A Dublin groom has shared how he meshed different cultural traditions together for his big day in Ireland.
Noel married his now-husband Colm last autumn, after first meeting 20 years ago in The George. The pair tied the knot in the stunning Rathsallagh House in Co. Wicklow, as featured on popular wedding venue site SaveMyDay.
The couple's plans to get hitched were initially thwarted by family circumstances and later Covid-19. Noel, who is originally from the Philippines, said the pair wanted to have a huge party for their wide circle of family and friends, featuring both Filipino and Irish traditions.
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Noel told Dublin Live: "I wore a ceremonial suit from the Phillipines and it was heavily embroidered. We used pineapple fibre and transformed it into silk- we both wanted to copy our grandfathers suits in the embroidery. The embroidery pattern from my grandfather’s wedding many moons ago was my something borrowed."
Entertainment was crucial in terms of the big day, as the couple spent almost as much on this sector as the venue itself. However, Noel and Colm managed to cut costs in other areas by acting resourcefully.
Noel arranged all the flowers for the big day, in line with the wedding's autumnal theme. His best friend baked the wedding cake, which was a quirky and vibrant forest green.
The big day was a joyous one, filled with music, crown lights and even alpacas. Here is Noel's testimony about his wedding in full.
Who is your partner and how did you two meet?
My husband is Colm and we’ve been together for twenty years. We met through friends in the George. Ireland was very different then and there was no legality surrounding partnership, until the 2015 referendum.
We were planning on getting married once the referendum passed but due to family circumstances, and later Covid-19, that got delayed. We decided then we’d have a right party.
Tell us about your wedding.
We decided on Rathsallagh House because we always loved the countryside and the rustic feel, the ambience. We booked Rathsallagh at the end of 2021 and got married in September 2022. It was ten months worth of planning.
I’m from the Philippines and Colm is Irish so we wanted to have a fusion of the two cultures in our big day. We planned ahead in terms of entertainment. We selected our own wine.
Rathsallagh invited us overnight to have a feel for the place too. Everything was good from the start till the end. We also had our wedding planner Olivia help us out in a major way.
We also wanted to stamp our own personality on the occasion. Colm and I are very artistic so I decided I would try to do all the flowers for the wedding.
It was a challenge but it all ended well. I planned the flowers for our button holes and the bridal party.
It’s really cost effective because you have full control on how lavish or how simple you go. If you have that flair, it gives you more control over your day- dry flowers are sometimes easier to manage.
Talk to me about the suits.
Our suits had to be transcultural. I wore a ceremonial suit from the Phillipines and it was heavily embroidered.
We had one groomsman, Mick, the best man. I had two groomsmen. I planned their suits… we went for autumnal colours. I didn’t care what colour as long as there was an autumn theme.
Forest green was the main colour for the wedding, alongside burnt orange. My best man and the groomsman used that palette for the colour.
I have nieces whoare teenagers, they wore mustard. Flower girls were on burnt orange too, as well as pageboys. My best woman was in forest green.
Talk to me about the ceremony.
We went for a humanist ceremony. Our officiator was Ruth Scott from Classic Hits FM. She officiated our wedding and really researched our story. It was so funny and fitting to hear what she had to say.
Talk to me about the reception.
My best friend is a baker and she made our cake in forest green for our theme. We had a five course meal and because it was autumn time we had dishes like that.
Filipinos love pork. Everyone has food they like- normally weddings only have two options. People had loads of choices on our big day.
What tips would you give to other grooms ahead of their big day?
Know your flair, what you can do to make things work. Sometimes you can lower your expenditure in simple ways, like us doing our flowers.
Those sort of things can also work as tokens for the following day. We had a bohemian approach on the design and that worked really well.
Is there any small things you would have changed/done differently?
It was too perfect for us. We couldn’t ask for more. It was tiring in a sense, I don’t think I could go through with planning another wedding.
On the formal side, you’d be looking at your finances and how much you are going to spend. No matter how you taper it down, there’s always new expenses.
In terms of entertainment, we spent nearly the price of our venue. We made sure that we had entertainment for kids and adults throughout the night.
The kids got alpacas and we went crazy with them because they were so cute. We went for traditional cars to entertain the kids as well.
We had magicians and drummers and some different features that were quirky. We kept them under wraps until the day itself and people were surprised by something new every hour.
We also bought crown lights for everyone to wear. We spent so much on that but the ambiance was amazing.
Everyone was wearing them at the end of the night and it really added a bit of flair. People will appreciate things like that.
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