A Northern Ireland couple have shared a look into their beautiful wedding day at Roe Park Resort in Limavady.
Lucy (27) from Strabane and Matty Coey (30) from Bangor had their big day on November 13, 2021 after getting engaged back in 2017.
In Be 's weekly feature Inside My Wedding, couples are delving into their special day to give bride and grooms-to-be some top tips.
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The pair had planned to get married in August 2020, but delayed getting married due to the pandemic.
Lucy told Be: "Matty and I met when in Turkey I was 18 and he was 20. He was on a boys' holiday and I was on a girls' holiday.
"Matty and I got engaged on October 10, 2017 on the beach in Bangor and found out on October 12 that we were expecting our first baby - a little girl who we called Mara. Because of being pregnant and newly engaged, we booked our wedding for over three years away to give us time to save, plan and enjoy having our first baby.
"When our plans changed due to Covid, we decided to expand our family and have little Jonah.
"Having our kids at the wedding was amazing! I highly recommend doing things the 'wrong way around'."
Tell us all about your wedding day!
Our wedding day was nothing short of unreal! All the stress and planning and confusion was WELL worth it. We had the ceremony in a chapel in Strabane and then onto the Roe Park in Limavady. We had around 130 family and friends there and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
How did you begin planning your wedding?
We got engaged in October 2017 and more or less started straight away with the planning. I wanted to get a lot booked and a date set before our first baby was here. We had initially started the planning by looking for a venue. We found the Roe Park Resort and thought it was perfect as it was close enough to the ceremony, about an hour away for Bangor guests, and also close to City of Derry airport to accommodate other guests flying over. We went to the wedding fair there that December and fell in love with the place and the staff. The Roe Park just seemed perfect for us in every way. It was the only venue we viewed.
We contacted the priest and asked for dates in and around August 2020, liaised with the Roe Park and went from there. It’s all very daunting but once you get started, it kind of all works out and falls into place.
Tell us about your wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses and suits!
So this is a tricky one. I personally am not a massive fan of wedding dresses and found the whole experience very weird. I tried on every shape, size, design - you name it! I could never picture myself as a 'bride' and just never seemed to have that falling in love with the dress moment.
I then went down the route of designing and creating my own dress. I found this amazing dressmaker in Glasgow (Nutmeg Couture) and I instantly fell in love with Megan and her work. We went back and forth for some time with ideas and concepts etc and I actually didn’t see my own dress until two weeks before the wedding when I travelled over to Glasgow to have my first, and I suppose, final fitting! I loved it! It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was 'me'.
The bridesmaids dresses were from ASOS - a one shoulder tulle detail dress which was royal blue in colour. I think it worked well with the time of year we got married. The suits were from the Italian signature range in Next - beautiful detail and lovely tuxedos all round. Seeing my dad in a little tux was so lovely, he thought he was James Bond.
What was the best part in the build up to your day?
My husband and I - let me actually rephrase that - my husband and my in-laws are very creative and made a lot of the decorations and smaller details themselves. It was lovely watching Matty and his dad. I think making things ourselves and seeing our vision come together was a lovely experience. Don’t get me wrong, ticking things off the never-ending list was great too. A lot of pre-celebrations like hen and stag dos were amazing for us both as well.
What was the best moment of your day and your other favourite parts?
I don’t think I could pick one specific moment that I would consider the best. It was such an amazing day. Obviously the fact I got to finally marry Matty was incredible, but just having the craic with everyone, having our kids there, seeing everyone interacting and just loving life [was great] too.
There is one stand out moment though. Before the guests were brought into the dinner suite, the manager brought us around the reception room to see if everything was to our satisfaction. Everything of course was beautiful and perfect - but the manager had said: "There is one thing which we don’t know where to put." He then goes and gets a life-size cut out of my sister and best friend, Imogen. She lives and works in China and unfortunately couldn’t get over for the wedding.
I burst into tears with happiness, sadness, laughter and everything. She of course had to sit with us at the top table. I don’t even mind admitting that everyone at the wedding was upstaged by a cardboard cut out. She was the life and soul of the whole day.
What would you tell other bride and grooms to plan first & what are your top tips?
I would definitely say book your officiant, priest or whoever is marrying you and get your venue for first. As I say, everything else then falls into place.
I would definitely say don’t sweat the small stuff and definitely don’t try to please everyone. Firstly, you can’t please everyone and secondly, remember who is getting married and why!
As much as you think you will notice every detail on the day, believe me you won’t, so don’t worry about nitty gritty things.
Another top tip I would say is try and make your own decorations and smaller things. We done all our decorations ourselves and I made all the bouquets for myself, bridesmaids and flower girl.
And lastly, the most important tip of all - ENJOY YOURSELF! The day absolutely flies in and fingers crossed you won’t be doing it again, so make the most of it.
What were the hardest parts to plan?
The hardest things were definitely trying to get all your top pick vendors for the date. Our initial date of August 8, 2020 was a breeze because it was three years from when we got engaged. A lot of our first choice vendors were free, and at this point [when organising], Covid didn’t exist. When we had to change our date, it was a bit trickier but it was all grand in the end.
I don’t think any of it was exceptionally difficult but I would like to think I would be chilled enough to take things in my stride.
Another thing that I found when talking to other people planning a wedding was deliberating whether to have a videographer or not. I, myself was one of those people who thought 'it’s a lot of money and will we really ever watch it' etc, but the video just captures the day perfectly and you see things that you will have completely missed on the day. Re-living it back is incredible and I have never, ever come across someone saying they regret getting a wedding video!
What was your theme?
Our theme was a rustic type of vibe. We had a lot of wooden decorations and white flowers. I didn’t really want much colour in the theme at all - just nice, clean and fresh.
Would you do anything different or wish there was anything you didn't worry about?
When you are planning a wedding, there are a lot of people's opinions that come up and a lot of 'that’s the done thing'. This sometimes annoyed me in terms of the 'done thing'. When these moments occurred, which was few and far between in fairness, I had to always remind myself that the wedding is fundamentally for Matty and I. I don’t think I would change anything.
How did you feel about your date change?
In fairness, I didn't actually mind us moving our date whatsoever. In the time between the two dates we had our beautiful son Jonah and he was seven months old at the wedding.
On the actual day of the wedding, there were no restrictions in terms of numbers and we only had three people drop out because of Covid. We count ourselves so lucky because we know that hasn’t been the case for a lot of people.
Do you want to tell us all about your wedding day? Email be@belfastlive.co.uk to be featured!
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