Shirley and Jonny wanted a relaxed wedding with all the most important people in their lives there… including their two dogs. In fact they picked their venue, The Arcadia in Portrush Northern Ireland, specifically because they could have them there!
“We really just went with the flow when we were planning the wedding”, Shirley explained. “We picked things that worked with our venue and the surrounding area. Both our venue and photographer where chosen because of our love of dogs. We had to have Max, our nine year old boxer, and Millie, our one year old Chinese Crested there. They are a massive part of our family no way could we have got married while they had been put in kennels for the day!”
“Unfortunately our baby Max passed away recently. We are all devastated but we have the most beautiful memories of him on our wedding day. If anyone is unsure whether they should include their dogs in their wedding we would say definitely do it.”
“We didn’t have a theme, we just picked stuff we liked”, she continued. “However there had to be lots of music references. Our invites were made from 7” vinyl and our reception also had a fab full size jukebox!”
“In terms of DIY we made the ‘mints to be’ as favours and and ‘tears of joy’ hankies for the church… I also made the cake! I have to confess I am a professional cake maker but it was still a huge project to take on! Our reception space was set up and decorated by our friends Swift and Louise from Paper Rose and having them to do that really took the stress off.”
The bride’s incredible blush pink dress was the Palm Springs dress by Watters. She had two pairs of shoes and they were both from New Look. “One of the biggest expenses was my dress”, she said. “I just fell in love with it and there was no way I wasn’t going to have it!”
“Our next biggest expense was our photographer. Having Kelly was a no-brainer. Her work is amazing and she fit into our day like an old friend even though we had never met her before. When she told us she was also dog crazy we knew we had to book her immediately!”
