Some initial thoughts

So, it's Sunday evening and I have been threatening to start this blog for a while. I'm a 31 year-old Irish soon-bride-to-be. The thought of getting married to my fella of ten years is extremely exciting, but the thought of a huge, fussy, dramatic wedding didn't appeal to either of us. So the point of this blog is to document for those who are curious how we ended up with what we're at and hopefully stimulate some others to do things to their own beat aswell.

We initially hoped we might be able to pull off a wedding that didn't really feel like a wedding, but more of a party & celebration with the people in our lives. Unfortunately, making other people happy doesn't always mean you can do things the way you want them and so I think we've ended up with a wedding which is a balance between the two.

Yes, we're getting married in a church. No, we're not having our wedding on the beach. Yes, there will be 120 people at our wedding. No, we're not getting married in a hotel function room.
Yes, we will have all of our friends & family surrounding us, with just a few more.

So, this is the plan so far. We're getting married in Portugal, just north of Lisbon on September 18th. We're getting married in a beautiful little church in a small Portuguese village called Gradil followed by a reception in the Quinta de Sant'Ana, which is an absolutely beautiful wine estate in the country-side, run by an amazing couple, James & Ann Frost and their 7 sons!!

While in Portugal we will be staying in a little town about 30km away, on the coast, called Ericeira. Ericeira is an old fishing town, now really popular as a surfing destination, which is no small coincidence for us. All of our guests will be staying in and around Ericeira for between 3-7 days so it really will be an amazing experience to have all of our loved ones around us in such a beautiful place. Literally nobody has declined the invitation. Except for Iaian, Rob & Anna (I hope you're reading this!!).

But, this evening, the summer solstice, while the sun is shining, I'm going to sign-off. It's too nice to be inside. Ní hé lá na gaoithe, lá na scoilb. Lots of more details to follow with all my exciting ideas & aspirations. Hopefully.