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The Maltese Falcon When Eileen and Brian’s boss paired the two up to work together on various projects in 2006, little did he know that he in turn would be engineering the perfect love match of these two individual’s life’s. They married in sunny Malta last September PHOTOGRAPHY: Jenny McCarthy, www.photosbyjen.ie
The couple Eileen & Brian
Eileen Kiely, 30, engineer and Brian Coffey, 28, engineer Laidback wedding in the beautiful sun-soaked island of Malta
t was work that brought Eileen and Brian together, when they met in 2006 and were placed on a number of projects together, and Eileen says simply, “It all developed from there.” Brian was very creative when it came to popping the question. “The proposal happened on Christmas eve. Brian had gone to pick up a few last minute bits and pieces. He came home and said ‘I bought you some flowers …take a look’. He followed me into our living room and told me to go over and smell them. I went over to smell them and noticed the engagement ring in the centre rose of the bouquet. Brian then got down on
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bended knee and asked me to marry him!” The couple decided to marry in Malta, but found that organising a wedding in a foreign country could be complicated, so decided to enlist the help of a wedding planner. “As both of us work full time and due to the fact that we were coming from Ireland, we knew that we would be limited in what we could do.” They soon discovered Sarah Young, who is based on the island of Malta and met her in September 2009. “We were ultra-impressed. Sarah went above and beyond for our meeting. She organised a very reasonable rate of stay for us in one of Malta’s top hotels and champagne sent to the room on a number of occasions. www.confetti.ie
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The details Dress Maggie Sottero, www.maggiesottero.com Bridesmaids LK Bennett from Brown Thomas, Grafton St, Dublin, T: 01 605 6666, www.brownthomas.com Menswear Supplied by Sarah Young Wedding Planner, Shop 1, Diodorus Siculus Street, St. Julian’s, STJ 1620, Malta, T: 00356 9925 3265, www.weddingplannermalta.com Flowers Supplied by wedding planner as before Cake Three-tier consisting of madeira and chocolate fudge. Stationery Julie from Bandido Orginals, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, T: 01 2016733 Transport Supplied by wedding planner, as before Rings Irish Rubies Ltd, 78 Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, T: 01 8742047, www.irishrubies.ie Music Supplied by wedding planner, as before Reception ‘The Villa B’, St Julian’s, Malta Wedding Planner Sarah Young Wedding Planner, Shop 1, Diodorus Siculus Street, St. Julian’s, STJ 1620, Malta, T: 00356 9925 3265, www.weddingplannermalta.com Photographer Jenny McCarthy from ‘Photos by Jen’, Unit 24, Fashion City, Ballymount, Dublin 24, T: 01 4295748, www.photosbyjen.ie Videographer Supplied by wedding planner, as before Honeymoon Rome
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She could not have been more hospitable. Immediately after meeting Sarah, we knew that Malta was the place for us to marry.” Eileen and Brian quickly discovered that hiring a wedding planner removed all elements of stress from the organisation of their big day. “Sarah and her team shouldered all our worries and took care of every little detail from transport, to accommodation for our guests and ultimately provided us with an extremely amazing and memorial day. Sarah thought of everything, including a seamstress which was a gift, as this lady had everyone’s dress looking perfect.” There was also the issue of the relevant
documentation to arrange, however the duo’s planner stepped in and made sure there were no problems. “The most worrying thing for us was trying to determine the correct and relevant documentation to complete with regard to getting our marriage recognised under both Maltese and Irish law. Sarah, our planner provided us with all of the necessary documentation and guided us throughout the whole process. We could not have done it all without her.” It was cocktails by the seaside as Eileen and Brian’s guests arrived at the welcoming reception the evening before the wedding. “Our day went without a hiccup. Our recep-
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tion venue was decorated so beautifully it took our breath away. All of our guests really appreciated the view over looking the ocean. It provided a nice, cool breeze for us all while we relaxed outside having our welcoming cocktail reception.” Malta threatened to undermine its sunny reputation however, when a massive thunderstorm struck the night before the wedding. “It rained up until 6am the following morning, our wedding day. This had me on my last nerve! However I later found out that this was a freak occurrence in Malta and that these storms generally occur at night and pass over before morning.
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“The ocean provided a nice, cool breeze for us all while we relaxed outside”
Menu
Chicken and mushroom vol au vent Fruit sorbet
Fillet of beef or grilled seabream Trio of desserts
Meanwhile, Brian was oblivious to the storm as himself and the guys were having a great night-before-the-wedding in one of the local pubs and noticed nothing!” Eileen believes that the photography on the day of your wedding can be one of the key elements to organising a successful wedding. “Photographs are so important when re-living your wedding day, that we felt this was not an area we would compromise on. For this reason, we brought Jenny and her work partner Barbara all with us to Malta. Both ladies were a dream to us all. We have recently received our wedding images and we were overwhelmed with what we saw.” www.confetti.ie
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