Sarah + Shane by Doxa Photography

Our event hire stylist described our wedding aesthetic as “elevated granny chic”

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

Our names are Sarah + Shane. Shane is a secondary school geography teacher and definitely the more sporty half of our relationship. He’ll give really anything a go – although padel is the current after-school fixation. He’s also a complete social butterfly, knows everyone, can talk to anyone about anything, and you’d find it difficult to find anyone who has a bad word to say about him really (according to Sarah, who’s arguably biased but not wrong)

Sarah is a wedding photographer and therefore the creative half of our relationship. She loves all things photography (specifically film) and is generally a very nostalgic, sentimental person who loves collecting and documenting anything and everything, both for work and our personal lives. Outside of work, she’s definitely a homebody and a bit of a hobby collector — sewing, sourdough, embroidery, thrifting for our home, and basically tackling any DIY skill she crosses paths with, in the spirit of “I bet I could just make that myself”.

Together, we honestly just love spending time at home together, or going on road trips around our lovely little island, although married life so far has consisted of spending all of our free time in the garden with our latest addition, Mabel, our golden retriever puppy, who has very quickly taken over our lives.

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

We actually grew up super close to each other and were in the same year at school, but at different schools, so our paths didn’t properly cross until our final year when we were both 17/18 years old (does that still technically count as high school sweethearts?) We officially met at Sarah’s friends’ joint birthday party, which Shane had technically crashed (thank god!) and then spent the rest of secondary school coming up with excuses to bump into each other at various events.

We got together the summer after graduating secondary school, just before we both moved to Dublin for college at different universities, and have pretty much grown up alongside each other ever since. Our exact first impressions are probably a little hazy after more than a decade, but according to Shane, his 18-year-old first impression of Sarah was that she was very pretty and really easy to talk to. He remembers immediately feeling at ease around her and that they had a lot of fun together from the very beginning. Sarah remembers first noticing Shane’s amazing smile (which is still one of her favourite things about him), but more than anything, being surprised by how quickly they clicked. He was so easy to talk to, and she felt completely comfortable around him straight away — a rare occurrence for a teenage boy, in her experience.

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).

Our venue was actually the first and only venue we viewed, because as soon as we stood under the 400-year-old oak tree at the front of the lodge, we knew we had to get married right there. Everything about Trudder Lodge was perfect for the homely, vintage yet cosy feeling we had in mind, but the ceremony space under the tree is pure magic (both visually and energetically), and it truly was the most perfect and special backdrop for our ceremony.

That honestly became our jumping-off point for wanting everything else about the day to feel as inviting and home-grown as possible. We wanted the whole celebration to feel like we were welcoming our guests into our own private space, with every detail reflecting who we are and the things we love — right down to the coffee + pastry truck with customised cups waiting for everyone as they left the ceremony, because we’ll never say no to an iced coffee + a sweet treat.

The dining space was probably where this vision really came to life the most. We collected over 20 vintage lampshades to hang above the banquet tables instead of having a traditional floral installation, which gave the whole marquee this really warm, “at home” feeling, and our tables were layered with mismatched vintage and antique brassware, chinaware and lace tablecloths, all strewn together in the most perfectly haphazard way. Our event hire stylist described our wedding aesthetic as “elevated granny chic”, which we couldn’t agree with more.

Our floral brief was essentially, “I want it to look like we just ran out to the garden and picked everything ourselves in the most perfectly whimsical way,” which our florist absolutely nailed. Nothing felt overly styled or too perfect, but when it all came together, it felt completely cohesive and, most importantly, completely like us. To quote Shane’s wedding speech: “If you’re wondering what the inside of Sarah’s brain looks like, this room is it.”

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

Once we had the most important things locked in (venue, vendors, dress), we could start having fun with all the little details. We constantly asked ourselves, “How can we make our day feel like us?” and figuring that out as we went was one of our favourite parts of planning. The ceremony music (all a complete surprise to Shane, by choice), the coffee truck, mismatched bridesmaids’ dresses and wild florals — every choice felt like another piece of the jigsaw falling into place.

We also designed and created all of our stationery ourselves — embroidered Save the Dates, lace-stitched invitations, hand-clamped brass eyelets onto our ceremony programme, wrote individual love notes for every guest as their place cards, and lace-trimmed dinner menus. It took a lot of time, but seeing everything come together and knowing it was completely unique to us made it so worthwhile.

Our biggest advice to other couples is simply to do what you both want. Once we stopped thinking about what anyone else might expect, every decision became so much easier. We had the best day because it felt completely like us, and as far as we’ve heard from all our guests, they did too because they felt like they got to know us even better through it.

Tell us about your vendors. Were there any standout suppliers you would like to make special mention of?

As a wedding photographer herself, it goes without saying that choosing our photographer was incredibly important to Sarah. The question we heard most after getting engaged was, “How does a wedding photographer pick a wedding photographer?” but truthfully, there was never much of a decision to make. Sarah had followed Claire’s work since discovering her while we were living in Canada years ago, and she was our number one choice long before there was even a wedding. The only question was whether she’d come to Ireland! Claire’s playful, honest way of documenting people and celebrations — meaningful and full of feeling without ever taking herself too seriously- was exactly how we wanted our day captured, as well as the kind of person and energy we wanted around us on the day; we had so much fun with her.

