True Love Tuesday Michelle & Ciarán Rafferty... - Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine

Love by Candlelight

Of all the New Year resolutions I made, loving you was the only one I managed to keep. Tonight, I will renew that promise as we celebrate a new beginning.

Michelle McParland from Armagh met Ciarán Rafferty in High School, back when they went to the gym and found love amongst all of those machines. They were boyfriend and girlfriend for 13 years before they walked down that romantic candlelit aisle and became Mr and Mrs Rafferty. A proposal took place amongst the Wicklow Mountains at Powers Court on Boxing Day, where they managed to get away to between lockdowns. With a date set for New Years Eve 2022 it was then all hands on deck to plan a fabulous wedding, of course after Michelle’s three sisters weddings went without a hitch there was absolutely no pressure for her day to be just as amazing, they definitely pulled that out of the bag. Their wedding was stunning, very romantic and dreamy, with beautiful flowers and candles.

Michelle couldn’t quite decide on a dress, she had a whole stream of photos and dresses to ponder over and she also visited a few shops until an Arava Polak dress was found in The White Gallery that Michelle liked a lot but couldn’t settle on as she felt a bit exposed around the shoulders and back, by April 2022 Michelle was still thinking about this dress, she told us “time wasn’t on my side so I went back to The White Gallery with a plan in my head to get a cape made to make me feel more comfortable and to also make my dress have two completely different looks, one being the dramatic cape with lots of dreamy tulle and the other being more fitted as I also couldn’t decide which style I wanted to go with and be comfortable in so this was perfect for me. Once I shared my thoughts with Rachel (owner of The White Gallery) she pulled the Blaze Shrug from Halfpenny London and suggested about getting extra material from Arava Polak to create that dramatic look I was after and also that it would complement my Violette dress with the romantic modern lace. Rachel was fantastic there was no messing and her seamstress was able to create my dramatic shrug once the material landed in house so there was no unnecessary traveling to sort that out”. With Michelle’s dress sorted it was time to get the Flowergirls and Bridesmaid dresses, Michelle contact Una Roden who had made her sister Edel’s bridesmaid dresses in the past and had a great experience with, the dresses had a Chanel vibe with tweed on the bottom and hammered silk on top, so elegant and perfect for the beautiful bridesmaids and Michelle’s sisters Edel, Emma and Stephanie. Flowergirl dresses for nieces Grace, Halle, Aoife and Mollie came from Angel and Rocket, extra tulle and lace from Michelle’s dress was added onto theirs to make them “mini me’s”. Michelle had her cousin Joseph join the girls in a gorgeous little suit from River Island. Ciarán along with his brother Donal and friend Ryan got their suits in O’Cathalains Menswear Cullavile.

Their wedding ceremony took place in St Patricks Chapel in Ballymacnab followed by a reception in Bellingham Castle, Co Louth, where the couple were joined by 190 guests for the dreamy and romantic themed wedding. Incorporating this theme through the stunning bridal gown and then adding lots of flickering candles and fabulous flowers. Michelle is a big Christmas lover but had thought that when New Years Eve hit it would be more romantic to have lots of candles everywhere. Ciarán and Michelle had a perfect day, everything went to plan even their last minute first dance as man and wife to Shallow which their band sang to them. One particularly funny moment was “My uncle ended up taking me up to the chapel and he wouldn’t be from my area, he was driving very fast coming up to the chapel and we had to tell him it was here (as clear as day it was there) so had to suddenly stop / sort of pulled in but had to drive on to turn so anyone looking at us would have thought that I had 2nd thoughts” Michelle told us.
A highlight of the day were the speeches, the couple said “there were so many, firstly the speeches were incredibly funny, all the boys did a great job! I’m excited to watch them back once we get our wedding video. Another highlight for us both was just being in the moment with our family and friends to ring in the New Year all together. That was pretty special as we all won’t be under the same roof for that moment”
Looking back Michelle said “I’m never one to take my heels off but my God my feet were killing me but that was from spending every second on the dance floor but I would suggest to any bride to have a lower pair of back up heels or save yourself some flip flops that guests usually get offered”

Ciarán and Michelle haven’t planned a honeymoon but are very much looking forward to getting away to somewhere where they can relax after all of the planning and the run up to Christmas. They both gave this advice to couples planning their own wedding “don’t overthink and don’t stress! We were engaged exactly two years before our wedding date and had our venue booked within a week of being engaged and vendors all sorted by the end of January but we were lucky as I was the last of five to get married (4 sisters) so that was definitely on my side but then there was a lot of pressure for the last family wedding as the previous weddings all went so well”. Finding married life similar as they had lived together before getting married, Michelle is just getting used to having a different surname but they are immensely happy.