A Stylish Carton House Wedding Featuring Sequin Details

From the bride: We wanted our wedding to be an adventure. We chose to have a destination wedding because we wanted our friends and family not only to celebrate our wedding but to experience the culture, sights and charm of Ireland. Ray and I love Ireland and we wanted to share a place that we love with those that we love. One of the best things about our wedding was that it wasn’t just a one day event, but it was truly an adventure between dinners, pub nights, visits to Trim Castle, Dublin and so much more. Having a destination wedding can be tough when you think of not everyone being able to make it but it warmed our hearts with how many of our family and friends who travelled to witness the happiest day of our life together.

What did you want in your dress?

For my dress, I wanted vintage elegance. I knew I wouldn’t want a dress that was the new “in” style dress. I wanted to be able to look back at my pictures and see a dress that was timeless. I wanted traditional romance with touches of lace and mostly a dress that flattered my figure. I started my search with a dress in mind that would be full lace and it was not flattering. When the consultant at the boutique brought me the dress that would be mine it was exactly what I was looking for. It was an overlay of lace with a touch sparkle and flattering to my shape. I have always wanted a veil that had the lace trim and before I could tell my consultant what my thought was for the veil, she was out the door and she brought back a cathedral veil with lace trim. My mom and I both were in tears and I knew I had found my dress! Now when I click through my pictures, I know my dress completely fit my style and the vintage elegant look that I wanted.

What inspired your day?

The thing I loved about the Carton House was the unique setting of the Old House. It was the touch of old and new that won me over. It was also so impressive as you drove through the greens of the golf course to this massive old estate. The reception rooms were unlike anything you would find back home so the details of the rooms where the reception and dancing were held were impressive on their own.

Lady Chapel in Maynooth was so quaint and full of charm. When we pulled up to the chapel during our wedding site visits, I was in love with the setting, a stone church amongst stone walls and green fields. I always had in my mind when we were choosing the details of our wedding that I wanted it to have the look and feel of Ireland. I wanted that Irish experience and I wanted my guests to experience all of the beauty of Ireland.

When it came to the details of the wedding, I love sparkle and I love vintage pieces. So I decided to add a touch of both. I added in glitter and sequins and I sourced vintage cake stands, plates and all little details that maybe I would only notice.

Lastly, I really poured over the details of the wedding. I wanted everything to have my touch and I wanted to personalize everything. I spent a lot of time on the stationery and signage that would be a part of the wedding. When planning the ceremony, we added in many things like songs, tributes to our grandparents, and readings that all had meaning to us.

For the reception, we kept saying we wanted our guests to just have fun. We worked closely with Marc from Dublin DJ and he really got the party going. We just wanted everyone to have a blast!

Tell us all about your details!

I was totally obsessed with having a dessert table. When we decided to have a wedding in Ireland, I started to follow Irish wedding blogs so that I could get ideas and also find vendors that I liked that were featured in the weddings. This is where I got the idea of the dessert table. I was determined to also find the décor for the table on my own. Looking back, this was probably the most insane thing that I did because I literally had two huge suitcases full of dessert table goods. I bought vintage plates, glass domes, 8 milk glass cake stands, cupcake stands, Mr and Mrs forks, bud vases… Literally everything. I also love touches of sparkle wherever I can find them so when I saw the sequin table cloths I needed to have one. Annie sent me a link to purchase sequin material. 40lbs of sequin material arrived at my house and at work because I needed a long conference room table for cutting, I worked with two of my coworkers to cut the material for the dessert table and then sequin runners for all my tables. My boss came to me one day and said “did a fairy visit our conference room”… to this day we are still finding sequins on the floor.

Cake topper: I found our cake topper from the Small Object. Our dog, Gabriel, is the love of our lives and since he wouldn’t be present at the wedding, I thought the cake topper was adorable little tribute to him.

Another part of the wedding that I really enjoyed working on was all the printed materials. I did tons of research and came up with several ideas to design our wedding booklet, tags for seating plans, packet for our St. Bridgid’s cross, table names, signs for dessert table. I had so much fun working with Judy from RSVP in Hingham coming up with the fonts and designs for all our stationery. For our Save the Date, I wanted it to be whimsical and fun. For our invitations, I wanted the look to be elegant with a touch of vintage. We carried out both themes throughout our wedding.

