Real Weddings: Rebecca and Zach’s intimate country house wedding in Co Wicklow
Travelling all the way from Australia, Rebecca and Zach found their perfect venue at Ballybeg House and Gardens – an idyllic country house in Co Wicklow with gorgeous gardens, a romantic ceremony room and a private 'shebeen' bar.
THE COUPLE
Rebecca Tuohy, national sales manager at a fashion agency, and Zach Tuohy, AFL player for Geelong Cats.
THEY LIVE
in Geelong, Australia.
THE VENUE
Ballybeg House, Co Wicklow.
PHOTOGRAPHER
Ivana Patarcic Photography – everyone commented how much they loved Ivana. Not only does she take stunning photos, but she was also so friendly with everyone.
THEY MET
Through mutual friends at a nightclub in Melbourne.
THE PROPOSAL
Zach had booked a weekend away for my birthday in February 2020 in Melbourne to stay at Crown Towers. He proposed in the room, just the two of us.
Zach had also booked a surprise dinner with some of our closest friends that I had no idea about. We then surprised them with our engagement. Once Covid hit later that month, wedding plans went on hold.
THE DRESS & THE SUIT
I was lucky and the first dress I tried on was the one. I tried on a couple more afterwards but couldn’t get the Hera Couture Le Juene out of my mind.
Zach went to YSG Tailors in Melbourne for his and his groomsmen’s suits. They all had custom suits.
THE CEREMONY
We hadn’t been back to Ireland since before Covid, so in February 2022 we knew we were going to go back in October and thought why don’t we have a small intimate wedding when we are back? I had let my immediate family here in Australia know so they could plan the trip over later in the year. Because it was going to take months for us to get an Irish marriage licence, we decided to legally get married in Australia a few months before our Irish wedding at Ballybeg. We had both our parents (Zach’s parents were over from Portlaoise) and my grandmother as guests at the small legal wedding.
This meant for our ceremony at Ballybeg, we could have Zach’s father as our celebrant and customise it to how we wanted. The ceremony was held in the Ayers ceremony room which was filled with stunning flowers from Parade Flowers.
THE RECEPTION
As we were living in Australia, we had to book a venue from there and didn’t have a lot of time to look around online. Zach’s sister got married at Ballybeg in 2014, we loved the location and the fact we were able to hire the whole venue for three days, and that all our guests could stay onsite. It made our decision easy to book once we got the blessing from Zach’s sister and brother-in-law.
As we were having a small intimate wedding with 50 guests, we thought the onsite marquee would be a little too big. With this in mind, we decided to have an intimate dinner in the Ayers room, where the ceremony was held. It was the perfect location with the transition from dinner to drinks with the shebeen right next door. A small dancefloor was also transformed after dinner so we could all party into the wee hours.
THE ENTERTAINMENT
We had local Portlaoise musicians play at the wedding called The AJs – James O’Connor and Alan Smyth.
THE DECOR
All of the decor was supplied by Ballybeg. The venue had so much character that we didn’t need to add much. The Wicklow mountains were the perfect backdrop for stunning photos.
I made all my own stationery, from menus to place settings, for the day. Stephanie from Parade Flowers was a dream to work with and her flowers were stunning. She helped transform the ceremony room into the reception and it was unbelievable.
THEIR TOP TIPS
I think everyone says this, but try and take it all in as the day really does go by so quickly.
THEY WISH THEY HAD
Had longer to stay. Everyone had the best time, and it was so great to see our Irish and Australian friends and family all get to know each other.
THEIR BEST MOMENTS
It was an epic couple of days but the second day after our wedding was pretty special. The sing-songs in the shebeen with the Irish teaching the Australians how to do a ‘Day Two’ after a wedding was amazing!
THE FIRST DANCE SONG
“Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley.
THE CREW
Wedding Dress: Hera Couture from Bluebelle Bridal Melbourne. Bride’s shoes: ASOS. Groom & groomsmen’s suits: YSG Tailors. Bridesmaids’ dresses: Shona Joy. Hair: Paula Flanagan from Studio 26 Portlaoise. Make-up: Ruth Bergin. Florist: Parade Flowers. Cake: Too Sweet To Eat.
See more photographs from Rebecca and Zach’s wedding in the gallery below.
Photography by Ivana Patarcic 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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