Segrave Barns Wedding // Sandra & Sean
Sandra and Sean were one of my ‘third time lucky couples’. Their second date was set for New Years Day but they decided to move it forward to September and ended up with an epic weekend of celebrations. Their whole wedding was held at the beautiful Segrave Barns run by Eugene and John. It has a lovely homely feel there, from start to finish it was such a relaxed and happy atmosphere.
So many memories to Sandra and Sean’s day but one of the funniest (from where I was standing) was the ‘almost’ loss of Sean’s wedding ring! Formley belonging to Sandra’s late daddy, it is of huge attachment. When it came to handing over the rings the celebrant, Graham Barrett, opened up the ring box to find nothing there. The best man looked on half smiling not knowing what to say, slowly turning pale, thinking he’d lost the ring. Next thing one of the barn’s alpacas was led down the aisle carrying a bag - it was funny but I did feel for that poor man! I knew nothing about the proposed trick and was a little concerned myself at the time! Luckily he has a great sense of humour and was able to laugh the whole thing off.
After a few nibbles and drinks we headed off for photographs and made the walk down to the coastline. It is so nice for couples to be able to relax and enjoy time and catch up on their day.
After the meal guests were treated to a surprise performance by tenor Eugene who finished off his performance with a birthday song and cake for Sandra’s mum who jointly celebrated her 70th.
The next day I returned back to Segrave to photograph Sandra and Sean 2nd day of celebrations as they held their wedding over two days to have day 1 with family and day 2 with friends. Once again they were blessed with amazing autumn sunshine and were able to mix safely with guests outdoors. Like I said above, an epic wedding weekend, you can clearly see from photographs how much everyone had a ball. Congratulations x
CREDITS
Venue: Segrave Barns Dress: O'Briens Bridal Couture in Wicklow Makeup: Sinéad Mc Mahon Make up Hair: Headstart hair salon - Samantha O'Brien Shoes: Frilly Frocks Flowers: Emer McKenna Bespoke Wedding Florist DVD: Finnegan DVD Bridesmaids Dresses: Memories Bridalboutique Dublin Officiant: Graham Barrett Registered Solemniser Groomswear: McKenna Man & TW Menswear Singing Waiter: Eugene from Segrave Barns Singers: Anton & Stephanie Musical Duet Band: Cat & The Fox. Catering: Michael Devine catering
** scroll to bottom to see what Sandra & Sean said about getting married during a global pandemic **
What Sandra and Sean said of their wedding during a pandemic:
“We got engaged in April 2018 and both wanted to get married in 2019 but the one and only venue we viewed didn't have availability so we booked for May 2020. We were so ready to get married and both so excited for the day!! In March, I was due to go on my hen to Edinburgh for St.Patricks weekend but as covid hit Ireland, I decided to pull the plug last minute, just because I was so scared someone would get it and get stuck in Scotland or bring it home to their kids or loved ones. My amazing bridesmaids, reorganised my hen in a matter of days and we had it in a restaurant in Trim and stayed on the grounds of Knightsbrook Hotel. The day we were leaving Trim and I was saying goodbye to my wonderful friends, the realisation hit me that if I had to cut my numbers, some of my besties might not make my wedding which hit me hard and I was inconsolable! The next few days were horrendous as the country went into lockdown and some weddings had to cut numbers down to 50 guests overnight! We had over 300 invited!! We talked about the possibility of cutting numbers to 50 or 100 based on restrictions and just felt sick at the thoughts of having to choose between relatives and close friends. We also cancelled our dream honeymoon to the Maldives and over the coming days the realisation hit that we wouldn't be cutting numbers, the likelihood was that we would have to postpone. Then you have discussions on what date do we pick! We contacted the venue that week to get the ball rolling and they gave us a selection of dates. We both decided on New Years Eve or New Years Day as we didn't want to push it any further into 2021. We contacted suppliers late that Thursday night and had a list of availability for our new dates. We decided to go with New Years Day but we lost our photographer and videographer but it all worked out for the best as the fantastic Jude Browne and Joe Finnegan video were both available. We felt a huge sense of relief when it was rescheduled. I was dreading our original day arriving but we made the most of it. We had breakfast outside Sean's mams house, got dressed up (which was a real treat during lockdown) and went to the place we got engaged and my brother took photos of us. We came back to our garden and some family and friends called to have a drink to mark the occasion that should have been. The sun was splitting the stones. At 9pm, about 8 cars arrived at our gate beeping the horns and it was my besties, all in their casual clothes but with dressy wedding fascinators on their heads and gifts for myself and Sean. It was just magical as we got a socially distanced picture on our lawn. It meant so so much to see them on that day and feel their love and support. Once the original date was over, we felt much better, we had a fantastic weekend with lots of memories and could start looking forward to our new date 8 months later! We both said that we had wished we had got married that weekend but my dress was stuck in the shop in Wicklow, my ring in the jewellers in Dublin and we couldn't have even had the 3 parents there! I think that's when we realised that the most important thing was to be married to each other and to have our nearest and dearest there! It was like a switch was flicked!
