Jamie + Cameron by Danielle O’Hora - Together Journal

The concept intertwined gothic Celtic touches with more contemporary style typography.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

I’m Jamie (the bride) from a lovely wee city called Derry in the North of Ireland, and Cameron (the groom) is from Worksop, just outside Sheffield. We’ve been together for over 12 years, so it can be hard to summarise! We are both designers currently living in my hometown and working for a creative agency in London; we do a lot of travelling in between the two. We met in Newcastle back in 2011, and after finishing uni as a couple, the only way we felt we could stay together was by moving and pursuing our careers in London… one year turned into seven, and we made the most incredible memories there – where friends turn into family, we worked hard and partied harder. We have always loved the outdoors and keeping active. After London, we moved back to Ireland, where Cameron surprised me with a proposal in Connemara at the start of a hike up ‘Diamond Hill’ (somehow, I did not catch on to this!). He had told me we we’re camping for our trip around the West Coast, little did I know he’d booked the most incredible cottage looking over the Wild Atlantic Way for the next few days. The Champagne was cracked, and the tears flowed. This area of the world definitely went on to inspire our wedding…

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

We literally met the first night of University as 20 year olds. I think I embarrassed myself at an after party by chatting the ear off him and thought I’d never see him again. Little did we realise we’d bump into each other the next day on the same degree course… we attempted to stay friends for a year, hanging around in the same groups but we always knew there was a connection and this time he persuaded me before finally getting together!

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

For the last 5 years, we’ve worked together, which, as Cameron joked in his speech, is ‘the ultimate test’, haha. But honestly, after being together for so long and living in multiple cities, we’ve grown up with one another, and although we’ve changed as people, it’s strengthened us as a couple, building a life with shared passions. We’ve known for years it was a forever thing, but a wedding is always a good reason to have all those amazing people in your life together and throw a massive party to celebrate!

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes etc.).

Part of me always thought we’d get married abroad, but after moving back home, Cameron reminded me of the beauty of Ireland, and I honestly fell in love with it all again, especially after getting engaged there. Our family and friends are based all over the world, so it felt exciting to get everyone over and experience the scenery as well as the craic & pints that come with it!

We knew we wanted somewhere exclusive to us, somewhere far enough away from my hometown to feel like a holiday for everyone, a place we could relax and host everyone for the weekend – Temple House in Sligo was perfect. A historical house sitting on a huge estate looking over a lake, we loved that it held so much history and loads of character, with antique pieces in every corner, it set the tone for a vision and gave us a brief for everything that followed.

Our wedding was late August and the idea was always a humanist ceremony outside looking over the lake… everyone laughed when we said this and rightly so, we were getting married on the West Coast of Ireland so the probability of decent weather was low! But somehow we struck gold and got a heatwave all weekend, everything we planned came to life. The entire day felt like a dream.

We wanted the vibe to be relaxed, personal, but above all, fun – somehow reflecting who we are. Having live music throughout the day was a big deal for us, fortunately our family and friends are all really talented in that field. From traditional Irish, folk, Indie-rock & disco sets, we literally had it all. One of the highlights was walking down the aisle to my brother’s incredible acoustic version of Arctic Monkeys ‘R U MINE’ followed by the stunning music from my talented godfather & cousin on violin. The ceremony also included my 6-year-old nephew reading my late Grandads (Francis Harvey) Haiku Poems, which was really special. To kick off the night, we had our friend’s rock band followed by multiple DJs into the wee hours – this included our best man & maid of honour ending the night! It was emotional from start to finish…

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

As the venue didn’t push modern, we thought this was how our design approach came in, to add that bit of edge. The concept intertwined gothic Celtic touches with more contemporary style typography. But really, a lot of love and personal touches went into the design process – as two designers, this was the fun bit. We etched and hand-printed all 120 invites, 120 menus and all the signage. We created a personalised logo with a ‘Herron & Bull’ symbolising our surnames (Herron & Turnbull); we vinyl our seating plan to a beautiful 2m arched mirror and had personalised welcome bags in each room on arrival.

Our family also got involved and made two hand-fasting ribbons for the ’tying of the knot’, one embroidered by Cameron’s mum with a thistle to represent their Scottish heritage and the other with hand-painted patterns by a great-great aunt of mine from 100 years ago.

The colour palette for Cameron & the bridal party was all based around the venue and season; the outside of the building was so raw, whilst the inside had an abundance of colour, so we chose earthy shades of greens for my beautiful bridesmaids whilst the lads wearing navy/dark browns felt complimentary. Then it was up to the florals to add a burst of fresh colours – I asked for something seasonal, mostly white and green, with pops of purple, coral & burgundy. When it came to types of flowers, I was clueless, but having mood boards and Insta to chat through with the florist massively helped in the lead-up.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

Travelling around Ireland and making weekends out of venue hunting was really fun. We tried not to make the wedding planning all consuming too early on so those car journeys and mini breaks were a good opportunity to chat about what you want out of the day and start to get excited about details. However, we got a bit too carried away/ picky, and it took us about 12 venues before finding Temple House. Our family and friends actually stopped asking if we had chosen a venue in the end!

It’s hard not to plan the day for everyone else, but you have to remember everyone you know, and love is there to see you both happy, so saying that, plan a wedding that represents both of you and make decisions based on what you want. If you’re happy on the day, that vibe will filter to all your guests and set the vibe of the day.

Another trip for the day – Don’t stress if anything goes wrong. There will be a point when things are out of your control! There was an unexpected heatwave on our wedding weekend – which was everything we dreamed of – being able to have it outside BUT the wedding cake didn’t make the journey to the venue and actually melted. Our family and the caterers worked together to fix what was left, but all we could do was laugh and move on… otherwise, the stress of anything like that could ruin your day. It’s also one of those stories we will tell for years…

What was one, or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

Looking back, we probably spent the most amount of time choosing the venue & location; being able to have close friends and family on site for the whole weekend was SO important to us! Although we couldn’t have everyone, we knew Sligo Town would host the majority of our guests, and they’d fall in love with the area. It meant there was no sense of rush on the morning of, and having that Friday night with a small group to relax and ease into the weekend was the best decision. It really did feel like home for the weekend. As two creatives, we were used to searching and working with photographers for work projects, but wedding photographers are a whole other world and a little different when it’s your budget! However, once we chose the venue, it all fell into place, and we knew we wanted a style that matched that vintage vibe – through a mix of film & digital. We wanted our photographer to capture all the real, raw emotions of the day, even the unplanned – for example, when she arrived just in time to capture Cameron and a bunch of our friends going for a spontaneous lake swim on the morning of the wedding or jumping in the back of a 4×4 to travel down to the historical ruins where Cameron and I did our ‘first look’. Our brief to Danielle was to tell the story of the day and capture the small, big and even the imperfect moments. Looking through the photos, it’s like we’re reliving the day all over again for the rest of our lives – we love them. Worth every penny!