True Love Tuesday Naomi & Stuart Allen... - Getting Married in Northern Ireland Magazine

Windswept Love

Together we can face challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky

Dental Nurse Naomi Wilson from a little village outside Ballymoney and Stuart Allen who is from a farming background and now a Plumber and Business Owner from outside Ballymoney met while on Portstewart Strand, Naomi was out for a run while Stuart was walking Douglas; his dog. Douglas was quite happy about being out and enjoying the sand when he took an instant shine to Naomi and got a bit jumpy, of course this was a great excuse for Stuart to talk to Naomi, it actually turned out that Stuart remembered Naomi from school, although she didn’t remember him, yikes! It all turned out grand though because now in the days of social media Stuart ‘friended’ Naomi and one thing led to another, so they went out for a drink together and haven’t looked back since.

The proposal could only happen in one place and of course that was Portstewart Strand, although this time it was a very wet and windy night right in the middle of lockdown. Stuart convinced Naomi to go for a walk, albeit a very short walk, Naomi said “It was freezing and I looked like I had been through a bush backwards and Stuart got down on one knee and asked the question. I was so shocked! Of course, I said yes! My ring was 3 sizes too big, I’m not sure what size he thought my fingers were” The ring was thankfully resized to fit, it is from Gardiner Brothers in Belfast and is a traditional 3 stone, 18 carat yellow gold ring.

Naomi and Stuart were a couple for 2 years before they got married, they did however only give themselves 7 months to plan their big day, they weren’t perturbed though, they planned an absolutely fabulous wedding. They booked Phantom House at Galgorm Resort for the ceremony followed by a reception in The Renaissance Suite at Galgorm Resort and invited 100 guests to their Autumn themed wedding on 14th October 2022.

Naomi knew what type of dress she wanted and did some research on the style, she then booked an appointment with Dorothy at White Gold Bridal in Broughshane. Naomi along with her mum and sister found the experience amazing and Naomi fell in love with the first dress she tried on. After trying on different dress styles she was still drawn to the first one, she just knew she had found ‘the one’. It was a beautiful Essence of Australia gown. The bridesmaid dresses for sister Danielle and friends Kirsten and Natasha came from Lipsy online, managing to get dresses which matched the colour palette perfectly.
Remus tuxedos for Stuart along with his good friends Jason, Tommy and Chris came from The Black Tie in Limavady.

All of the planning made it hit home that they were actually getting married, thankfully they didn’t find anything too stressful, they didn’t allow themselves enough time to factor in stress, which is a great thing and meant they were able to enjoy the process.
They had an autumn themed wedding which incorporated a boho / rustic style with little added personal touches such as polished horse shoes given by her friends dad to help style the ceremony, the colours and theme just suited the couple and their style. The day went very quickly and smoothly, they both said that they would do it again, although there was one slight mishap as Naomi explained “Our guests decided to give us the bumps late on in the night, the boys flung me up pretty high and I could feel the buttons pop one by one down the back of my dress, thankfully there was a zip to hold it together or it could have been a different story lol”

The highlight of their day, well there were just so many special moments but they did both say this “We both loved our whole day from start to finish. It really was the best day of our lives so far”. Before jetting off to Costa Adeje in Tenerife they shared this advice “Enjoy every part of it, don’t get stressed out it will all come together. Stick with a budget so you know what you have to work with. The day goes by so quickly we would definitely recommend a videographer so you can sit down after its all over and remember your special day”. Naomi and Stuart told us they are finding married life “Just like the line from our wedding song ‘We go together like barbed wire and an old fence post’ We fight and make up, we laugh and we love but mostly when things get tough we are always there for each other no matter the odds. Even when I do find myself giving off to Stuart for not picking his dirty laundry off the floor! Lol. But we wouldn’t choose to do life with anyone else”!