–What made the day really special and personal to you?
So hard to pick only a few details, so here’s all of them!
Wedding dress – After giving up fast fashion in 2020 my love for vintage has slowly grown into a passion of mine, so I knew my wedding dress had to be vintage. I’ve always loved the structure and shine of vintage silk, and I was so happy when I found a dress that fit this brief on Etsy. It happened to not be white, but I was more tied to the material than the colour. I ended up really loving the lilac/pinky colour with the embroidered flowers as it added to its uniqueness. I took it to Greg and Hong at The Sewing Studio in Limerick city for alterations and also requested the back of the skirt with the long train be removed and turned into a detachable overskirt. They ended up having to reconstruct the whole dress, corset included, and did a fabulous job. I took off the overskirt for dinner and dancing on the day so I could wear my dress for the whole wedding and feel comfortable. To say I love this dress is an understatement. It felt very me. I intentionally opted for no veil and a single type of flower for my bouquet (pink larkspurs) so nothing would outshine it. Greg and Hong have an incredible talent and they were so lovely to work with, as a lover of vintage fashion it was my favourite part of the preparations.
Jewelry – My friend Robyn who I’ve known for forever has her own jewelry brand called Habits Jewelry – she hand makes silver jewelry out of her studio in Montreal and she is extremely talented. I always knew I wanted her to make my wedding earrings and she did as a gift for me. She sourced pearls with a pinky/lilac base to match the colour of the dress and they were perfect. I’m so happy to have such a meaningful piece from her. She also leant me a matching pearl necklace to wear on the day which was so gorgeous. The jewelry complemented the dress perfectly, nothing I could have purchased would have been as beautiful.
Groom’s suit – After choosing the dress we weren’t sure of the direction to go in for Andrew’s suit. At home I tried on the dress and he stood next to me in a few different jackets, where the one that looked the best was a tweed inspired material. From then on he had his heart set on tweed. We chose to have it made with Kevin & Howlin in Dublin as they are a family run shop that use bespoke hand woven Donegal tweed. We decided on a classic green tweed with multi-coloured flecks. Andrew says he loved the colour as it complemented the Kerry location, his love of Limerick, and the colour of my dress. We also loved the details on the suit. The trousers are a traditional style straight leg with a pleat and turn-ups. The waistcoat was full tweed with lapels so it still looked like a suit when worn on its own. And finally we requested a double breasted jacket. We actually got this idea from Jonathan Anderson’s Spring 2026 Menswear show with Dior. Of course when I showed this to Andrew he sent the Dior suit inspo to Kevin & Howlin via email – I was mortified! After reassuring them that we were not Limerick people with notions of designer fashion, they happily did the double breasted jacket for us and we loved the final result.
Flowers – Two days before the wedding all the women in my family met at the cottage next to Jack’s Coastguard to arrange the flowers into their thrifted vases for the tables & church. It wasn’t the easiest job, and none of us had done flower arranging before, but we eventually found our rhythm. Helped of course by the few bottles of wine and the beautiful selection of flowers from Soah. After the initial overwhelm we had a great time and I will always cherish this day spent with them, especially as they had all travelled from Canada to be there.
