Louise and Ian’s wedding in Durrow Castle by Savo Photography

We asked our stylish bride Louise how they both met…

“We had both been living in London for several years, and on the suggestion of friends, decided to give online dating a go. We met one January night in 2010 for our first date and it went so well that we had our second date arranged before we said ‘goodbye’. We hit it off really well; both of us being Irish and having lots of similar interests meant that there was always plenty to talk about. After only 3 dates, we both knew it was something special and Ian has recently told me that it was around then that he told his sister that he was definitely going to marry me. Ian chose the engagement ring 6 months after we first met and finally got the courage to propose that November.”

Ready to go – I adore Louise’s look.

And a moments reflection….

“We were certain that it was going to be an Irish wedding, but seeing as we’re from different parts of the country we wanted to find somewhere in the middle to suit both families. We looked at a few venues online, and visited our favourites of those and Castle Durrow won hands down. Winter, and in particular Christmas is our favourite time of year, so we chose December 10th as our date. I always wanted to get married in an old house full of character & style and Castle Durrow had both in abundance. It was absolutely stunning; I loved the views and the attention to detail of the owners.”

We know a wedding is going to be great when Pearl & Godiva are involved!

“We worked very closely with Marie at Castle Durrow to help us plan our wedding. Organising the wedding from London had advantages and disadvantages. We spent a lot on flights over and back but we made sure that our research was thorough and chose the best vendor for each part of the wedding. If I was to give one piece of advice to brides to be, it would to keep an open mind when choosing vendors and do your research instead of relying on word of mouth recommendations. Without internet research we wouldn’t have had the venue, photographer, dress, suits, actually everything that we had!”

“We both wanted a vintage-style wedding and this showed through the touches we added. We had a old-fashioned sweet buffet and cupcakes with vintage teacups at our reception. I bought lots of second-hand photo frames for the table numbers, which we printed ourselves. Each table had Christmas crackers, individual place names in the style of old luggage tags, menus standing on reclaimed and re-purposed chair legs and a winter-style floral arrangement. Ian (a graphic designer) designed the invitations, menus and order of service booklets to carry the same theme throughout. In the church, the string quartet played a selection of our favourite songs during the mass, including some that they learned especially for our wedding. My favourite song is ‘I Giorni’ by Ludovico Einaudi, and they played it perfectly when I walked down the ailse. Ian also managed to get some songs by his favourite artists on the playlist, such as Sigur Ros, The Beatles, and Eels for the recessional song. While our guests enjoyed cupcakes and tea back at the reception, the string quartet kept them entertained with cover versions of pop songs, from Michael Jackson to Lady Gaga.” – I can vouch for these guys, they are unbelievable and there is no end to their talents!

“Ian was adamant that he was choosing the band and the cars and both were fantastic, in particular the band. He really wanted a soul band and they were the best wedding band I’ve ever seen, which is also a comment we’ve heard from all of our guests! There is so much about our wedding that stands out so we couldn’t pick one best decision, but the venue, photographer and band were spectacular”

Thanks so much to Louise, Ian and Savo Photography for allowing us to feature this gorgeous wedding today as part of our Patrick’s week special! Eric is available to travel the world for weddings so don’t be shy and check out his website here.