Aoife and Chris held their wedding in Aoife's home country of Ireland, and fell in love with the beautiful Inish Beg Island in County Cork. "We held our ceremony around a little lagoon in the forest, which was unbelieveably romantic!" says Aoife.
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
One of the couple's priorities was to make their day as eco-friendly as possible. "We also wanted our personalities to shine through in all the details." says Aoife. "During the speeches we had tequila toasts to nod to the year Chris and I spend living in Mexico, and I spent weeks making green tequila cups in my ceramics class to serve it in!"
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
"I also made an inspirational couples table for the reception, where I framed pictures of couples we know, and Chris and I put little captions underneath them about why they inspired us," explains Aoife.
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
"Another detail I loved was the message tree I made instead of a traditional guest book," she adds. "I put lots of branches in a big base and tied green ribbons on. Then I put lots of pegs and pieces of paper out for people to pin messages on to it. The messages were hilarious as people were less worried about what they wrote than in a guest book and it looked great!"
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
As well as wanting to make their day personal and sustainable, Aoife and Chris loved the idea of using it to provide business for small companies. "This was particularly true of my dress, which was designed for me by Kula Tsurdiu in her workshop in Nottingham," says Aoife. "I loved the 'fairy ballerina' skirt of the original dress Kula had designed, but wanted to put my own stamp on it. Kula was able to adapt the original bodice to create a simpler one and gave it a sweetheart neckline that suited my style."
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
Aofie's glam headband was also by Kula Tsurdiu, and she completed her look with a beautiful bouquet of lilies of the valley. "They were my late grandmother's favourite flowers, and I loved how they kept her in my thoughts throughout the day," she adds.
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
Aoife's bridesmaids wore elegant made-to-measure green dresses by Zhou Dan at the R and Z dress shop in Birmingham – the rich colour fitted perfectly with the forest theme!
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
"As well as the stationery and table centres, Chris' sister and I made the bunting for our outdoor reception, and ceramic 'wedding' signs that we hung around the place," says Aoife.
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
Aoife also nodded to her green theme by making a table plan out of leaves, and naming each table after a different variety of tree.
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
Another great idea was the pairs of flip-flops the couple spray-painted with their initials and gave out to guests in the evening so they could carry on dancing!
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
Aoife's mum got creative and made the couple a beautiful wedding cake, decorated in their green colour scheme. "My mum spent months testing cake recipes before making our amazing three-tiered chocolate biscuit, carrot, and lemon drizzle cake – everyone was so impressed by the results!
Shane O'Neill
An eco-friendly forest wedding
The couple held their reception in a marquee, and rather than having traditional flower centrepieces, used trees, moss and green votives to decorate their tables. "My cousin Maeve even made place cards using natural bleached sticks from the beach with everyone's names carved on to them!" adds Aoife.
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