We were married on the 01 October at St Paul’s Church followed by a reception at the Carlson Suite.
Niall and myself are going out together 7 years this month. We first met in Gran Canaria in 2001 while Niall was on a boy’s holiday and I was there with my sister Michelle. We then started going out about 6 months later.
When we were going out 2 years, we designed and started building our house and 2 years later we moved in. In early December 2007, we got engaged and both wanted a short engagement.
Niall proposed over dinner one night at home and we both felt it was the right time for us to take the next step in our relationship.
We always fancied the idea of going abroad to get married; we felt that Malta was similar to Ireland in many ways, with the added bonus of guaranteed sunshine on our wedding day. We also thought that it would be lovely to spend the day with our two families and relax in a more personal and idyllic setting.
Both our immediate families travelled from Ireland – 24 in total – Everyone stayed in the Radisson for the full week enjoying the sunshine and the Maltese hospitality.
It took 8 months in total, which would not have been possible without the help of Rosemarie our wedding planner.
Rosemarie of Sun Dreams Travel was recommended through a friend of a friend and it was the best decision we made.
We both knew what we wanted and with Rosemarie’s input it made all the preparation a little easier and stress free.
My mum, two sisters, niece and myself had arranged to go dress shopping, we visited a local bridal shop, I wasn’t sure what style of dress I was looking for, but I knew a few things that I definitely did not want, I tried on loads of different styles just in case – Once I tried on my dress, I completely fell in love with it – it was designed by sottero midgley, – white corset style dress with a sweetheart neckline, with loads of diamante detail. I also got my sister Michelle’s bridesmaid dress in the same shop, which was a floor length cerise pink dress with a sweetheart neckline.
Becky, a local beautician and Christine a local hairdresser came to our room to do hair and make-up.
We got married on Wednesday 1st October 2008 at 4.00pm in a beautiful little Church and we had lovely music in the church provided by a duo that sang, played the organ and violin and they also travelled back to the hotel and played music during the stand up reception.
We had a champagne and canapés stand up reception, followed by a beautiful 5 course meal, and then later in the night we had a small individual wedding cake and a glass of champagne for all the guests.
Flowers were made by Fabien a local florist, in keeping with the pink color scheme, my bridesmaid and I carried cerise pink roses for the bridal bouquets, and the flower girl carried a little basket with pink rose petals, the men all wore pink button holes, we also had altar flowers and beautiful posies for the tables
After the meal, a local DJ played a range of music to suit all ages, and we danced late into the night.
We both wanted to stick to the traditional wedding but also had a few small ideas of our own. As a thank you to all the guests we broke from tradition and gave them gifts for travelling to our wedding in the form of earrings for the ladies, cuff-links for the men and toys for the 4 children.
We also gave all the guests a pink and white wedding fan to keep cool in the Maltese climate.
After the disco finished, the wedding guests had a lovely surprise for us – Our Bestman Damian Callaghan and Bridesmaid Michelle Blake, showed a dvd they compiled for us which was filled with childhood photographs and video messages / greetings from family and friends back home. It was the perfect ending to our perfect day.
Our photographer was also amazing – she arrived to our room at 12.00 on the wedding day and stayed till the wee hours snapping away and then the following day Jessica organised to collect us from the hotel and bring us to local beauty spots to have more photographs taken, it was very exciting as I got to wear my dress for a second time.
Our families are already talking about planning a return trip to celebrate our first anniversary.
We never once doubted that our wedding would be perfect, but it was so much better than we ever imagined, thanks to Rosemarie.
We would like to thank everyone who travelled to Malta and who was involved in our special day – it’s one we will never forget.
After returning home from Malta, we then flew to New York and Florida for a 3 week honeymoon which was also amazing.