Beyond photography, so much credit belongs to the people behind the scenes. Our planner Jess introduced us to our dream venue and orchestrated the entire day. Visually, our florist Lennie worked so seamlessly with Ursula from Parlour Event Hire to bring everything we had imagined to life in the dinner room and throughout the venue. They went so far beyond anything we expected, and seeing how genuinely excited and creatively invested they were in our day honestly made the whole experience even more special to us both, but particularly Sarah, as both a bride and a wedding vendor.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, and is there a story?

I always knew I wanted a very ’ American 80s-style vintage wedding dress — puff sleeves, a big bow, corded lace, the works — but they turned out to be few and far between in Ireland. Eventually I found a dress on Depop that had the foundations of what I wanted, with the plan to reconstruct it into my dream dress. It was the only dress I bought and pretty inexpensive, so I figured if my vision didn’t work, I’d simply find something else.

The next challenge was finding someone who understood vintage dresses, and a friend recommended Christine from Colour and Cloth. From our first meeting, she was every bit as excited by my Pinterest references and ideas as I was, and I immediately trusted her with it. We worked on the dress for months, through countless fittings and adjustments. We changed the neckline, added sleeves, a corset and a huge bow on the back, while preserving everything I loved about the original, like the lace and basque waist.

I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever felt more beautiful than I did wearing it, which was made pretty obvious by the fact that I completely abandoned my reception dress and happily stayed in my wedding dress for over 16 hours!

Tell us about your wedding and engagement rings.

Similarly to my wedding dress, I’ve always loved antique and vintage jewellery. My favourite colour is green, and my birthstone is an emerald, so naturally an emerald was always in the brief. It was also really important to me that my engagement ring was a complete surprise and chosen by Shane (not a placeholder, but the ring), which admittedly put quite a lot of pressure on him! Thankfully, he had a very well-informed Pinterest board and ten years of watching what I did and didn’t like while window shopping antique jewellery, as well as my trusted council of best friends to support him.

Shane had every jeweller in our town hunting for antique emerald rings, but none felt quite right. Eventually, without me knowing, he travelled over three hours across the country on two separate occasions to The Antiques Room in Galway, where he found an incredible 1970s 18ct yellow gold, diamond and emerald cluster ring. When it came to our wedding bands, naturally we returned to Galway and found its antique partner for Sarah: a 1920s 18ct gold band with a mine-cut diamond. Shane chose a simple 18ct gold band from Magill’s Jewellers in Monaghan, where I also found the gold link chain I gave him as his wedding gift.

What were 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?).

Our photography was definitely the exception to the budget here. We knew exactly who we wanted, but also knew it would mean flying Claire to Ireland from Canada, which we were honestly delighted to be able to facilitate. When she told us she was available + willing to make the trip, it was a no-brainer.

In my (very biased) opinion, while every element of a wedding day plays its role, photography (and videography, if you’re having it) is really the only investment from the day that you’ll be revisiting over and over again forever, and it has the biggest influence on how you remember it all. You’re not just paying for lovely photographs – you’re trusting someone to decide what you’ll have after it’s done, to remember your day by. What they see, notice and deem worth capturing is just as important as how they capture it, and those choices are so specific to each photographer, which makes choosing the right person for the job incredibly important. Claire was essentially our eyes for the day and was the person preserving all the little moments and memories we knew we’d want to return to afterwards, so we were more than happy to spend more than we would have on someone local in order to work with her <3

Was there a favourite moment (or two) that you will treasure always?

Shane’s favourite moment was seeing Sarah come around the corner at the bottom of the aisle before she walked up. We didn’t do a first look, so it was the first time I’d seen her that day, and I was already bawling before I even saw her. Then she saw how much I was crying and started laughing + crying, which made me start laughing while still crying, and it just hit us that we were finally here. It was honestly the best feeling in the world.

Sarah’s favourite moment (other than our ceremony / actually getting married (!!!) was this little pocket of time between our main course and dessert. We wandered down to the bottom of the venue driveway where there are these big cool winding trees that we thought would be fun for photographs, except you have to cross a little stream to get to them. It was just the two of Claire and us, and we were honestly so giddy. The ceremony and speeches were over and had been more magical than we could have imagined, so we kicked off our shoes, hopped across the stream and spent about 30 minutes taking photographs, messing around and basically debriefing on everything that had just happened. It felt like we just had this little window of pause where we just let out all of our excitement together, being silly + soaking it all in.

What does being married mean to you, and are there any special rituals you have that you would like to share?

Because we’d already been together for 10 years by the time we got married, I’d say that marriage definitely feels less like the beginning of some new life together, and more like getting to celebrate finally being an “official” family after all these years of growing up and building our life together. So rather than making any grand new promises to each other, marriage really just means promising to keep doing what we’ve already been doing together all along — learning and growing through life side by side, which is the dream for us really.

Then the only “ritual” I can think of is that whoever’s brushing their teeth first always has to put toothpaste on the other’s toothbrush for them; we call it “dressing the toothbrushes” lol.