Re: ---- Official Irish Bride Thread ----

My Garter...from Kathleen's of Donegal in RVC





Our Unity Candle...Waterford Set and Claudaugh Unity Candles

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My mother was born in Ireland and is the oldest of nine which all still live in Ireland. She is the only one living in America. My Dad is Irish canadian. I go to Ireland about once a year and all of my aunts are coming out to my wedding as well as my grandmother and great aunt and yes they are all staying at my house. It will be hectic but a lot of fun. FH is only partly Irish but we are incorporating a lot of Irish tradition in my wedding! My sister also owns one of the largest Irish dancing schools on Long Island so I will probably have dancers at my wedding!

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Posted by irishsweetheart

Does anyone happen to know a place that sells Irish step dancing costumes? And how much they usually cost? TIA!

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Your chance of finding these are SLIM. the Irish step dancing outfits are usually custom made for thedancers from a particular Irish stepdancing school (many schools have their own color or design.

From my experience with dancers in the family is that they are usually custom made in Ireland for an individual dancer and can cost several hundreds of dollars... i don't think they are sold in just a dance store.

If you need these for dancers at your wedding, if they dance currently they probably have something... you should ask... OR whoever you may be hiring should be providing this. also, if you can't get your hand on the more traiditonal costimes, black pants and white shirt is traditional for the men and a short black dress for the ladies would work.

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Wow I love the ideas on this thread. I am only 1/3 irish (mothers side is from Drogheda) but my FH has both sets of grandparents off the boat irish. His gp and parents are both deceased so unfort. I have no imput with them from where they had come from.

IWent there for my first time this past summer 2006 and LOVED IT. So i knew this is what my wedding would be like. Luckily the fh didn't mind.That and we hope to honeymoon there.

Since St. Pats in 2008 is on a monday i am doing the wedding the day before. Main color will be emerald green and the whole reception will be decorated in white and emerald green. Flower pieces various flowers found in ireland (as long as its not that expensive otherise I will work out something simular). Men's boutonaires (however u spell it) are shamrocks. Men wear emerald green vests. BM dresses emerald green with blk jackets.

I hopefully I will find a traditional irish/celt band for the greeting of the guests and ceromony music. If that fails piper for greeting of guests.

Save the dates: be beer coasters customized with our date and names with a small note possibly for the older people in our family who might not have a sense of humor.

Wedding Invites: self designed by me will be in all shades of green with a picture of a irish thatched cottage and a irish proverb.

Favors: Personalized Pint Glasses with a logo made up for st. pats day w/ our name and date.

Wedding cake: white with emerald green ribbon, white scrolling with a horseshoe design. Topper I haven't figured out yet.

So far thats all I have in my head!
Jenn

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Great thread.

Im hispanic so im going to have a guitar trio for cocktail,bilingual dj, and half spanish music for the receptio (salsa, merengue, etc)

Anthony is
half italian so we're doing confettion the favors, and a frank sinatra singer during dinner

and
hes HALF IRISH
SO AFTER READING THIS THREAD IM GOING TO DO THE
- WATERFORD UNITY CANDLE
-PRESTING MARY WITH FLOWERS
-IRISH PRAYER IN PROGRAMS
- IRISH BLESSING AS ONE TOAST

Im sooo excited for such a diverse wedding. Thanks girls for the ideas!!

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Posted by donegal419

Your chance of finding these are SLIM. the Irish step dancing outfits are usually custom made for thedancers from a particular Irish stepdancing school (many schools have their own color or design.

From my experience with dancers in the family is that they are usually custom made in Ireland for an individual dancer and can cost several hundreds of dollars... i don't think they are sold in just a dance store.

If you need these for dancers at your wedding, if they dance currently they probably have something... you should ask... OR whoever you may be hiring should be providing this. also, if you can't get your hand on the more traiditonal costimes, black pants and white shirt is traditional for the men and a short black dress for the ladies would work.

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Thanks for the reply! The reason I actually wanted to try and get my hands on one is because I wanted my flower girl to wear one in white with gold and green embroidery on it. I know it would have to be custom made but I don't even know where to start to find a place to order it from (or to see how much it would cost.

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Posted by irishsweetheart

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Posted by donegal419

Your chance of finding these are SLIM. the Irish step dancing outfits are usually custom made for thedancers from a particular Irish stepdancing school (many schools have their own color or design.

From my experience with dancers in the family is that they are usually custom made in Ireland for an individual dancer and can cost several hundreds of dollars... i don't think they are sold in just a dance store.

