Set on 36 acres of grounds, Marlfield House was the stunning venue for Alva Davy and Daniel Costello's wedding on the 24th of November, 2023. Photographed by Peter Carvill and featured in the Autumn issue of SOCIAL & PERSONAL WEDDINGS, we couldn't imagine a more beautiful day if we tried!
The couple had crossed paths a number of times, both living in Dublin and having similar social circles, but the invisible string theory brought them together again when they were both working in the same law firm. "We got to know each other much better, and he eventually asked me on a date!"
"We stayed in Kelly's Hotel in Rosslare with my family for a weekend in October 2022. Kelly's is so special to both of us; my family have been going there since before I was even born, and Dan, being from Wexford himself, spent summers working there. One morning, we were walking the beach when he got down on one knee and proposed with my dream ring! He knew me well by booking a nail appointment in Mink before we headed down to Rosslare but disguised it well by saying the massages in the hotel were completely booked out, and he still wanted to book a pampering appointment for me. I was so used to wondering every weekend whether this would be the weekend we would get engaged that I was no more suspicious than I had been for the previous few months. Men take note of the nail appointment!"
The pair wanted unique wedding scents to remind them of their special day. "I had a lovely afternoon in Brown Thomas with my mum, where we went through pretty much all the perfumes before settling with Van Cleef Arpels and Neroli Amara. Dan was more decisive and knew he would get Tom Ford, Black Orchid."
Alva had help on the hunt for her wedding dress with her little sister (and chief bridesmaid) tracking down the gown online based on Alva's 'simple but not boring' guidelines. "It was a beautiful Justin Alexander dress that I will forever love. I loved the simplicity of the front of the dress with the subtle detail on the corset, and at the back, it had a dramatic bow and train with a built-in bustle. I had a veil for the church, and after the ceremony, I replaced it with a beaded hairband, which I loved."
"There is always so much hype about the bride on a wedding day that I wanted Dan to have that feeling, too. We went to Louis Copeland, and Dan got a custom-made velvet tux; we picked a beautiful paisley pattern for the inside and had our (new!) initials embroidered on the inside pocket with our wedding date. Louis Copeland was so fabulous to deal with, but I will say that Dan had more tux fittings than I had dress fittings!"
For her bride tribe, Alva chose her little sister, cousin and best friend. "Because of the winter wedding, I had forest green in my head and found the dresses on Folkster. I was very decisive and organised with everything for the wedding, and they were picked, bought, and tried on by my bridesmaids within a few months of getting engaged."
When searching for their venue, the couple were eager to find a location with some special meaning, and the fact that Marlfield House was also in Dan's home county of Wexford certainly didn't hurt! "It is such a beautiful old house, full of character and charm, with stunning open fires, and the staff are like a family. It is a venue that we will be going back to for years. They also made everything easy for us, and it was like staying at home for two nights, making us feel so comfortable."
"I had tunnel vision, visions, and decisions regarding organising our wedding. I knew that I only wanted strings during our ceremony, and no singing was allowed! We had the Mamisa Strings, who were just fantastic to deal with. I walked down the aisle to the Portuguese Love Theme from one of my favourite movies, Love Actually, I had always dreamed and imagined this, so it was extraordinary. We had a lovely mix of modern and older songs, everything from Chasing Cars to Gabriel's Oboe and My Girl to Cloud's Veil; it all worked beautifully together."
"Mamisa Strings joined us for our drinks reception in Marlfield and played all pop songs, which also worked well. The non-negotiable for after-dinner entertainment was Spring Break; we booked them before booking our venue! They are always crowd-pleasers and have the perfect set to keep everyone happy!"
Regarding the best decision, Alva had to say, "The best decision was doing a 'first look' before our wedding; it was my favourite moment. We didn’t do it for the reaction photos, but we did it because we're each other's people and biggest fans; it felt so wrong not to see each other before the church, and we couldn’t imagine such an intimate moment of seeing each other for the first time on our wedding day to be in front of 100 people. It was like time stood still; we only had about 10 minutes, but that was all we needed."
"Having trusted photographers and videographers for this moment was important; it was such an intimate moment, and we didn’t want to feel we were in a documentary; luckily, we had the best of the best with us for those moments, and it was like they weren’t even there! Having seen each other before the church meant that we weren’t nervous; we had already felt grounded after seeing each other, and I could enjoy the moment walking down the aisle to see my husband-to-be."
- Gráinne