A breathtaking four-star castle in the heart of County Monaghan, Castle Leslie Estate is one of the last great Irish Castle estates still in the hands of its founding family. Set on 1,000 acres of undulating Irish countryside, dotted with ancient woodland and glittering lakes, it was the perfect venue for finance manager Sarah Headon's marriage to tax manager Morgan Walsh on the 19th of July 2024. Photographed by Peter Carvill, every moment of their celebration has us completely smitten!

The couple grew up in the same area of Dublin, going to the same schools and even attending the same GAA summer camps as kids! However, it wasn’t until a late-night gathering at McDonald’s on Grafton Street in 2013 during their first year of college that their paths finally crossed. While they started out in a larger group of friends for the first two years of their relationship, secretly fancying each other (apparently very obvious to everyone else), Sarah and Morgan were too cautious to make the first move. "With a bit of Dutch courage on New Year's Eve, we finally shared a drunken kiss which eventually led to our first date in January 2015. And as they say, the rest is history."

"We got engaged on 19th February 2022. We had booked a Sunday night stay at Seafield Hotel & Spa Resort in Wexford. We planned to go for a sunrise walk along the beach, and Morgan suggested we try to get a nice photo of us to hang up in our house. Classic Irish weather meant it was a torrential storm at sunrise, so we went a bit later that morning, but still brought everything to get a nice photo. Morgan told me to head down to the shore while he set up the camera to record so that he could capture the whole moment. It was such a gorgeous setting, and I’m so grateful he thought of recording this special moment! We were dying to celebrate with family, so we drove back to Dublin to tell our families in person and had a small celebration at our house that night. It was so much fun getting both families together, and the whole day remains a very special memory for us both! We headed back down to Seafield on Sunday to celebrate just the two of us and soak it all in!"

The couple had been engaged for about two and a half years, so Sarah had plenty of time to prepare her beauty routine! "I had been wanting to get Invisalign, so the wedding was the perfect excuse." She also focused on improving her skin hydration and started getting regular Hydrafacials at Therapie about 9 months after the wedding. "I also booked in for the Day Before Facial at Floraison, which was a nice treat the few days before the wedding. Otherwise, I didn't stray too far away from my regular skincare routine, and just drank A LOT of water!"

Sarah definitely had a vision in mind when she started the process of finding her wedding dress, looking for the beading and embellishment of a Berta gown, but without the hefty price tag. She tried a few of these styles on, but as much as she liked the look, nothing made her feel particularly bridal. It wasn't until a visit to The White Room in Mullingar, this time with a much more open mind, that she was surprised by a classic crepe gown from Paloma Blanca."I remember feeling like I belonged on the top of a wedding cake! I’m not the most decisive person, so I mulled over it for a few weeks and even planned a trip to London with my mum, my sister and Morgan’s sister to visit Grace Loves Lace and Made With Love. But after every dress I tried on, I kept comparing it to the Paloma Blanca I had tried on at home, and slowly but surely, this gave me the confirmation and comfort to go ahead with it!"

Morgan knew he and the wedding party would be in Black Tie and that he wanted something a little extra to differentiate himself as the groom. Brian looked after Morgan, the groomsmen, and both fathers at The Groom’s Room in Diffney’s on Henry St. The six of them were well watered with bottles of Heineken during the appointment, and they had great craic celebrating the day.

For her bridal party, Morgan had her two sisters, Morgan’s sister Michelle and two of her closest childhood friends, Becky and Laura. "I knew I wanted green and for them to feel comfortable on the day. I saw Six Stories on my Instagram feed and thought they were perfect, precisely what I was looking for. They stock a small selection of dresses on ASOS, so it was convenient to order a few from there first, to get an idea of the quality and sizing before placing the full order directly on the Six Stories website. I had the most amazing alterations specialist, who looked after each individually, which was worthwhile."

"We were blessed with the weather, so we held our ceremony on the patio overlooking the lake at Castle Leslie. This was my dream since we booked the venue, so we were beyond thrilled when the sun started to come out! We had a spiritualist ceremony, which was short and sweet, but also felt very personal, with some lovely poems read out by our close friends. My father walked me down the aisle to Shania Twain’s ‘Still The One’ on the piano and a string quartet. This was another moment I had dreamt about for a long time, and it remains such a special memory for me. There was a feeling of excitement that we were finally here after all the planning, and a lovely, relaxed feeling of being together again."

After lots of research online, Sarah saw that Castle Leslie was hosting an Open Day in April 2022. "I’ll be honest, Morgan wasn’t too excited when I first told him about it, as with my indecisive track record, he thought we’d be visiting different wedding venues every weekend for the next few months. But as soon as we saw the place, we fell in love with it! From the stunning lakeside views, the character of the castle and the accommodation at The Lodge, we just felt Castle Leslie had everything on our list!"

"We had a string quartet for fun yet classy entertainment throughout the reception. Following our speeches, we had a short performance from The Trinitones before the main event, a 6-piece show by The Event Band! We ran a little over on our speeches, so they both got pushed out a bit. However, both groups were incredibly patient and professional and stayed late to complete the show. We got the best of the best with The Event Band members, and they put on such a great show, keeping everyone on the dance floor the whole night. They’re a little different from a regular wedding band, performing many different genres, including rap and R&B. they have some of the best vocalists around! We then had DJ Marty Conor come in to see us to the finish line - he was recommended by Castle Leslie and didn’t disappoint, keeping the party going to the early hours."

Regarding their best decision, Sarah said, "One of our best decisions was to bring our families and wedding party down to Castle Leslie the night before the wedding. We had a lovely, intimate dinner together, and it helped us to relax and settle in before the big day. It’s especially special in hindsight, unfortunately, Morgan’s youngest brother Luke was incredibly sick on the morning of the wedding and had to be rushed to Cavan hospital to have his appendix removed! He fully recovered, thank god, and even managed to join us at our Day Two back at The Glasshouse in Dublin!"

"We were also thrilled with our choice of photographer (Peter Carvill) and videographer (Kevin Caffrey from Little Bear). The two lads are so familiar with Castle Leslie and work really well together. As the bride and groom, you spend quite a lot of time with the photographer and videographer, so it was amazing to have such gentlemen; they brought such a calming atmosphere, which helped us to relax and take it all in. Lastly, we wrote personalised place cards with little anecdotes for each guest. They took time, but it was so lovely to take the time in the lead up to the wedding to sit back and think about each person on our guestlist and reflect on why they’re so important to us!"

- Gráinne