True Love Tuesday Megan and Andrew... - Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine

A flower-filled country style wedding day

Organising a wedding in Northern Ireland while living in England is hard enough but for Junior Doctor Megan Frazer it meant making the most of the experts she sourced to make sure the day ran as smoothly as possible. But with the right people around them, Megan and Andrew had a flower-filled day in June 2017, where the budget was long forgotten!

Back in 2012, the couple met at the rugby club where they both played during university. Megan recalls, “I met Andrew when I as 19 and Andrew was 22. I was at the end of my first year of medical school and Andrew had already graduated the year before. We first met at the rugby club’s annual dinner. “What I didn’t know was that Andrew had an identical twin brother who I had previously met, so when Andrew first spoke to me I thought it was his brother! My mistake soon became apparent and after chatting and having a dance we exchanged numbers. “He lived in Essex and I lived in Norwich (they are about 2 hours apart via car), but he came up a few times before I travelled back to Northern Ireland for the summer. Before I left Andrew asked me if I would officially be his girlfriend – and I told him I’d think about it! Luckily he was mad enough to ask me again and I agreed.”

The couple were together for two years when Andrew popped the question, taking Megan by surprise. “We had travelled back to County Down together for Easter 2014 and Andrew had told me that he wanted to go for a walk the next day to our local park, Gosford in Markethill. “We were happily walking and unknown to me Andrew was trying to find a particular place in which he was planning to propose; after an hour we had not found said place and I was ready for lunch. I was keen to get back to the car but Andrew convinced me that we should walk around again so I begrudgingly agreed. “By this point I was walking in front of Andrew keen to get to Alexander’s, the local cake shop! He stopped on this little bridge and called my name, when I turned around he was on his knee and my initial thought was that he was tying his shoe lace! It soon became clear that he was not – he asked me to marry him and I happily agreed. “Andrew didn’t propose with a ring as he didn’t know what type I would like. To be honest I didn’t know what ring I wanted either. But he had arranged a trip for us that weekend to go to Brighton where there is a lovely area with loads of jewelry shops. We stayed in a posh hotel where we celebrated with a lot of champagne and I ended up choosing a lovely diamond cluster ring. “We had been together for 2 years when Andrew proposed and it was our 5th anniversary the day before the wedding.”

With the ring firmly in place the couple decided on a long engagement but a year before the big day Megan started to look for her perfect bridal dress. “I was so scared I would buy one early and then change my mind! I wasn’t sure what kind of dress I wanted so went to a few bridal shops with an open mind. I tried on loads of styles but as I’m short and on the small side I felt like a lot of the dresses drowned me. Although some of them were nice none of them felt right.
“I had seen pictures of short dresses online and thought I’d give them a go, but was worried as a lot of brides who wore them for going for more of a vintage theme which I didn’t want. “I looked online and luckily ‘Marie Me Bridal’ in Randalstown stocked the designer I was after – House of Mooshki. My Mummy and two of my bridesmaids came with me to try them on. “As soon as I put on the short dress I knew immediately it was the one for me; it was the first dress I could actually imagine getting married in! The girls at Marie Me could not have been any more helpful, they even took my veil to the dressmaker for me as I was in England! It all worked out perfectly in the end.” The bridesmaids were not so straightforward. “I had four bridesmaids in total, my best friend from university, Niamh Loughran, two best friends from school, Charlene Wickham and Vicky Orr, as well as my cousin, Hannah Crossey. “I really struggled to find bridesmaid dresses that everyone liked to the point that they were the only thing not done for the wedding. All of my bridesmaids had different body shapes so it was hard to suit everyone but I ended up going for a multiway bridesmaid dresses that came from Pure Bridal in Norwich.”

The groomsmen were Andrew’s twin brother Richard Smith along with three of his friends, Joseph Imich, Elliot Reader and Eren Battaloglu. The bride’s brother Aaron Frazer was the usher and all of their suits came from Moss Brothers in Belfast.
With the bridal party kitted out Megan turned her attentions to the decoration of both the church – St. Luke’s Parish Church, Ballymoyer – and the reception venue – Larchfield Estate near Lisburn. “Our theme was kind of a country theme as I’m a country girl at heart and LOVE flowers! “I can’t take credit for any of the theme as I met the dream florist and decorator and after two lengthy meetings and my extremely long Pinterest board, they totally understood what I was going for. “We had wellies with flowers, a milk urn with flowers in and a bicycle with flowers in the basket and more flowers outside the church. Inside at the back was a suitcase again filled with flowers and cones with petal confetti. “Maureen had beautiful flowers on every single pew end with flowers decorating the trellis at the front of the church under which we got married. We had big bouquets at the front where we were married and there were candles dotted around too. There was also an amazing runner of flowers at the front of the church which was then used for the top table. “The theme was similar at the venue with more flowers! Annette had created a tree under which people could stand to have pictures taken and all of the centre pieces were different. “We had tea cups with flowers in for our table plan. The centre pieces included cake stands with flowers on with more flower filled teacups. They transformed the room with lace runners in the ceiling with fairy lights everywhere “We also tealights above the top table. We had lace tablecloths and every napkin was a different colour. Larchfield said they had never seen the room so dressed, and between them Annette and Maureen had the room looking like a fairy tale. I really was so beautiful.”
The day itself ran smoothly, ‘It was perfect. It was the best day from beginning to end – we are very lucky to have so many special people in our lives’ apart from the first dance. “We had lessons for our first dance and it went well but my cousin’s toddler was nearly knocked over during it. The minister also fell over during our ceremony but thankfully was fine and finished marrying us.”

Megan’s highlight of the day was, “Andrew waiting on me at the top of the aisle – his speech was also beautiful.”
And Megan has great advice for future brides, “Don’t get caught up in the small things, just enjoy planning.”
After their spectacular wedding day the couple went on honeymoon. “As I planned the wedding, Andrew booked the Honeymoon as a surprise for me. I found out at the airport where we were going – he took me to Jamaica and it was the best holiday ever.”
How are the couple now finding married life?”I get this a lot – to be honest it’s not very different to how we were before – we already had the house and the dog! Andrew wears a ring now. Married life is great –we are very lucky.”