Wildflowers & Whiskey: The Girl Next Door Said "Aye"

The story of how Tonileigh and Feídhlím went from neighbours four doors apart to partners for life, and threw the most unforgettable whiskey and wildflowers engagement party to celebrate.

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My fiancé and I had been neighbours living four doors apart for 15 years - our two families being very close. It wasn't until 2022 that we had admitted the undeniable spark and took the risk on our friendship to develop something more, and I'm so glad we did! (A typical girl next door story)

We love to travel, having lived in both Liverpool and Porto and travelling across the world to Greece, Spain and volunteering recently in Zambia. However there's truly no place like home - and we love nothing more than cozy Ireland. 

My fiancé and I recently got engaged while travelling to Porto for our friends wedding. We had lived in Porto for a short time and so is a special place for us. We decided to visit a part of Portugal that we had not ventured- the Douro Valley. We had begun enjoying the scenic infinity pool and just as I was about to jump in, my partner Fee got down on one knee and asked me would I marry him or in his words "would you be my best mate forever". It was just perfect. 

Only days later my partner had to receive vital surgery - removing over 2/3rds of his lung from a previous lung puncture injury- the surgery lasting nine hours in total with 32 staples and ribs removed. Our whole focus became about Fee, his recovery and remaining positive. 

Thankfully Fee is making a steady recovery and so we began planning a truly mighty celebration of love and life, going all out as we had fully seen first-hand that life is just too short. 

We wanted something that would merge our two styles: Fee's cool, cosy, Celtic vibe with my love for quirky details, timeless class and elements of vintage heritage. This is where (with the help of Chat GPT...) we came up with the idea for our theme- "whiskey and wildflowers". We then decided to base elements of the party on this aesthetic. I discovered White's Tavern's function room by my holy-grail of research - TikTok. This was perfect match as we loved their food and cosy old pub vibes and according to Fee they're outstanding Guinness.

We then booked an events decorator - Inspired memories and events. We can not recommend this service enough! Robert completely tailored to our theme, placing flower arrangements in vintage whiskey bottles and creating beautiful table settings based on our colour scheme and aesthetic mood boards I created on Pinterest. We had scouted our band during a Christmas outing in Belfast city centre, coming across The Cave Men who brought the party to life! A traditional Irish band with a modern twist, bringing the energy and the craic. We opted for a classic cake with a very us twist - a white piped cake from French Village with an inscription of "she said aye". I had my dress ordered from House of CB which I would recommend every bride to be to size up as the corset style is no joke! I then accessorised on a budget as I knew they would only be worn once - buying my gloves and bridal shawl from Amazon and my shoes and bag from SHEIN which all ended up being a perfect colour match!

I then wanted some fun personalised touches that my guests would always remember. We created our very own semi permanent tattoo station which went down a hit with our friends and family.  Again, I used Chat GPT to design some simple tattoo designs and then pasted these images to a personalised tattoo product on SHEIN. I went on to design our poster for the station on Chat GPT. Instead of a guest book we had our guests write us messages and post them in a bottle which we will open the night before our wedding. Chat GPT once again came in clutch - as I explained the concept and requested a poem to be displayed to which it created a gorgeous sentimental centre piece. SHEIN was also used for a number of fun items such as a signature drink sign, personalised edible drinks wafers, glow sticks, selfie props and vintage photo frames. 

We couldn’t have wished for a better night and it has only made us more excited to begin planning our wedding! 

We are so grateful to my cousin - Conor Quinn productions for photographing our day that we can always look back on and admire - he certainly understood the assignment, capturing our engagement celebrations in a fun, casual but romantic way. We hope to get married on St. Patrick’s 2029 as it is a family tradition to be married on St. Patrick’s day and it lands conveniently on a Friday that year so will be a perfect weekend of celebrations. We hope for a similar vibe for our big day, lots of personalised touches and fun, quirky activities for us and our guests to enjoy.