You couldn’t ask for a bigger build up to your special day, than three months of what can only be described as your country debating the relevance and importance of the love you have for your partner.
Me and Philip had been together for 12 years, and decided to take the plunge, in whatever capacity we could – it was to be a civil partnership in June 2015, and now, hopefully, an upgrade to Full Marriage later in the year. The overwhelming Yes vote put us and our friends in great spirits for what was the Biggest and Best day of our lives.
On June 13th, Myself and Philip entered into a Civil Partnership in Kilashee House in Naas. We arrived the night before, with our immediate family, and began the celebrations, quietly, with a slap up meal and a few proseccos at the Hotel Bar.
We awoke early on the day of the wedding, to utilise the Hotel gym and leisure facilities. While Philip worked out, I made the most of the sauna and Jacuzzi! One of the benefits of having the service at the Hotel, was planning a late kick off. It gave us plenty of time to relax and enjoy the day. Obviously, as 3:30pm fast approached, you realise there is never enough time.
Although two guys don’t really require the service of a make up artist, weddings are not just about the happy couple. We had Ken Boylan in to beautify our family, and also utilised the services of the Hotel Stylists.
The food after the ceremony was just superb. I have never had a better chocolate chip cookie. The guests were raving about it all. This was even surpassed at the meal. The hotel did so much better than we had planned. We had so many compliments – the best fillet beef you can imagine, just melted in your mouth.
We had a spiritual ceremony, presided over by Deborah Boyle. It was more than just special. We worked with Deborah to personalise our service, and she encouraged us to write the ceremony and even the readings. Obviously, we are a little biased, but it was truly amazing. Deborah looked the part and moved us all with her words. The hotel prepared the room just as we asked, curtains were pulled and candles and rose petals covered the room. The music was just magical, as was the voice of Nikki Kavanagh. We had agreed the entrance song months earlier, but as a surprise, Philip had changed it to Suddenly, by Angry Anderson – any 30-something’s guilty wish- this is when the tears started, and pretty much didn’t end until the next morning.
We dreaded the speeches. We had no groom party, so it was just the two of us. We decided to do them before the meal, so we could hopefully enjoy the rest of the day. Perhaps it was the shot of vodka, or perhaps it was just the intimacy of the room, and seeing the faces of your loved ones with big smiles, but you had to battle to take the microphone from us, in the end.
The wedding cake was amazing. Amazing Cakes lived up to their name. It looked special, was unique to us, and was just as we had imagined, and it tasted divine.
The DJ was from Midland DJs. Now, once again bias probably kicks in again, but the DJ did exactly as we had asked. Obviously not everyone would have our tastes, but he kept the dance floor filled for the entire night, and pretty much kept to our requests and guidelines, which I suppose is all you can ask for.
My words don’t describe how the day made us feel. You hope for perfection, and you quietly expect to be a little disappointed – you are waiting for something to go wrong – but it never happened. It was truly our dream wedding, from walking up the aisle, to burning off the food on the dance floor – we just want to do it all over again. (Bring on our Civil Marriage).
