Real Weddings: Eleanor and Mark’s exquisite hotel wedding in Co Kerry
Eleanor and Mark said 'I do' in the gorgeous Garden Room at the historic Great Southern Killarney hotel. Surrounded by dreamy decor and thoughtful details, their special day was a celebration to remember.
THE COUPLE
Eleanor, founder of Mc Moments Content Creation and partner marketing manager for Irish Life Health, and Mark, truck driver for Dolly Sand and Gravel.
THEY LIVE
in Naas, Co Kildare.
THE VENUE
The Great Southern Killarney. Mark is a very proud Kerryman, so it made sense for us to get married in ‘The Kingdom’. We picked the Great Southern due to its central location and the fact they have the nicest staff you’ll find anywhere.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Black Diamond Photography.
THEY MET
Mark had just moved to Naas after living in London for six years. I am a Lilywhite, born and bred in Kildare. We met one night in the bright lights of Naas town soon after Mark had moved to Kildare and the rest is history.
THE PROPOSAL
We were supposed to get engaged in Santorini but it ended up being in Sicily! We were on a cruise in October 2022 and I was super excited to get to Santorini, however, while on the way there the cruise ship had to stop to do an emergency rescue for another ship and between the jigs and the reels, the ship had to cancel the Santorini stop.
Mark had asked Philip, my father, for his permission to marry me and my parents were sitting at home waiting for news of the engagement. They were left waiting five days after they expected to hear from us, as Mark finally popped the question in an amphitheatre in Taormina in Sicily.
THE DRESS & THE SUIT
I had my dream wedding dress – an Essense of Australia gown with a luxe off-the-shoulder neckline and a very full train purchased from La Bella Sposa in Swords. The shoulder detail came off later on in the night and the dress could be worn with spaghetti straps or strapless.
Mark’s suit was from our local menswear shop in Naas, Richie Whelan’s Menswear. The Benetti suit paired navy bottoms with a silver-grey waistcoat and jacket. We were really trying to support our local vendors where we could! We also purchased our wedding bands in Naas with Anderson Jewellers.
THE CEREMONY
Our ceremony was so much fun! We had hoped to get some of the emotion over beforehand, so we opted for a first look – which was full of tears from the groom. After that, we had a non-religious ceremony in the beautiful Garden Room in The Great Southern, which still has some of the original features of the hotel from when it was built in 1854.
There were so many laughs and lots of emotional moments too. At one stage Mark nearly set himself on fire trying to light the unity candle, which gave us some of our favourite photos of the day – we were dying laughing! Fair play to Alison from Bespoke Words; she went with all the giggles and gave us a ceremony full of fun.
THE RECEPTION
The reception took place in the Great Southern Killarney too. They have a beautiful drinks reception area and their ballroom is top class. I also fell in love with their beautiful glass corridor adorned in fairy lights and pampas grass – an absolutely stunning part of the hotel.
We had a champagne tower instead of a cake, with personalised bottles. We made the labels on Canva and the glasses were from IKEA. We managed to get the bubbles into the glasses without any breakages, but it was touch and go when pouring! Then the next day, we had a delicious cake, which was very much enjoyed by the Day 2 crew.
THE ENTERTAINMENT
If you’ve been to a Kerry wedding you’ve likely come across the legends that are Truly Diverse. Truly were the band for the night and they absolutely rocked the dancefloor all evening. They did give the bridesmaids a mini heart attack when they made them do a special entrance onto the dancefloor at the beginning of the night though.
The ceremony music was done by Lily MacMonagle, who is another very popular lady down in Kerry. Her voice was stunning and she didn’t blink when we requested some country music by Luke Combs in the ceremony. We then had Reel Vibes Music for our Day 2 and they were excellent! Emmet and Sharon got the crowd going and played everything from Noah Kahn to Christy Moore and back again.
THE DECOR
I work in marketing so we had our ceremony booklets designed as newspapers – an ode to advertising. The table names were all the places we’ve visited as a couple and where possible, we tried to sit our guests at tables named after trips they may have taken with us. For example, in 2018 my godfather had his 60th birthday in St Petersburg and the majority of guests at the St Petersburg table were on that trip.
We hopped on the neon sign bandwagon and had a ‘The McGillicuddys’ sign made locally in Killarney too. The flowers were provided by Every Occasion Florist in Tralee. They were a mix of blue and white flowers to match the dusty blue bridesmaids’ dresses – and because blue is my favourite colour!
THEIR TOP TIPS
Capture everything – we didn’t just have our amazing photographer but we also had Maurice from Weddings Stories by Maurice on video and Lucy from And Something Blu on social content for the day. Once the big day is over, that’s all you’re left with. We’ve watched our video, looked at the photos and watched all of our reels over and over again since the big day.
THEY WISH THEY HAD
Not sweated some of the small stuff! We got rained on during our photos and I was so conscious my hair wasn’t the best it could be afterwards, but in hindsight no one even noticed and I forgot as soon as I saw all our friends and family in the room.
THEIR BEST MOMENTS
The first look was full of emotion, the ceremony was full of laughs and the dancefloor where we had great craic jiving and watching all our friends and family do the same, even those who don’t know how!
THE FIRST DANCE SONG
Beautiful Crazy by Luke Combs.
THE CREW
Wedding dress: Essense of Australia from La Bella Sposa. Groom’s suit: Benetti suit from Richie Whelan’s Menswear. Videographer: Weddings Stories by Maurice. Content creator: And Something Blu. Make-up: Lizzy Desmond. Hair: Upstyle Junkie. Band: Truly Diverse. Ceremony music: Lily Mac Monagle. Celebrant: Bespoke Words. Florist: Every Occasion Florist. Day 2 music: Reel Vibes Music. Day 2 cake: Tasty Temptations by Cathriona.
See more photographs from Eleanor and Mark’s wedding in the gallery below.
Photography by Black Diamond Photography.
Want to see your Real Wedding on IMAGE.ie? Email shayna.sappington@image.ie with the subject line ‘Real Wedding’.
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