A stunning 13th-century castle hotel, situated on the banks of the Boro River, which rises at the foot of the Blackstairs Mountains in the heart of County Wexford. Wilton Castle is surrounded by open parkland and quiet wooded countryside. This tranquil location was the perfect venue for Grace Naumann and Aaron Chandler's destination wedding on the 17th of July. Captured by Claire, Studio Brown and featured in the Winter 2023 issue of SOCIAL & PERSONAL WEDDINGS, this special day is utterly dreamy!
The pair have been together for almost 11 years, having met on their high school swim team. Aaron joined as a senior to add one more thing to his college applications and always says it was the best decision he ever made!
Aaron proposed on the St. Pete Pier in Florida after an amazing dinner. "I was so excited to get two rings at the time of the proposal!" Afterwards, he surprised Grace with a weekend at a beautiful hotel on the beach. All of their friends met them the next day to celebrate in a cabana on the beach. "That weekend we got the whole hotel drinking tequila grapefruits and enjoyed the beach with our friends! This is why our signature drink was Tequila/Grapefruit!"
It was really important to Grace that she looks and feels like herself but elevated. "I focused on skincare before the wedding and kept my stress levels low. I wore my hair down but pulled it back from my face and we kept the makeup light and natural." Her forever go-to scent is F*cking Fabulous by Tom Ford, it’s a rich, sweet but spicy fragrance. "Smells amazing and the name was a good reminder of the day."
Wedding dress shopping was Grace's favourite part of wedding planning! Her mom and sister joined her for a fun day of drinking champagne and looking at all the amazing dresses. "I went to a couple of bridal boutiques just for the fun of it, we tried on a mountain of gowns, but I ended up coming back to the Anne Barge dress that I picked at the first boutique, it was love at first sight!"
The couple loves the navy/black tux look. "I kept seeing them on Pinterest and I was having the hardest time finding the perfect ones. I found the BLK TUX rental online and had to convince them to let us take them over to another country!"
The gorgeous bridesmaids were Grace's sister, her two best friends, and Aaron’s sister. "I wanted a cohesive look for the bridesmaid dresses but wasn’t too fussed about identical dresses." They picked a champagne colour and then all got to choose their own style, we think it looked fantastic in the end. "It was important to me that they all looked and felt their best on the day too!"
Grace & Aaron wanted the ceremony to feel personal and less formal. "My favourite moment was walking down the aisle to the harpist playing “Here Comes The Sun”. I was a little worried about picking the song for an outside ceremony because there was a good chance that it would be ironic, but we got lucky with the weather!" That day it drizzled a little before the ceremony and when it came time for the walk down the aisle, the clouds parted and the sun poked out just in time. "We did a first look before the ceremony which helped calm my nerves, being able to have a personal moment together before walking down the aisle was one of the best decisions we made on the day and I would recommend every couple consider it!"
It was very important for Aaron & Grace to have a wedding at a venue where they could stay on the property. It was a bonus for the wedding party to stay as well! "We were looking on Airbnb for a venue and came across Wilton Castle, it was one of the most unique and beautiful venues we’ve seen, so of course I reached out to them to see if they were up for the challenge of having a 70-person wedding at their location!" We loved that half of the Castle is ruins and the grounds felt so magical being bordered by lush woodland. The couple ended up having the reception in a marquee on the grounds which worked out amazingly since they got incredibly lucky with the unpredictable Irish weather! "We used sky blue in the flowers styled by French Touch Flowers in the ceremony and reception decor and in my bouquet which looked amazing against all of the green and stone."
For the ceremony, the couple had two harpists, which made being out on the lawn surrounded by trees and flowers feel all the most magical. For the reception, their wedding planner suggested the band, Arthur. "We wanted someone who could do a little bit of everything because our guests were all ages." Luckily Arthur has a huge repertoire of music with pop, jazz, rock and country. They got everyone to join in during the dancing and did a fantastic job! "It was fun and upbeat which was perfect for us and our guests!"
Regarding the best decision, the couple had to say, "Picking our amazing wedding planner! Laura made the day perfect and it was such a relaxing experience. She went above and beyond to pull everything together. Aaron and I love food and we wanted to make sure that the food was great. She found an amazing caterer “Love Food” who she hadn’t worked with before, but they went above and beyond anything we could have expected. She also suggested our florist and I couldn’t have imagined more beautiful flowers!"
Regarding the worst decision, the couple had to say, "Looking back on the day we can’t think of one thing that went wrong! It was absolutely perfect thanks to all our vendors!"
