Styling with a conscience
NIAMH WHITE
Wedding Coordinator, Horetown House
I have a confession to make. I am a stalker of wedding venues, wedding ceremonies, wedding barns, wedding tents, wedding flowers and just generally I am nosy about any wedding trends here, in the US and all around the world. Ireland is so ahead of the game internationally and anyone with an interest in weddings will tell you our Irish vendors and suppliers are world class. Just ask Martha Stewart or our very own OneFabDay, our people are amazing. And now we are moving towards sustainable style! Ireland is an amazing place to get married!!!
“Ireland is an amazing place to get married”
the mythical Barn Wedding
Now, back to the stalking. Barns are huge in the states. In Ireland our barns are in fact cow sheds, made from stone with little or no windows. This was a very clever building method for sustainable farming using available materials to make useful cow houses, however it’s completely unhelpful for wedding venues looking for bright airy rooms to host a couple of hundred people for dinner. So we have long coveted a beautiful barn style interior but it’s a bit tricky, and we really love our tent. We hatched a plan to panel some of our walls to give the Garden room a bit of a barn style without losing our lovely cotton interior.
walking on walls
We had been searching for battered and weathered wood panels…but not too battered…and a nice colour…and not too thick and we don’t want anything too rustic…and as you can imagine, it was pretty tricky to find. Then one day, we were looking at our dance floor, complaining that it was really getting too shabby to be chic and we would have to lift it. Then we were arguing over the pros and cons of repairing the damage or replacing single boards to reduce the waste. It seems obvious when I line up those to pieces of information but it actually surprised us when we realised we were standing on our solution!
So we lifted each panel of the dancefloor and then used it to create a gorgeous backdrop behind the newly laid (now more chic) dancefloor. And although it sounds a little corny, we kinda love that the wall is 5 years of dancing, all of our gorgeous couples first dances, Riverdance impressions, Come on Eileens and some serious partying.
“…it actually surprised us when we realised we were standing on our solution! “
little changes
We always want to update our spaces and create new features and areas of interest in the house but it’s also really important to keep the look consistent so when we make changes it doesn’t interfere with our couples plans.
adding something extra
We are also working on new decor items that couples can add to their day with options to personalise and adapt. Our beautiful Moongate can be filled with lush greens and beautiful foliage to give fresh and striking backdrop for photos and ceremonies. We also hire it blank to florists so you can build a cohesive style and have your florist bring beautiful blooms from your bouquets into your backdrop. We are in love with this foamfree installation by Lennie from Wallflower who grows her flowers just a few miles from Horetown with her husband on their flower farm.
New additions
We have also invested in some gorgeous table numbers to replace printing paper numbers for each wedding. Reusable isn’t so hard when you have gorgeous props like these.
As always we are gathering lovely things to add to our collection and we are excited to create more beautiful tablescapes and ceremony styling to become the backdrop of your big day without leaving a huge footprint after the party is over.
Being sustainable is a challenge but with a little bit of thoughtful planning and choosing vendors who are working towards kinder methods you can make a real impact on your wedding footprint. If you need any help or advice on choosing enviornmentally sound options please ask when you visit us on an open day or when we are chatting about your plans. We make a real effort to promote vendors with a sustainable base to their practice and as always we are looking for ways to reduce our waste and remove plastic from our house where possible. We are really looking forward to making amazing weddings happen and working with you all to look after our little patch on the planet.
Photos by Wexford Photos, The Campbells Photography, David McClelland, WildThingsWed, Elaine Barker Photography, PhotographybyCiara
Recent Comments