True Love Tuesday Leona and Dean McAloon... - Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine

Building Blocks Of Love

A good destiny is when two people find each other without even looking

Leona McNulty a Business Developer from Belcoo in Co Fermanagh met Dean McAloon a Butcher also from Belcoo in school, friendship started in the school yard of their local primary school where they grew up with mutual friends. Some years later after they had applied for planning permission to build their dream home Dean planned a beautiful proposal on their site just after they had received planning permission. Dean managed to surprise Leona with a beautiful Pandora ring, a few days later on Leona’s birthday they went ring shopping and picked out a stunning Marquise style ring from Lunns Jewellers in Belfast.

Young love led to diamonds and a wedding after 9 years, the couple booked their wedding for 10th March 2023 in St Patricks, Holywell, Belcoo followed by a reception for 220 people in Cavan Crystal Hotel, Cavan.
With the wedding booked Leona needed to find her gown, after checking out a few shops and trying on some dresses, she still wasn’t sure of what style she wanted. Leona picked out different styles to try and give her an idea of what she wanted, when Leona settled on a style it was time for google to find a stockist; thankfully Pronuptia in Belfast was that very stockist. As soon as Leona tried it on, she just knew; Leona had found her gown. Leona said “the experience was great, all the girls in the bridal shop were so helpful and created a lovely shopping experience for us”
Next it was on to Bridesmaid dresses for Leona’s sisters Siobhan, Shauna and Sinead along with friend Fiona. They found beautiful dresses in She’s Fabulous, Garvagh, originally wanting navy dresses Leona had to change her mind for a different colour as they couldn’t find a style that suited all of the bridesmaids, Leona had mentioned this was quite stressful but it all worked out in the end and the girls looked absolutely beautiful.
Dean chose his brothers Ryan, Kevin and Shane to stand beside him along with Derek a friend and also Leona’s cousin. They got their suits in Red Groomswear in Belfast.

Leona and Dean loved planning their wedding and said they would do it all again in a heartbeat, not surprising as they made such a fantastic job with their wedding.
Leona designed all of the invites, mass booklets and signs with a navy and gold colour design, making it really personal to both of them. The day went perfectly, Leona and Dean told us “It was so much better than we ever thought it would be. It was so lovely to have all of our friends and family in one place together from near and far, it was a day we will never forget. We didn’t stick to a budget and just spent our money on things that we thought mattered, things that would ensure everyone had a good time, like the band and photobooth”
Describing their day Leona and Dean said “the only near disaster was the weather, we had snow on our wedding day in March, we never expected that but thankfully everything went to plan” Leona said “the highlight of my day was arriving to the reception and getting to have a drink after all of the photos and chatting to all of our guests”
Dean said “my highlight was everyone dancing and having the craic” They both agreed they wouldn’t change a thing, even their first dance song which was ‘This is the Life’ by Highstool Prophets, it still has everybody talking about it.
Before heading off on a minimoon to County Cork; they are having a honeymoon in Thailand in October, they gave this advice to other couples planning their wedding “I would just say to take everything in your stride and enjoy the planning. You think when you first get engaged that the day will never come around, but it creeps up so fast. It’s such an amazing period in your life and you want to be able to look back on it with fond memories. Do what suits you both and don’t try to people please.”

Leona and Dean are finding married not really that much different, they said “we were living together before our wedding day anyway so not much has changed, we just have an extra ring on our hands”.

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