A couple from Belfast shared a glimpse into their wonderful wedding day at Cultra Manor.
In Be ‘s weekly feature “Inside My Wedding,” local couples dive into their special day to give you some tips and ideas for your big day.
Aoife Stevens, 27, from Belfast and her husband David, 37, from Bristol met when she joined the choir he was leading.
They got engaged on her birthday, May 18, 2019, in Mount Stewart, and got married in July.
Everything here revolves around the couple’s special day.
Tell us all about your wedding day!
Our wedding day was just a perfect day from start to finish. We got married on Saturday, July 24th of this year, in the middle of this incredible summer heat and the weather was beautiful! I was so relaxed getting ready and everything went so smoothly that morning.
I usually get a reputation for being late, but everything was done on time and I even got to the ceremony early – some of my guests had yet to arrive! We were able to celebrate it with our closest families and close friends and consider ourselves very lucky that we were able to do so. The day was full of love and happiness.
The couple had their reception at Cultra Manor
(Image: Brendan Gallagher)
How did you start planning your wedding? What did you start with
We started planning by looking at the bigger things first. After choosing the date we wanted, we immediately began looking for locations of reception. From there we booked the photographer, the cars, the florist, dog companion (we couldn’t imagine our dogs!) And the church.
Tell us about your venues and how you chose them?
We chose St. George’s Church on the High Street in Belfast city center. As a musician who works a lot in choral music, David worked there with the church choir and played the organ for their services and we always felt that it was a nice, friendly and welcoming environment. It was an easy decision.
We chose the Cultra Manor in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum as the reception location. We knew right away that we didn’t really want a hotel and that we wanted something different, so we started looking for alternative venues and Cultra Manor came up. Their brochure mentioned that guests could spend time exploring the museum.
The newlyweds with their dogs Xin and Ellie
(Image: Brendan Gallagher)
I have so many fond memories of visiting the museum as a kid with my family and David and I were on a date together and we loved it so we thought this would be a great idea to keep the guests entertained. It was the only venue we went to and as soon as we saw it in person we knew it was exactly what we wanted. It was just the right size for us and had a really relaxed but elegant feel to it. One of the easiest decisions we’ve ever made!
Tell us all about your wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses & suits!
I am a very typical Disney princess-loving girl and I already knew as a little girl that if I ever got married, I wanted my dress to be like in a fairy tale! I did a little research online to visit bridal shops and came across The Bridal Company Northern Ireland. Lauren, the shopkeeper, picked out a few dresses for me in every available silhouette and I tried them all on. I fell in love with the bottom half of the first dress I tried on and the top half of the second. Luckily, both dresses were by the same designer and they actually put the two together to create a one-of-a-kind dress for me. One appointment was enough!
In the truest sense of the word, a dream dress that I’m still in love with! I got my bridesmaid dresses from WED2B Belfast, I chose their light blue color as I found them beautiful and light for the time of year and they went very well with all skin and hair tones of the girls.
Aoife arrives at the altar
(Image: Brendan Gallagher)
The suits were from Next, we wanted something again that wouldn’t be too heavy for the guys as it’s probably very warm so we went for a light gray color.
What was the best part in preparing for your day?
For us, one of the best moments leading up to the wedding was introducing our families for the first time. David’s family lives in Bristol and with all the work schedules and Covid we’ve never managed to get them all together in one room. So David’s family came by all week and we all went out to eat and it was really nice for them to finally meet.
What was the best moment of your day and your other favorite parts?
David and I agree that the best part was when we turned around when I got to the altar. When our eyes met we couldn’t stop smiling and I remember feeling like everything around us almost didn’t exist, like we were the only two people in the building.
Another nice moment for me was the drive to the church. My bridesmaids and I stayed at the Culloden Hotel the night before so we drove along the Holywood Bypass direction to get into the city center the sun was shining over Belfast Lough and it was nice to see.
The wedding party
(Image: Brendan Gallagher)
As a great nature lover, that really prepared me for the day! Another great moment was when David and I were together in the car on the way to the reception after the ceremony. We drove the same route and many other drivers beeped and shouted congratulations from their cars, some pedestrians too! We found it so charming and fun!
What would you advise other newlyweds to plan first and what are your top tips?
We would recommend other brides and grooms to book the big things like the venues, photographers, florists, band, etc. ASAP. We were pretty surprised at how quickly these things can fill up so take your time. However, when you look at wedding providers, you don’t need to look at many. When you’re looking at too many it can get pretty overwhelming and it can be harder to narrow down.
Go with what feels right for you based on your desires as a couple. Especially for brides, a top tip would be to try any shape of dress, be open to styles you wouldn’t normally wear – you’d be surprised how different something looks on you than the hanger.
Reception decoration
(Image: Brendan Gallagher)
What was the hardest thing to plan? Have you encountered any difficulties?
The most difficult thing to plan for us was coping with the Covid restrictions around our guest and table numbers.
Was there a theme for the wedding?
We didn’t really have an issue all day. We had a Disney themed dinner only, we had each table named after a classic Disney movie. Each table consisted of a goldfish bowl shaped vase and my aunt and sister brought my ideas to life by decorating each vase with figurines and ornaments.
They looked great and everyone was talking about them! For everything else, we wanted to create the atmosphere of a relaxing but stylish summer day. I think we managed to do that with our color scheme and our choice of food and venue.
Would you do something differently or wish there was something you weren’t worried about?
If we could have done something differently, I would have allowed myself an extra week to do some of the smaller chores like table centers, name cards, etc instead of cramming them into a couple of days.
The weeks leading up to the big day can be very busy and stressful.
The service
(Image: Brendan Gallagher)
Has Covid influenced your plans?
Yes, Covid had a massive impact on our wedding planning and made setting up a pretty stressful experience. The date was always the same and we firmly believed we wouldn’t change it because we had so much time. Then around April / May 2021 the wedding restrictions were still pretty strict.
At this point, we wondered if we should consider postponing, even though we both knew we really didn’t want to, so we decided to wait a while longer to see if the restrictions would ease. June came and the restrictions were still quite difficult to understand.
The happy couple
(Image: Brendan Gallagher)
Ultimately, the numbers were only confirmed two and a half weeks before our appointment. As a result, our invitations went out without notice and a lot of people couldn’t come. Our original pre-Covid limit was 150 and the Covid restrictions reduced that to 90.
Our personal guest list was 120 so we had to make some tough decisions and ended up with 62. It’s not what we wanted at all, but our guests were so understanding and we got our immediate families and some of our closest friends – whom we know were much more than other brides and grooms could have, so we were thankful.
Would you like to tell us all about your wedding day? Email be@belfastlive.co.uk to be featured!
