A super sweet and pretty April wedding at The Anglers Rest.
Incorporating his love of cycling and her lust for all things vintage and shabby chic. The perfect match!
They say opposites attract. Super organised Grainne first met her laid back lad eight years ago in the glamorous Mickey Martins pub during their time at college in Limerick.
She explains, “It was instant attraction at first sight!! Our pals orchestrated for our paths to cross a few weeks later and that was that! Ten months later, John moved back up to the big smoke with me and we haven’t looked back since.”
A private and truly intimate proposal ahead of a trip to Lisbon in May 2015 gave Grainne such a shock, she almost fell down the stairs!!
“I had just come back from the gym and John from a cycle. We were both red-faced sweaty messes, I certainly was not looking my finest! John pretended he had injured his back on his cycle and called me upstairs to help him with something. I ran upstairs in a panic and then I suddenly discovered a trail of lit candles leading from the top of the stairs into the bedroom and John on one knee ready to ask the big question. I genuinely wasn’t expecting it. It was lovely.”
“Our photographer Kevin Morris was known to us as my eldest sister had him as her photographer three years ago and her wedding pictures were beautiful. Kevin was a pleasure to deal with from the very beginning. He was always so quick to get back to us and answer any queries we had. He went out of his way to meet us the week before the wedding to run through the day with us. We had told Kevin that we didn’t want to spend too long having formal pictures taken, we wanted to spend time with our guests. He took some incredible natural shots of everyone just having a good time and of us interacting with our nearest and dearest. He is a really genuine, positive and fun guy. He made it a happy and enjoyable experience for us and our guests. He really captured our country cosy vintage vibe!”
Budding bride-to-be Grainne released her inner DIY diva and got seriously creative when it came to the couple’s wedding decor. The sage green and mauve colour scheme was positively dreamy!
A delectable cake table with vintage china and teacup centerpieces filled with flowers resting on books wrapped in vintage paper showed off her meticulous attention to detail. Their invitations had old-fashioned school bikes, and Grainne even decorated the wheels from one of John’s bikes with twine and cute quotes, placing them outside the church. A vintage bicycle placed inside their venue gave a few giggles with homemade signs reading ‘ring my bell’ and ‘pump me up’.
Again, when it came to her wedding dress, this bride knew exactly what she wanted.
“I’m vertically challenged at 4 foot 11, so I was worried a full length dress would swamp me! But I was pleasantly surprised. I bought my beautiful gown from Ophelia Bridal shop in Drogheda. I really wanted my dress to be quite soft, romantic and delicate and the owner Aoife really knew her stuff. She picked the dress for me! It was the first one I tried on and I instantly loved it. I asked for the back to be cut out, making it backless and I also asked for the train to be snipped – much to Aoife and my sisters horror! Thankfully it all worked out and it was exactly how I wanted it to look.”
Revealing how they fell head over heels for The Anglers Rest, Grainne told us: “John and I are very low key people. We don’t like fuss or extravagance. We knew straight away that it would be a small wedding, with just our immediate families and our closest friends. Our guest list was about 65 people in the end.”
“We also knew we didn’t want the big hotel wedding, it just wasn’t for us.”
“We bought an old house three years ago and renovated it. The style of our house would be very much country cosy vintage. We wanted our wedding venue to have a similar feel to our house, and for our guests to feel like they were relaxing at home. The Anglers Rest gives you exactly that. It is a beautiful warm and cosy space that instantly invites you to just sit down and chill out. We loved the rustic colour schemes, the big open fires and the shabby chic style of the venue. I knew I would be getting my craft on for the wedding as I have a slight obsession with vintage tea cups, mason jars, and anything lace etc. I knew my ideas would work perfectly in this venue. Other venues would have been too modern for what we wanted to add!”
Huge thanks to Grainne and John for sharing their stunning day and to their photographer Kevin Morris for allowing us to publish these stunning shots. You can see more of his work at www.kevinmorris.ie
Wedding Supplier Credits:
- Photographer – Kevin Morris Photography
- Venue – Anglers Rest
- Flowers – Arbour Blooms
- Wedding Dress – Watters & Watters Design, purchased at Ophelia Bridal
- Make Up – Tara O’ Farrell
- Hair – Joanne Newman
- Cake – Selena Doherty Kirby of Timeless Cakes 4u
