“Going to the chapel and we’re going to get married……”

Well I awoke on Friday 15th October at 7:50 to find a beautiful day greeting me. I slept well the night before which I wasn’t expecting to and now realised that I not only had to get myself to the hairdresser but also to the church on time!

I had picked L’Avenue hairdressers in Blanchardstown as the place to get my hair done and although the finished article looks good, the undue stress I was put under and the fall out of being 1 hour late for Niamh Fallon who was doing my makeup is something no bride should ever be put under. The first mistake we made was that both I (the bride) and my bridesmaid were getting our hair done in the same salon. Admittedly, the stylist did ask at the outset what time the wedding was at but she obviously didn’t factor in getting home, getting make-up done, putting our gowns on or even having a nice relaxing cup of tea before the off. The reason this was a mistake was that there was only one up stylist on at the time of our appointment. She focused most of her time on doing my bridesmaid’s hair and actually did my bridesmaids hair first. During the appointment she was called on to attend to another customer who was having a colour done and seemed to pay more attention to the type of music playing in the background than to the bride who was at any moment about to explode in her face!

At the time of getting my hair done, I was so distressed and stressed out by this total disregard for any sort of time schedule that when both our hair was finally done, I simply paid and left. I vaguely remember looking at my watch and seeing that it was 11:30 am. I was over an hour late getting home to have my make-up applied. By the way, the appointment was for 9:30 am and both my bridesmaid and I were there for 9:20. There really is no excuse. I will allow the stylist in question the right to reply and will post that as soon as I have it.

Anyway, while I was at the hairdressers, my florist delivered the flowers to my house. It was really handy having my sister there as she was able to receive the flowers and also to let Niamh in so that she could set up in anticipation of our arrival. I was just sorry I wasn’t back in time to receive the flowers as Dawn from Bunch Florists did a smashing job and did exactly what I was looking for (even though she will say at the outset I didn’t know which flower was which) the end result was ‘worth waiting for’! I’ll do a role call in the final entry of my diary so that all parties can be thanked for the work they did.

Driving back from the hairdresser I got stuck behind a truck that was from Irish Bacon Slicers. I’ll never forget the drive back, bridesmaid sitting beside me asking me whether I’m alright and only seeing the tall truck from Irish Bacon Slicers blocking my way. When I eventually arrived home I was able to throw a sandwich and a cup of tea into me (both provided by my Mum, who had also arrived in my absence). Audrey, my bridesmaid was made up first, so that I could get my lingerie on and be ready for Niamh in my dressing gown. Throughout this time people were coming and going and I could see the time ticking by. I had told Joseph that I wouldn’t be late as I hate late arrivals.

Many, many thanks have to go to Niamh Fallon who was our cosmetics consultant on the day. Instead of having a leisurely hour and a half to do the make up, it was more like a maniacal 45 minutes and even with such a short time frame, was relaxed (which helped me calm down) and the end results didn’t reflect the time constraints. It would be remiss of me not to recommend her services to any future brides to be. I know I’ll be keeping her number handy for any special event I may be attending in the future.

Once I was made up, it was time to put on the dress. The chauffeur had arrived at this point and my mother and bridesmaid were escorted out the door to the church. That left just me and Ann in the house. I donned the gúna for the first official time and Ann did up the buttons at the back. At this stage of the proceedings, I was legging it around the house and was trying to get the attention of someone to help me put on my necklace.

Unfortunately, in the rush, my mother forgot to leave us the keys to her car so that one of my sisters could drive it to the church for her. The very kindly chauffeur brought the keys back to the house but at this stage the sister who had said she would drive the car had been to the house and gone on to the church so my ‘giver away’ ended up driving behind the limo. In the video, as the limo approaches the church we can see my mum’s car pulling out from behind it to park and Ann then dashing to my aid in order to help me. What a fiasco! It’s moments like that, that make a wedding fun!!!

I had arrived. Barney from John Cook Videos gave me a little wave and that set me off. I got the worst case of the giggles in my life. Joseph was waiting for me at the top of the church and all I had to do was take a few little steps. I could hear the string quartet playing beautifully and the acoustics were amazing.

As neither Ann nor I had even thought how we were going to go up the church there was much frantic discussion at the back. Before I knew it, I was on my way. It was 1.29pm and I wasn’t late!!! By 2:15 I had joined the leagues of the married women. I have to say, I don’t think I stopped smiling all day.

Roganstown Golf & Country club was the destination for our reception and we arrived there early too. Ciaran, the manager, wasn’t expecting us until about 3:30pm but we were there at 3:15pm. I was so anxious to meet and greet our guests that I didn’t even think to ask the chauffeur to take us for a drive. After having some issues prior to the wedding day with Roganstown, all were answered on the day. Ciaran and Lynda (their events coordinator) pulled out all the stops and I would have no problem recommending them for any function. The room was lovely, the cake was set up and the balloons for the kids had been delivered.

We called our tables after films that seemed appropriate based on the guests sitting at the tables. The top table was called “From Here To Eternity”, need I say more! Others were “When Harry Met Sally”, “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Life Is Beautiful” so they all reflected on either one guest or a couple sitting at that table.

The food was delicious and plentiful and even the little touches such as my dinner plate getting a warmer cover placed over it while I nipped out to the loo put my mind at ease that we had picked the best place for our reception.

Once the meal was over it was speech time. I was humming and hawing over whether I would make a speech or not and when the time came, I decided not to. I figured that between the thanks that my husband would make, the best man and my sister, there wasn’t any requirement for me to thank the same people again. It wasn’t nerves that stopped me speaking and I don’t regret not making a speech for a minute.

The speech that my new husband gave was one of the funniest speeches I’ve ever heard. He even wrote me a poem which took us through how we met and to our wedding day which he got framed and gave to me as a gift. I noticed people laughing and crying throughout his speech and I know he got emotional as he read out the poem.

The day flew by so quickly that I really didn’t have an opportunity to take it all in. There were moments I remember and moments that I didn’t even know happened which is why I think you really need a video of your day.

In my final brides diary, I will list the companies/suppliers that we used for our wedding and if anyone wants to enquire on anything, you can email me directly.

That’s all for now.

Lynne

Footnote:

Since I wrote the piece above some weeks ago now, I was awaiting a response from L'Avenue in Blanchardstown where I got my hair done. The response mentioned the following:

• One of the staff was off to attend a funeral so they were understaffed (and that is why my hairdresser had to attend to answering the phones etc).
• If anyone wanted to have one-to-one attention on their wedding day, it would have to be reflected in the price paid.
• My hairdresser began working on my bridesmaid first as she believes in not having the bride hanging around waiting for other members of the bridal party to be finished "keeping the best for last".

Included with the letter was a voucher for a luxury facial and a manicure by way of an apology for inconvenience caused."