Set in 14 acres of mature landscaped gardens overlooking the Irish Sea, Tinakilly Country House is steeped in history and oozing charm and sophistication. The country house provided the perfect venue for Cate Antonius and Chris McKee's nuptials on the 21st of September, 2024. Photographed by Niamh Smith, we love the laid-back charm of this wedding day. And we think you will, too!
In a rather unusual twist, the couple met through their exes! "It was their family Christmas party in 2017. Our exes are brother and sister. After those relationships ended, we reconnected through social media in 2020. We started talking every day, and then Chris flew up from South Florida (where he was living) to take me on a date in Cleveland, where I was currently living. Only a few months later, in the middle of Covid, we moved in together in South Florida."
"We were in Maui, Hawaii, for a family vacation with Chris’s side of the family. One of our favourite places in Hawaii is Maui Surfing Goat Dairy Farm, so we planned a visit and took our nieces and nephews with us. Since this was a family vacation with 27(!) of Chris’s family members, I didn’t expect to get engaged during this trip. While at the goat farm, they showed us baby goats born the night before; Chris picked one up and showed me a name tag that said, "Will you marry me?” with a ring attached. I said yes but didn’t have a huge reaction until I turned around to see that Chris had my parents fly out to be there for the big day!"
Leading up to the wedding, Cait tried to maintain a consistent skincare routine. "Since I was planning a wedding abroad, having rehearsal appointments was tricky. I didn’t do my makeup trial until two days before the wedding." Cait wore the classic bridal scent Baccarat Rouge 540 by Maison Francis Kurkdjian for her wedding day perfume.
For Cait, finding her wedding dress was exhausting and totally unexpected. "I said no strapless, skintight, super lacey, lowcut, sweetheart neck, or ballgown dresses. We went to 5 different dress stores and tried on over 50 different dresses that weekend with no luck. A couple of weeks later, I went to Cincinnati, Ohio, bridal district, where I tried on another 50 or so dresses until I tried on the one. Once I had it on, I didn’t want to take it off. The funny part was it was a strapless sweetheart neckline that I added a strap to to be more comfortable."
"It was absolutely perfect, except I forgot my flowers walking down the aisle. Before the bride walked down, instead of flower girls, we had our nieces pass out little bottles of whiskey to our guests as they made their way down the aisle. We wanted something short and sweet for the ceremony but also to incorporate some Irish wedding traditions. We had hand-tying and ring-warming ceremonies, during which guests could warm our rings and give their best wishes. Something that was also very important to us was to have our siblings give readings during the ceremony."
The pair went directly from their engagement in Hawaii to Ireland to look at venues! "We had a binder with ten locations and planned to visit a handful in Ireland. We wanted something our guests could stay at or had hotels nearby. Another important thing was that we wanted a venue that would just be us and our guests. As soon as we pulled up to Tinakilly, we knew it was the one. The outside and inside were both stunning. Knowing how much it rains in Ireland, we wanted to make sure we loved the inside just as much as the outside in case we needed to have the ceremony inside!"
"Since some guests were flying from the States to our wedding, we wanted to capture as much of Ireland as possible during our wedding weekend. We found the Dooley Brothers online and loved their videos. We wanted the music to have an Irish pub feel."
Regarding the best decision, Cait said, "The best decision, undoubtedly, was marrying each other in Ireland!"
Regarding the worst decision, Cait said, "The only thing we regret for the day was not renting out the venue on Friday as well. Our guests couldn’t check in until 3:00 pm, which meant that we would have to start a later ceremony. If we could have done things over, I think we would have had a welcome dinner there Friday, and then we would have been able to start our ceremony time earlier. Overall, we wanted as much time with our favourite people as possible, and what we ended up with was still pretty spectacular."
- Gráinne