True Love Tuesday Hannah & Jodi McCurdy... - Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine

Musical Notes & Love Notes

Sharing Music Is A Love Language

Hannah McCook a Hairdresser from Ballymoney met Jodi McCurdy a Quantity Surveyor also from Ballycastle through their families who are friends, they connected through their love of music, although at the time Jodi lived in Wolverhampton and just happened to start regularly travelling home until he moved back home just before the couple became official.

The proposal took place in London, Jodi is amazing at planning trips and decided to arrange a surprise trip for Hannah and himself, telling her to pack but not what to pack or where they would be going, he wanted to keep everything a surprise and boy what a surprise it was! He booked a beautiful penthouse apartment in St Albans and arranged for a visit to the Shard, getting some photos and enjoying the views before heading to their next destination; Regents Park. Hannah told us “Jodi is an amazing holiday planner and super organised so I had great faith that it was going to be good”. Not knowing what to expect Hannah was just glad to get a coffee and sit down for a few minutes, she hadn’t got sitting down for very long when Jodi called her over to see something. Hannah continues “I shouted we’ve literally just seen that and taken a photo of it, let me sit for one minute, he looked at me and announced again ‘come here’ I was rolling my eyes and wondering what could possibly be this good that I have to get up for. I walked towards him and he got down on one knee and asked ‘Hannah… will you marry me? I burst out crying and of course said Yes! A photographer jumped from behind the bushes and captured the whole moment, I was in shock and couldn’t stop crying” After the shock wore off a bit they had an engagement photo shoot in the park. The photographer was a friend of Jodi’s and he had helped arrange the whole thing so perfectly. It made the whole event so special for them. The ring was picked by Jodi and is a solitaire princess cut diamond ring from 77 Diamonds in London.

A date was set for 25th July 2022 for the fabulous wedding in the Dunadry Hotel and Gardens, Hannah and Jodi had a simple, natural and floral theme which included bouquets, buttonholes and floral crowns made from pale pink roses, gypsophila and eucalyptus.

Hannah found her perfect dress in Ivory Bridal shop in Portstewart, she said “I just knew it was ‘the one’, I couldn’t have had a better experience in Ivory Bridal they made me feel so welcome and special, I highly recommend them to any bride”. Hannah got her bridesmaid dresses from Cicinia online for her older sister and twin sister, the sisters are all very close. Suits for Jodi and his brother and cousin came from Tomorrows Menswear in Londonderry.

Hannah told us “The planning wasn’t stressful at all I have to say I loved going up to the venue, it made it feel so real. The most stressful part was getting the song prepared for walking up the aisle, Jodi and I recorded it. We both sang it, my dad played the instruments and one of my brothers put it all together for us, we were nervous because we wanted it to be perfect”.

You don’t tend to stick to budgets when you have an idea in your head of what you want and you just run with it, but then when you end up with an amazing wedding that you both and your 80 guests loved then every penny was worth it. Even the memorable moment of Hannah’s dad and brother playing a guitar duet for them walking back down the aisle. Everything ran smoothly which surprised Hannah as she said “I’m so clumsy and had thought of every single disaster that could’ve happened that day”

The highlight of the day was the ceremony for them both, they said “We had all three of our ministers there and one that mentored us through our relationship gave a testimonial for each of us and it brought us both to tear. We wouldn’t change anything, knowing how smoothly it went, we would be too scared to change anything! I would’ve maybe taken my heels off for dancing, very sore feet the next day but totally worth it”.

They both gave this advice to other couples planning their wedding “Take one step at a time, don’t stress about all the things you need to do, just keep doing the next one on the list. I really recommend a wedding planner”.

They enjoyed a honeymoon in Tenerife and are loving married life saying “We are absolutely loving it, it’s so wonderful”.