Inside My Wedding: Co Down couple’s big day at The Mill at Ballydugan

A Co Down couple has shared an insight into their beautiful wedding day at The Mill at Ballydugan.

Downpatrick woman Alexandra McCarthy (nee Murray), 28, and her husband Gerard, 29, from Crossgar, got married on October 21 after a date change due to the Covid pandemic.

In Be ‘s weekly feature ‘ Inside My Wedding ‘, local couples are delving into their special day to give you some tips and ideas for your big day.

The pair both met on Tinder but knew each other through friends, and got engaged in December 2018 while in New York.

Here is all about their stunning, rustic wedding day!

The bridal party on the morning of the wedding

Tell us all about your big day and venue.

We decided to look at venues once we got engaged in December 2018 and we had a venue in mind, so when we got back from New York we booked a viewing at The Mill in January 2019. We knew straight away that was the venue – it was perfect for us.

It was rustic and we had the whole place to ourselves, I loved it. It was the first and only venue we viewed. We picked our wedding date for June 12, 2021. And from then we booked our chapel (Crossgar) and band as we wanted to get the big things out of the way.

Tell us all about your wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses and suits.

Picking my dress was challenging because I left it until 2020 to start looking and lockdown happened. No shops were open for me to try any on and I had to wait until June/July for shops to reopen. Once they did I seen a dress on Cathedral Gowns Facebook, my friends and family also seen it and sent me a photo of it, knowing it was my style of dress.

I booked an appointment to go in and try it on but because it was a small shop, I was only allowed three people in with me, but I had five bridesmaids plus family members. So, there were a couple of trips to see this one dress.

The groomsmen

Just like the venue, I fell in love with the first dress in the first shop. It was just a pity I didn’t have everyone together on my first try on. With the bridesmaids, I ordered them online, it was easy and I knew in my head what I wanted. The girls loved their dresses too.

I didn’t get the full experience with restrictions and Covid, but there are a lot of brides in the same boat as I was. The men are so easy going, Gerard just picked a shop in Ballynahinch. He tried his tux on and said, ‘yeah, that will do.’ He also had to make various appointments for his groomsmen because of limited people allowed in the shop.

What was the best part in the build up to your day?

The best part in the build up would be all the practice runs. That’s when it started to feel real. Because of Covid, we never let ourselves get excited as we had to cancel our wedding on June 12, 2021 and rebook everything for October 21. Luckily our band, chapel and venue had that date free.

Alexandra and her bridesmaids

We had some laughs at the chapel as we were making mistakes and couldn’t get our words right. My son Leo was running around. It’s all about the memories for us. We tried to enjoy the build up as much as we could, it was just hard because we didn’t know what was around the corner.

What was the best moment of your day and your other favourite parts?

The best moment of my day was my first dance with my husband. I remember saying to him, ‘we did it’ – with all the cancelling and stress throughout the year before and the year of the wedding. We finally got our day. We enjoyed every minute of our wedding day, having all of are family under the same roof again enjoying themselves – it was just lovely to see. It was just smiles the whole day.

Beautiful wedding dress

What would you tell other bride and grooms to plan first?

Plan the big things first such as the venue, band and chapel/church. Once you get them sorted, it all just falls into place.

What were the hardest parts to plan? Did you come across any difficulties?

The hardest parts planning funny enough were all the smaller things, because I had to change my date from a summer wedding in June to an autumn wedding in October. I had to change my flowers, centre pieces and all my colours.

The happy couple’s first dance

It was a nightmare as I had a vision set on what I wanted and I had to picture everything different in my head. I don’t know how many times I was on the phone to my florist changing everything. I was out shopping picking bits myself.

What was the theme of the big day?

My theme was autumn and rustic. Because my venue was rustic and all the lovely colours that time of year, it ended up beautiful. I had pumpkins everywhere and autumn coloured leaves as my centre pieces and on my invitations.

Gerard and his groomsmen

It got dark pretty early so I had lanterns, candles and lights. I was literally on Pinterest every night looking up ideas as I only had like five months to change everything. But we got there and I adored it.

Would you do anything different or wish there was anything you didn’t worry about?

Yes, I think I would not stress as much as I did in the lead up to the wedding, as that is meant to be the best part. It was so hard not to with everything going on with Covid. Looking back now, I wouldn’t change a thing. I am glad I had my wedding in October because it ended up being the most beautiful day.

The wedding cake

What else was changed?

I had my hen booked for Marbella in April with all my girls, there were 26 of us going, it got cancelled due to Covid. But my friends gave me the best hen night and we were all together. That’s all I wanted. I am just glad I got my day and it was perfect. I feel for all the brides out there trying to book a wedding in this current situation, it’s just awful.

Do you want to tell us all about your wedding day? Email be@belfastlive.co.uk to be featured!

Read More
Read More