Thomas and Patrick

So tell us how you met. Were you single for a long time before you started dating?

We met online through Facebook. We had seen each other locally in passing and then discovered that our families lived a few streets apart and had done so for years, but we had never noticed. We began speaking online and arranged to meet. Thomas got to the meeting point first and while he was waiting, he was getting more nervous and was thinking about leaving, but just in perfect timing Patrick had walked around the corner and from that moment there was no going back. We had a long walk talking and laughing with each other and it was a beautiful start to what is now an amazing relationship. We were both single for a while before meeting, I think it was close to a year.

How long after you started dating did it take to pop the question, was it an immediate yes? And who asked who?

So after about 18 months we were heading out to dinner for Thomas’s birthday to a beautiful restaurant called The Ivory, which sadly is no longer here. Afterwards we had taken a walk along the river and as Thomas was distracted by the sky and the moon, as the night was just so clear, I had said “What if I was to ask you to marry me?” And just as Thomas turned round, I was standing with a ring in my hand and popped the question! It was an immediate yes! With lots of joyful tears, a very special moment that will never be forgotten.

Tell us about your BIG DAY, location, amount of guests etc.

We had a beautiful June Saturday Summer wedding. We Had Our Ceremony, Dinner and Reception all in one location, through a carefully orchestrated wedding event team at The Bannville Hotel in Banbridge Co Down. The day was set up across three rooms, we had the entire hotel and the grounds for us and our guests. We had a small Spiritual Ceremony with around 40 people in house, conducted by a Spiritual Minister and the President of the Belfast Spiritual Church, and then opted for an intimate dinner with our immediate family just Patrick’s parents and our siblings, a time we are both so grateful for. We wanted a part of our wedding day to be carefree and having everyone around that one table together was perfect for us. We then had a location shoot for photographs at Brownlow Castle for our couple photos on the day in- between Ceremony & Dinner while our guests enjoyed a cocktail hour. We had 120

Guests for our reception party in the evening. Our entertainment was provided by a long time friend of Patrick’s and Q Radio/Downtown Radio presenter Declan Willson and his Entertainment Production Company, Perfect Events. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

What about the food and drink?

Our menu for our private dinner was not a traditional wedding set menu. We wanted everyone to enjoy and feel comfortable so we asked everyone to pick their favourite meal and the hotel catered a beautiful dinner, allowing everyone to have something they enjoyed. It was such a good idea, as had we had a large sitdown dinner with the 120 guests it wouldn’t have been as real and memorable. We choose things this way so we could have that quality time with our family before the reception. We couldn’t let the guests at the reception go without food, so we did also put a large spread buffet out for our party guests that evening, as we had several people traveling in form across UK & IRL.

Were there any hiccups or did all go to plan?

No, the day ran so smoothly; we woke up and the sun was shining. After all the months of planning you mentally prepare yourself for an issue or a problem, but we had two incredible wedding planners with years of experience under their belts that give us the peace of mind that we needed it. So truthfully if any problems did arise myself and Patrick wasn’t aware and every detail and moment was taken care of, we honestly couldn’t have faulted anything throughout the day.

Have you been on or are you going on honeymoon?

Yes, two days after we got Married, we went and registered our marriage with the Council and then Jetted off to Greece for a beautiful sunny romantic trip. We totally fell in love with the island. It was just magical and perfect for us. After the extremely busy day, and months leading up to the wedding, it was well and truly needed to wind down and relax.

In your daily lives what do you do for work? What interests do you share and have that are different?

So my husband Patrick is a Project Controller for a Civil Engineering Firm that covers NI & Scotland. I am an Author and Spiritual Coach, we also jointly run a Holistic & Wellness Events Company for the likes of Fairs to Retreats. It’s a great adventure we just have natural joint forces on.

Do you do everything together in terms of socialising, travel?

I’m not ashamed to say it, we just genuinely enjoy each other’s company, so yes, we do most things together, I’m married to my best friend so it’s just natural. We do have different hobbies in respect of our own individual likes and interests, example being, I’m very into music, love the arts and do a lot of mindfulness activities with friends, and for Patrick, he loves playing and watching the Snooker and his biggest passion is Boxing and enjoys training most days of the week. Even if there’s something the one of us is doing or wants to attend, that the other half won’t necessarily enjoy, we support one another and go along with it. Life is about being happy and finding joy in the things that make you and your other half happy.

Have you a family, is this something on the plan for you?

We don’t have any children yet, it is something that we have discussed. We are both quite career driven and would really only begin the process once we felt we had the means and life to support a child. We are still young so who knows what the future holds. At the moment we have two beautiful golden labs at the young age of 18 months to keep us busy and entertained as you can imagine.

Tell us who made your day possible in terms of rings, flowers, photographer, cars etc, Our photographer was Courtney Hamilton. She is a true artist who made us feel so comfortable and was so professional, orchestrating the running of the wedding the way she thought best and we couldn’t fault her at all, she did an amazing job. Our rings are from a Dutch Designer in the Netherlands “Willemijn”. Our decors and flowers set across three rooms were by a very talented event design team lead by Kylie from Happily Ever After who sat us down, listened to what we wanted and completed it without any hesitation or any issues. Everyone we had to make our day special was absolutely and truly brilliant.

11. Has anything changed since you said, “I Do”?

Not in the sense of something big or dramatic, we have been together so long as we got married on our tenth anniversary, so we already have built our life together, from buying our first home, first car and everything else that couples do after they get married. Our wedding was just the perfect way to celebrate our tenth year and was the icing on top of the cake to say “I DO”