True Love Tuesday Aisling and Ricky Stewart... - Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine

Sweet Love

I love that you are my person and I am yours,

that whatever door we come too we will go through together.

AR Asher

Aisling McCool from Maghera and Ricky Stewart from Limavady met on a night out six years ago after being introduced through mutual friends, not knowing that their lives were going to change forever. Ricky being very romantic booked a lakeside lodge on Mullans Bay, Boa Islands in Co Fermanagh, suggesting going for a walk along Lough Erne, halfway through the walk he got down on one knee and proposed.

Aisling’s mum owns Romantique Bridal in Magherafelt which was extremely helpful when it came time to choose her dream dress. Knowing that Aisling didn’t want an A line dress her mum arranged for some dresses to be sent over from her top designer Pronovias especially for Aisling to try on. Aisling said “the first one I put on me was everything and I couldn’t believe how much I loved me in it”. Finding the whole experience amazing the bride said “I know she is my mammy and I know she wanted me to be the best version of me on my wedding day so I trusted her implicitly and I was right to do so. I loved my dress and I loved my veil, everything about my bridal look was perfection. I know I’m a very lucky woman having a bridal expert as a mammy”.

Wanting plain bridesmaids dresses for sister Erin and friends Orlaith, Chloe and Aishling, Aisling ordered emerald green silk dresses from Silk Fred along with flower girl dresses from Next. Ricky and his groomsmen suits for brother Colin, friends Niall and Vinny along with cousin Stephen were from Tweedy Acheson.

Arranging their wedding for 11^th July 2022 Aisling and Ricky wanted a relaxed and laid back wedding at Lusty Beg Island, having both their wedding and reception there allowed them to have the relaxed day they wished for. The happy couple even took time out to enjoy a boat ride around the island before joining their guests for a drinks reception where their 80 guests were served Guinness and Prosecco. They chose a relaxed and laid back theme as Aisling and Ricky are laid back themselves and just wanted to enjoy their day with their friends and family along with their little boy Darragh. Having a beautiful setting on the walkway to say their vows to each other set the scene for their special day, even Darragh shouting and waving at boats brought a giggle.

Having a dessert table including a brownie stack, cupcakes to match the colour scheme, strawberries and marshmallows instead of a cake meant that no-one left hungry. To calm any nerves on the morning the boys all went clay pigeon shooting, while the girls relaxed and got made even more beautiful and ready to step into their dresses.

Saving for their forever home meant that Ricky and Aisling did stick to their budget, but that didn’t stop them from really enjoying the run up to the wedding, including having an overnight stay at Lusty Beg to choose their menu and enjoy some tastings. Although the week leading up to the wedding was quite stressful as self employed nail technician Aisling worked right up until the Wednesday before the wedding, she did say that “I would not recommend that and would tell every bride to take the full week off before the wedding to make everything as stress free as possible”.

The highlight of the day they both agreed was the boat ride after the ceremony, they said “we would tell any couple to take the opportunity to have some time to yourselves before joining your drinks reception, it gave us time to soak it all in”. After having their first dance to Brett Young – Here Tonight they said “we wouldn’t change a thing”. Aisling and Gary enjoyed a minimoon in The Galgorm and have planned a trip to Salou with little Darragh in September.

When asked if they had any advice for future brides and grooms they said “keep your wedding as intimate as possible, we had 80 people including ourselves and bridal party. We got to talk to everyone and because we had small numbers we were able to go for the best wedding package Lusty Beg offers giving our nearest and dearest a day to remember”.

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