Like all other couples, you watch the news, numbers and restrictions daily, then in July things started to improve and couples we knew started bringing their weddings forward. We had booked to go away for a week in Kerry in late July and had contacted the venue to see what dates they had available. We went to Kerry with two dates, 28th August or 25th Sept. I was automatically drawn to the 25th Sept as it was the day of my Mams 70th but Sean feared that things might get worse with Covid once schools were back and we might have to cancel again. Nothing about the other date appealed to me only that it was sooner and possibly a safer bet! Again we set about contacting all suppliers with these two dates. Everyone of our suppliers were available for the 25th Sept so we took that as a sign! We could only have 50 guests which would only accommodate our two immediate families. As we had the venue for the weekend I asked if it was possible to have 50 guests on day two as well. The venue said yes and then Jude our amazing photographer suggested coming back to get photographs with our friends and I'd put back on my wedding dress!! This was just music to my ears as the hardest thing was having to accept not having my closest friends there for my big day! We told our families we were getting married in 5 weeks and choose 20 friends each to invite for Day 2 and then the planning and preparation began again. We were so excited but also nervous that things would change. There was county lockdowns the week before our wedding and everywhere I went I could hear people talking about numbers increasing in Louth and feared they would be in lockdown and we couldn't travel from Meath. Luckily for us that wasn't the case. We started to feel relieved the week of the wedding as we knew (well hoped) that if there was any lockdowns, weddings that weekend could go ahead (as that's what had happened the previous week). I went to the venue the day before the wedding and enjoyed a fab evening with my immediate family and we celebrated my Mams milestone 70th birthday for the next day! The wedding morning was so chilled out and we had a lovely morning. Once I had my dress on, I was anxious to get to the top of that alter, breath a sigh of relief that it was definitely happening and see Sean. We had the most fantastic day with our nearest and dearest. We went off for an hour for pictures and must have said 10 times to each other that we were so so glad we had done this and that we didn’t have 300 guests to get around. I honestly don't know how couples have time for each other on their wedding day with 300 guests. It didn't feel like we only had 43 people there. It was just magical in every way and made even more special to celebrate it on my Mams 70th birthday. On Day 2, we out back on our wedding clothes and got all dolled up again and welcomed 35 of our closest friends. While sitting in the sunshine of the beer garden at Segrave, we looked around and felt so blessed to have had a day with our immediate families and then have our Day 2 with our closest friends, which just felt like a continuation of Day 1. It was absolutely fantastic and we really had the best weekend of our lives! It was the best decision we have ever made and we have said it 100 times over. As I write this, it's 2 days to New Years Day (which was our original rescheduled date) and things have changed so much. We are just blessed to have made that decision back in August and enjoyed our first Christmas as Mr & Mrs (and we announced last week we are expecting a baby in July 2021). Everything happens for a reason and although 2020 was the strangest year of anyone's lives, it certainly has had a lot of highlights for us!”