Our Wedding Story: ‘I always imagined I’d design my own dress’

[ irishtimes.com/weddings ]

Lynsey (32), a fashion designer from Co Armagh and informations systems engineer Patrick “Pado” (35), from Fairview in Dublin, met six years ago working on an orange farm in Australia.

On June 22nd, 2014, Lynsey arrived home from a friend’s hen party where she was greeted by a puppy in the garden of the couple’s home in Raheny, along with Patrick’s best friend Fred. After asking who owned the dog, Fred replied to Lynsey “you do” and opened the door where Pado was on bended knee with a bunch of roses and an antique turquoise place-holder ring.

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They were married by Joe Armstrong in an orange-themed outdoor humanist ceremony on June 12th, 2015, at The Millhouse, Slane. A traditional hand-tying ceremony made it special.

“I had always imagined that I would design and make my own dress,” said Lynsey, “It took me seven months in total to design, draft the pattern, make toiles and then create the actual dress. Even though it took up all of my weekends for half a year, I really enjoyed making it and I was delighted with the result.”

“My mum was on-hand with dressmaking advice and helped to fit the dress, a priceless skill. It was so special to be able to work on the wedding dress together.”

Lynsey's gold floral tiara was from on Etsy.com. Patrick's limited edition Magee suit was from Collar and Cuff in Glasnevin.

His best man was Fred O’Connor, and groomsmen were Alex Quigley and David Maher. The maid of honour Paula Brown and bridesmaids Michaela Mallon and Paula Hynes – along with their husbands and the bride’s brothers and their girlfriends – spent the wedding eve dressing the tables with personalised oranges and handmade favours.

Ciara Connolly, a make-up artist and friend, did make-up for the bridal party and Ken from Malken Browne was the hair stylist who, said Lynsey, “channelled my inner Audrey Hepburn for me on the day”.

Lynsey's youngest brother Ross and his bandmates played an acoustic set of Beatles songs throughout the ceremony. The Kaye Twins played Something by the Beatles for the newlyweds' first dance.

Wedding guest and florist Nicoela Woods arranged the flowers which the bride described as, “my favourite part of the day (apart from Pado) . . . they were so bold and exactly what I wanted. They were one of the talking points of the day.”

Paula Jordan, owner of Potty Hen bakery in Oldcastle, made the cake. Lynsey and Patrick spent two and a half weeks in Italy for their honeymoon where “we watched the amazing short film made by our videographers B&G at least 30 times”.

Photographs: Syona Photography

We’d love to hear your wedding story. If you’d like to share it with our readers email weddings@irishtimes.com with a photograph and a little information about your big day