Whenever I get tired of posting on Instagram and start to wonder if a ‘business account’ is even worth it, I remind myself of this story… The day I met with Suzy & Josh for our initial consult, I had shared a photo of a wedding I had planned in Mexico. Just a simple shoe shot on a pretty tile floor that included a short note about the wedding in Mexico. When I sat down with Suzy & Josh that night, Suzy mentioned she had just looked at my Instagram feed and saw I planned destination events, and she asked if I would ever consider planning a wedding in Europe… and that is how it all began!

Suzy & Josh met at work about 5 years ago. They were able to bring their dogs to the office and it was love at first sight… for Cupcake, Suzy’s black lab, and Zoggie, Josh’s pitbull. The second they saw each other in the hallway, they became instant friends, and introduced Suzy and Josh to each other. Eventually Josh asked Suzy to join him at the dog park, and then for dinner, and so they followed their dog’s lead and fell in love.

Josh proposed on a trip to Morocco, in the middle of the Sahara desert. They had ridden out on camels earlier that day and were camping with a tour group out there. After dinner, Josh led Suzy up the hill to “look at the stars” and that’s when he proposed! After a long time spent staring up at the stars and taking the beauty of the moment in, they headed back to camp to find their tour group gathered around the fire, singing songs. They serenaded the two with “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from the Lion King. I mean come on, how magical and romantic does that sound?!

When planning and looking at venues, we strongly considered Iceland, looked at a few villas in France and Italy, and even went to a few venues in WA, but Ireland was by far the favorite choice! We looked closely at a few options, but the Powerscourt Estate just outside of Dublin was the clear winner! The hotel, venue, and gardens are gorgeous! Plus, I had experience planning corporate events at the Powerscourt Estate and so I knew the venue well and that the staff was phenomenal! Josh and Suzy fell in love with it just from the photos and ended up booking it without even visiting. When they visited a few months later, they knew they had made the right decision.

Though a few of the vendors were from Seattle, most of them were over in Ireland. I set up Skype calls with the photographer and videographer, and handled the rest of the bookings from Seattle! Everything almost went completely smoothly until the NIGHT BEFORE THE WEDDING…

The lush hunter green velvet linens we had ordered for the dinner tables were not remotely close to as promised and turned out to be a sad version of a crushed velvet Elvis painting. Again I say, we received them the night before the wedding. Luckily Patrick, the owner of Gotcha Covered and Jens, the Director of Special Events at the Powerscourt Hotel, are lifesavers! Jens drove us to town and Patrick opened up his warehouse for me to go shopping!! They unfortunately didn’t have a comparable linen in stock, so we switched gears and went with an ivory textured cotton linen for the dinner tables with a hunter napkin and ivory lace with a blush underlay for the cocktail tables & chuppah. It was gorgeous, not what Suzy had in mind at all, but definitely gorgeous. When she saw her reception space for the first time, she didn’t skip a beat! She was just happy it was beautiful. I can honestly say, I wouldn’t have been that amazing given the circumstance, but she was beyond gracious and understanding. We knew there would be a few potential hiccups working with foreign distributors, but you always hope for the best. She handled the changeup like a pro and they both remained cool as cucumbers through the whole ordeal.

Suzy couldn’t decide on one dress, so she went with two! A gorgeous ballgown for the ceremony and a stunning trumpet fitted lace dress for the reception. Both had her favorite detail of the lace long sleeves- gorg!

During dinner, Josh made a surprise speech and presented Suzy with an additional wedding band! What a guy! Then a group of traditional Irish dancers came out to perform for their 100 guests, which was a major highlight of the evening for sure.

The couple danced their first dance to “Perfect Day” by Carla Bruni and then the epic dance party commenced. As you can see, everyone had a blast and danced until they dropped (literally).

Suzy & Josh are absolute DREAM clients! They made decisions easily, never stressed about being 4,500+ miles away from their venue, had great design taste, and wanted to treat their guests to a great party!! I’d say we definitely accomplished that last part.

And I couldn’t help myself from getting my own shot on this GORGEOUS staircase…