A Classic and Rustic Riverdale Barn Wedding in Belfast

Hannah & Rory’s Wedding Video from VCW Photo & Film

From the bride:

What inspired your style?

I guess when we started to plan for the wedding I wanted to do a lot of it myself- to keep it special and also to keep the cost down. I wanted everyone to have their own pink lemonade in a jam jar and all the flowers to be in them too- so I think I had my dads head turned with hundreds of them in our garage!
I love wee vintage doilies for some reason so we had them on our invites, some made into bunting, lots all around riverdale and as guests name place setting. Ebay was great for these!
Rory and I have a love for South Africa, we have both been several times working with a local charity out there in George (sports academy) and so we wanted this to be part of our day as much as possible. We got one of the young people to do a video reading for us in the service which was really special; we also had a special greeting sent from them in our speeches and gave people the opportunity to donate some money to them! With all of our wedding we wanted it to be about the things we love and the people we love- so we tried to get this into our day as much as possible with getting people involved and giving us a hand!

Tell us about your dress.

My dress was an Alexia design, with a bit of altering, it was from the Bridal Suite in Holywood. It originally came with a big flower on it that I wasn’t fussed on so I got a belt made for it and a bow at the back. I wanted my dress to be classic and simple and it took me a long time to find. Although I don’t believe in a magical moment where you cry and say ‘it’s the one’ but I guess you do sort of just know when you find it. My wedding shoes were pretty plain but again I added a bow to them – I love bows! I had a blue hair clip made from my nannies broche which was really special to me!
The bridesmaids were also from the bridal room but they were dessy! I had always wanted to have them all different, something that suited each of them but also something they felt comfortable in.
Rory and his men where all in suits from Bogart which they bought- we found it hard to be able to hire an ordinary more casual suit. He was in a bow tie and the others in matching floral ties from ‘Mr bow tie’.

Any advice for our planning brides?
For anyone getting married my advice would be to plan for the marriage and not just the wedding. Getting married is a massive, very special commitment that you make to another person and to God. For lots of brides you can get so caught up in planning for a wedding that lasts 24 hours that you forget you have to spend the rest of your life with someone and can feel disappointed that the wedding is over even though the marriage is only beginning! We tried to spend time together not always talking about the wedding and we attended marriage prep classes to prepare us for what life was going to be like after the wedding. I make it sound like the wedding is the fun bit and its all down from there- not at all, being married is amazing but it can be dangerous to just live for the fairy tale while dress day and be sad when it’s all over!
When Rory and I planned to get married on the 7th June we decided that on the 7th of every month- before and after the wedding this was going to be our date day. We clear everything from our schedule and spend time together. Obviously this happens more than once a month but on the 7th it’s a special time to mark the day and remember the commitment we made to each other!