Toast | The daily craic

The wedding of the century!

Posted on July 20, 2010 by thedailycraic

I’ve been procrastinating the massive Ireland 2010 wedding post for too long. It’s time I’ve tackled it. I say this because I took roughly 800 photos while I was there and don’t even know how to choose my favorites. I also say this because it was honestly the most fun trip ever to occur in the history of our family and most families in attendance. We had a ball! It was so cool because essentially our family + a ton of people we know and love were all on vacation together, hanging out, laughing, relaxing, etc. It was great! We should do it more often. Fo’ real.

As for the actual wedding day, I can hardly put it into words (good thing I have 800 pictures to choose from…) Megan was the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen. She was also the most calm bride I’ve ever seen/heard about. My sister Kelly did an absolutely AMAZING job on her hair (it legitimately stayed fabulous the whole day – till about 2am!) Her dress was perfection. Her makeup was flawless. And her attitude said it all; she was ecstatic, no freaking out, no nervousness, just happiness.

Matt looked so handsome! And watching him watch Meg walk down the aisle at Holycross Abbey was one of my favorite parts of the whole day. You could honestly see how much he loves her right in that moment. I know it sounds sort of cheesy, but it’s true… After they were pronounced husband and wife and were ready to walk down the aisle, we had a bit of a surprise up our sleeves… With the help of my siblings and my wonderful cousin Aisling (who lives in Ireland) we arranged for the singer to play a few seconds of “The Wedding March,” then pause for a moment and then start up again with “All You Need is Love” like they do in Love Actually. We even had both trumpet and trombone players who popped out as an extra surprise! It was great!

The reception at the Dundrum House Hotel was SO MUCH FUN. Literally the best time of my life (hopefully Meg and Matt’s as well!) My toast went smoothly I’d say – I kept it to about 2 minutes, I was shaking like a leaf and my voice was shaky but I didn’t totally break down or anything. I sort of kept it together, so I’ll take it. I got some laughs, some tears and some applause. Success My dad also gave an absolutely amazing toast – made me cry of course! Mr. O’Neill did as well, it was beautiful!

We danced and danced and danced. I don’t think I ever stopped. Literally, my hips were killing me the next day. Great workout!… After the “official” reception was over, the “afters” started. We went down to the residence bar (residence bar in Ireland = a bar in your hotel which you can ask the front desk to open whenever you’d like. If the normal hotel bar is closed for the night, well you just ask the staff to open the residence bar, they get the bartender on call and there you go! Pretty sweet huh?!) to listen to traditional Irish music and nibble on some snacks, drink some Guinness and just continue to have fun!

The morning after the wedding we all had breakfast together and then Meg and Matt headed off to Greece. They had an amazing trip!

After the wedding festivities Colin and I got to do a little traveling – we headed to the Cliffs of Moher, then Galway for two nights and then Dublin for a night. This was Colin’s first time in Ireland so I wanted him to see a bit more than just Tipperary. It was so much fun and Colin did such a great job driving! I must say, I did a pretty good job myself helping to navigate/read the map. Plus, we didn’t get into a huge fight/break up/hurt one another at all. Pretty good.

Now, without further ado, I present to you Megan and Matthew Ireland wedding extravaganza…