Wedding of the Century

And on to the wedding ...
My cousin Eleanor got married on October 27th and it was the absolute best event I've ever attended. I honestly don’t think I’ll enjoy my own wedding as much! The day started with a scramble to get all done up to the nines since its like Punchestown week when the Curran ladies get all dolled up and I didn't want to feel like a complete fuddy-duddy. Anyway, was out at Cormie and Sheila's place and we all headed into Naas together after Mary came in and salon-styled our hair. Since we were mad early we headed to Graces for a cup of coffee and a few quick pics.We headed back to the church for one and stood out in the chilly October air (but it was dry. Woo-hoo!) to mingle and wait for the bride. At a little past two (the wedding was supposed to start at 1) a horse-drawn carriage pulled into the church parking lot. Eleanor was inside, absolutely beaming. The wedding ceremony itself was just beautiful, in the stunning cathedral with music provided by a barbershop quartet (what a nice touch! They sounded oh-so-good!!). After the wedding we headed down to Tullamore in Co. Offaly for the reception in the Bridge House Hotel. It was such a beautiful place. We walked in and were greeted with glasses of champagne with strawberries in the bottom (yummy) and the supply was endless. I must have had at least 4 glasses before dinner! I'm amazed I wasn't pissed since I had only had half of the cup of coffee all day. When we got into the dining room it was lit by candlelight and there were beautiful bows on the back of all the chairs. There were little boxes full of little questions for the table to break the ice but since I was sitting with my three brothers and their fiancees and my guest (who is their cousin) we were well able to break things on our own. We were the loudest table, singing the words to the instrumental music that was there intended to be condusive to peaceful dining. Not the story when the boys got going. People kept coming over, wanting to be a part of our table since we were having such a great time. It was one of the most fun dinners I've ever had, laughing and singing and answering questions the whole time. I thought there was no possible way to improve it. Then the deserts came out. I would never have touched my dinner if they had brought that out sooner. There was a chocolate fountain (YAY!!) and literally every desert (besides cheesecake) I can think of. We had large dinner plates to go around the dessert room (they call it a buffet. I call it a room) and it was impossible to get one of everything, although there were many, many attempts. The speeches were really fantastic and when the music started it was hard to peel anyone off the dance floor. There was great oldies played, timeless classics and stuff that everyone loves (Summer of 69). After the dancing we retired to the resident's bar where Anne (my Irish Mammy) pulled out a book full of songs specific to everyone in the family. We all sang our respective songs (The River is mine. Did Garth proud) and dragged ourselves up to bed around 6am. Sheila and I had breakfast delivered to our room (mmmm but not really worth getting out of bed for. Nothing was worth getting out of bed for that morning) so we got up and munched then I went back to bed and didn't surface until 2pm. Headed down the town to meet up with them all at a pub before coming back to another wonderful dinner. There was another eventful night in the residents bar (I had to sneak away from 11pm-2am for a nap) and we headed home on Sunday afternoon after meeting Sharon's (my brother Shane's fiancee) family for lunch. Fortunately they were at a wedding the night before and were a little hanging as well. So here’s a few photos from the night. The first is me and Sheila while enjoying our coffee in Graces, then Eleanor emerging from the horse & carriage at the hotel, me and Louise (the BELL of the ball. She looked amazing), me and Laura (the prettiest bridesmaid), me and my adopted granddad Shamie and Shane and Ciaran trying out the ladies’ hairpieces. The last one is the happy couple. They were just glowing all night. The night was fantastic. Can’t beat an Irish wedding!!!