The other part that I really loved was the St. Bridgid’s cross. Our priest, Msgr Jim Cassin, suggested that we be blessed at the end of the ceremony with the St. Bridgid’s cross. We had a family in the local parish make St. Bridgid’s crosses for all of our guests. We handed them out with a translation of the prayer and explanation of the cross. During the ceremony, all of our guests raised their crosses with Msgr. Cassin and blessed us. It was a beautiful part of the ceremony.

Our table names were not traditionally numbered but named for all of our Firsts. Our first date was to the Aquarium, First Dinner Date was at the North End, Love at FIRST Sight was our puppy Gabriel… just to name a few.

For the bridesmaid dresses, we worked with Flair Bridesmaid in Boston and I wanted each girl to feel beautiful and comfortable on the day of our wedding. I chose to let each girl pick out the style of their dress. I selected the color and material and Dessy had a huge selection of styles. It worked out that each girl picked a different dress by chance! I really feel like each girl picked the most perfect dress that flattered each of their gorgeousness.

For our favors, I had macaron pops made for the girls and Jameson whisky bottles for the guys. I wanted something a little different and still with the touch of Irish essence.

For my “reception” head piece, I searched so many websites to try to find the perfect piece that mixed the vintage elegance that I wanted. I didn’t want just a brooch in my hair but something totally different. I kept telling my friends about the hair fascinators that are common at Irish weddings. I started to search online for some of my friends who wanted to wear fascinators to our wedding. I ended up finding a place in Boston called Galvinized Headwear and she was only ½ mile from my office. One day I walked down to check out the store and was thrilled when I met the owner who is originally from Ireland. I went there looking for my friends and left with her designing a fascinator for my rehearsal dinner and for the reception. I ended up with an amazing and unique piece for my wedding!

One of the best parts of the wedding was the Irish dance troupe that we hired, Celtic Fusion. We didn’t tell our guests about this surprise. About an hour into the night of dancing, Celtic Dance Fusion set up and had our guests in awe at their moves. They went on to organize a dance off between the groom and the best man. Everyone was cheering and hysterically laughing. It really topped off the night!

Flowers- I loved everything about the flowers. I told Stephanie from The French Touch that I wanted the flowers to look lush and I could not have been happier with the way they turned out.

For the flower girl, our niece Willow-Lyn is adorable on her own so I wanted something with a touch of whimsy instead of a traditional flower girl dress. I found an adorable tutu on Etsy from Tutu Cute Baby and paired it with a little leotard, glitter ballet flats, and a glitter wand.

What was your favourite part of the day?

Ray and I wanted a song that was sentimental to both of us for when I walked down the aisle. Both of our grandmothers’ passed away in the summer and when we were searching for songs we found that both of our grandparents loved the movie Forrest Gump. We chose to have Forrest Gump Feather Theme song as the song I would walk down the aisle. Hearing that song start while waiting outside with my dad, just made my heart leap. Christina really captured those moments in our pictures. I remember coming through the doors and being completely filled with emotion as I walked with my dad, gave my mom a kiss, and just locked eyes with Ray the entire walk down the aisle. A few of the pics I love are the one with me standing outside with my dad waiting to go in and the other was when my dad handed me off to Ray at the end of the aisle. There was pure joy in both of our eyes.

Do you have any advice for our planning brides?

I was really detailed oriented… like so detailed oriented that maybe I should not have had a destination wedding because I loved all the little things. Even when I asked my bridesmaids to be in the wedding I took vintage spools and spun material around the spool with a message inside asking them to be my bridesmaids. I love all the little things. Obviously Pinterest was amazing for looking for ideas and I think one of the best things I did was to follow all the Irish wedding blogs for ideas and vendor recommendations. One of the best things I did was to hire Annie from Aislinn Events to help sort through all the ideas I had in my head, develop my vision, and then to really execute on the day. For the day of the wedding, I had no worries. Annie took care of everything. If everyone can have an Annie then I highly recommend it. I think if I did a wedding local then I would have saved that expense because I don’t think I would have understood how helpful it was to have someone there that day making sure everything was running smoothly.

On the day of the wedding, try to relax and enjoy each moment. Everyone says that their day went by so fast. I can honestly say there isn’t a moment that I don’t remember. I can remember every moment of the day and the feelings I had at each of those moments.