from both our families and it made the whole wedding planning process so much more special having them involved! Although bride and groom obviously retain the majority vote and have final say on all matters!"

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