June 16, 2016 – Nuremore Hotel, Co. Monaghan
Aoife McCormack met the love of her life, Emma Malone, at The George Bar in Dublin. The lovebirds instantly hit it off when Aoife started talking about being from Cavan. Naturally there was some slagging from Emma, a Balbriggan native, but Aoife gave as good as she got and they have been together ever since, despite Aoife’s love for odd socks and Emma’s hatred of them. Marriage was on the cards early on for these two.
They knew in their bones they belonged together and after four wonderful years before they got engaged.
THE PROPOSAL
Emma proposed quite sneakily by taking the day off and planning a sweet and intimate proposal in their house while Aoife was out. There was a slight panic when she got a call from Emma who said, “we need to talk”, but that added to the surprise element of the whole proposal. “As I came through the front door she steered me into the sitting room where there were lots of candles lit and a humongous bunch of flowers waiting on me. Also in the room was our little Yorkie Beag and tied round his neck on a red ribbon was my engagement ring,” Aoife remembers.
After that super romantic proposal, they started to plan their big day and settled upon Nuremore Hotel, Monaghan as their wedding venue. They chose to marry on June 16, 2016 because they got engaged on April 14, 2014 so there was a matching sequence of numbers. 14.04.2014 and 16.06.2016. The couple shared their day with 196 guests.
WEDDING DETAILS
Aoife got her dress from Cera in My Fair Lady, Castleblaney and Emma got hers from McElhinney’s in Donegal. They both decided to stick with tradition so neither saw the other’s dress before the day itself.
The three bridesmaids, Aoife’s two friends Lisa and Anna, and Emma’s best friend Amanda, wore fabulous eggplant coloured Mori Lee dresses from My Fair Lady, chosen by Aoife. The bridesmen, Aoife’s brother Cian and Emma’s two brothers Gary and David, and 2 dads wore suits from Steele’s menswear, Carrickmacross. The two flower girls, bridesmaid Anna’s daughters Lauren and Aerin wore adorable dresses from John Rocha at Debenhams and they stole the show. Their pageboy, Aoife’s cousin Daniel, was kitted out in slacks and a waistcoat from River Island, converse and a handmade dickey bow from Steele’s menswear.
Jeannette Walsh of Couture de Fleur, a dear friend of the brides, created stunning bouquets for both of them. “She was amazing at it. We both sat down with her for five minutes, told her a few things we liked and disliked and in a few months she had created the most perfect bouquets for both of us,” Aoife recalled. They couldn’t have been happier with the end result. Siobhan Garvin, a family friend of Aoife’s, created the floral arrangements for the bridal party.
Aoife’s mother made the wedding cake with a little help from the bride herself. “Two days before the wedding we set about decorating the cake. Who knew it would be so difficult to put hundreds and thousands on a cake? But we laughed it off and had so much fun making it. It will always be one of my favourite memories in the run up to the wedding,” Aoife remembers. Guests devoured the three-tier creation; the hotel staff even commented that they never saw a cake go down so well.
Sounderous, a duo from Balbriggan provided the music for the ceremony and drinks reception while the lovebirds were off taking photos. The Great Escape band played into the night and also provided the DJ.
Sandra McGrath of Happy Days Photography met Aoife at the hotel before the ceremony to take a few pre-ceremony snaps. Aoife’s uncle, PJ McCormack of McCormack Imaging studios, took some pictures at her parent’s house and was a back-up photographer on the day.
The theme of the wedding was homemade, the brides involved their friends and family in as many aspects as they could which made everything much more personal.
The ceremony was officiated by Sharon Patterson of The Spiritualist Ceremony of Ireland. “It was a lovely ceremony, our mothers were involved with the candle lighting ceremony, all of our guests got to give us a blessing in the ring ceremony and some of our family and friends were involved by doing readings of poems which we had picked,” Aoife remembers.
Emma’s cousins, Keith and Paul Malone, created personalised cocktails for the brides and Aoife and her friends baked 200 cookies for the drinks reception. Aoife also made her own sweet table, going into the hotel the night before to set it all up.
Aoife’s favourite memory was seeing Emma waiting for her at the top of the aisle. “I didn’t see anyone else but her and I didn’t hear anything. Our walking up the aisle song which we had spent months deciding over, I didn’t hear a word of. I just saw her and took off up the aisle. That moment when I saw her for the first time standing there smiling and waiting for me, that I will never forget.” Emma’s younger brother Gary started off the speeches getting the crowd going with his rendition of ‘Stand Up For The Boys in Green’ having the guests stand and sit on cue. This definitely got everyone in a great mood for a party and it was the middle of the Euros so it was certainly appropriate.
The girls jetted off to Vilamoura in Portugal for a ten-day honeymoon, staying in the luxurious Hilton Hotel Vilamoura.
Tell us about your experience with Nuremore Hotel, Monaghan.
“I could talk for hours about how great our wedding venue was. The Nuremore Hotel is an outstanding venue for a wedding. The wedding building itself is beautiful and so light and spacious you don’t feel cramped with a big crowd. The grounds are beautiful for getting the perfect photographs. The food is to die for and I think its safe to say that over the two days of our wedding celebrations none of our guests were ever hungry. But the best part of the Nuremore is the staff. They are some of the best people I have ever met in my life. Louisa, the manager and wedding coordinator is a wonderful woman. She runs the place to perfection and can’t do enough for the couple or their guests in the whole run up and days of their wedding. As for the rest of the staff they really made our day so special and relaxed. They were there whenever we needed them and I don’t think the word “no” is in their vocabulary. I am so glad we chose here to have our special day as I don’t think anywhere else would have treated us so well.”
www.nuremore.com
Can you tell us in a few words how great your photographer was to work with?
“Both of our photographers were wonderful. Most of the time they just clicked away and we didn’t even know they were there. They were relaxed and not in your face and didn’t stress us out forcing us to take picture after picture. Their ideas were great and they listened and were open to our ideas and anything we asked of them as well. Both absolutely brilliant and I would highly recommend them both for anyone looking for a wedding photographer, or for any other event.”
www.happydays-photography.tumblr.com