If you need these for dancers at your wedding, if they dance currently they probably have something... you should ask... OR whoever you may be hiring should be providing this. also, if you can't get your hand on the more traiditonal costimes, black pants and white shirt is traditional for the men and a short black dress for the ladies would work.

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Thanks for the reply! The reason I actually wanted to try and get my hands on one is because I wanted my flower girl to wear one in white with gold and green embroidery on it. I know it would have to be custom made but I don't even know where to start to find a place to order it from (or to see how much it would cost.

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My costume was second hand and it was $500 at the time I got it which was when I was in highschool. Something brand new would cost about $1,000 or more. The colors you are describing actually are not really colors used anymore. Most of the colors are really bright.

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bump

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We are doing a claddagh theme for our wedding. Our favors are votive candles that have the claddagh symbol on them with our names and date. It also says 'love, loyalty, friendship' underneath the claddagh symbol. We are also going to include the story of the claddagh in our wedding programs. We are having a claddagh ice sculpture and our invitations have the claddagh symbol on them.
To add to the Irish theme we are going to have bagpipers also! My FH is Irish and I am 1/2 Irish. My mom grew up in Scotland so we are honoring her heritage too with the claddagh.

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Hi Girls!

I've been stuffing my invitations and I thought I would let you know how much it is to mail the invites to Ireland.

For a standard invite (i.e. not majorly heavy, rectangular envelope) to Ireland it was $1.70 EACH (Yikes... especially when you're sending over 20 !!!)

They gave me two AirMail stamps (.84 each) and a 2 cent stamp for each invite.

In hindsight, I was not crazy about the 2 cent stamp (it's kinda ugly) so you could do a $1.00 stamp plus 1 airmail, but you would be paying more... depends on how you want the stamps to look.

my aunt bought me the Irish airmail stamps to put on my reply cards and sent them to me.... the Irish rate for airmail is 75 cents (Euro).

HTH!!!!

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Great thanks for the info.

By the way stuffing your invites how exciting

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Posted by donegal419

Hi Girls!

I've been stuffing my invitations and I thought I would let you know how much it is to mail the invites to Ireland.

For a standard invite (i.e. not majorly heavy, rectangular envelope) to Ireland it was $1.70 EACH (Yikes... especially when you're sending over 20 !!!)

They gave me two AirMail stamps (.84 each) and a 2 cent stamp for each invite.

In hindsight, I was not crazy about the 2 cent stamp (it's kinda ugly) so you could do a $1.00 stamp plus 2 airmails, but you would be paying more... depends on how you want the stamps to look.

my aunt bought me the Irish airmail stamps to put on my reply cards and sent them to me.... the Irish rate for airmail is 75 cents (Euro).

HTH!!!!

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Thanks for the info, I had an aunt send me stamps too but from what I hear no one sends back the RSVP cards because they don't have them in Ireland...but worth a shot!! Have fun stuffin!!! So exciting that your wedding is almost 3 mths away!!!!

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crazy---majority of our invites are being sent to ireland!

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My FSIL got married a few years ago, and she had the band play a reel when they were announcing the bridal party. It sounded so good! and it really got everyone at the reception in a good mood. I would like to do that too, but do you think that I shouldn't because she did??

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These are all such great ideas. I am 1/2 irish and I am thinking of what I can incorporate into my wedding. all of thses are great!!!

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Posted by Shamrock1028

My FSIL got married a few years ago, and she had the band play a reel when they were announcing the bridal party. It sounded so good! and it really got everyone at the reception in a good mood. I would like to do that too, but do you think that I shouldn't because she did??

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I say go for it if you want.... we are havign a reel played for our bridal party entrance and then my cousin is doing the bag pipes for our entrance... i think it will get people excited and for the non-Irish people at my wedding, it will definitely be something different!

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Posted by donegal419

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Posted by Shamrock1028

My FSIL got married a few years ago, and she had the band play a reel when they were announcing the bridal party. It sounded so good! and it really got everyone at the reception in a good mood. I would like to do that too, but do you think that I shouldn't because she did??

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I say go for it if you want.... we are havign a reel played for our bridal party entrance and then my cousin is doing the bag pipes for our entrance... i think it will get people excited and for the non-Irish people at my wedding, it will definitely be something different!

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I agree!! Your wedding and you should do it if you want.

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Update on my RSVP's from Ireland:

Sending the reply card with the Irish airmail stamp on it is actually WORKING! Weddings over there typically don't have reply cards, so i was a little worried about getting them back, but I must say people have been very good about sending them back! Because they're family, I basically know who is coming and who isn't but having people actually mail them back is helping me stay organized.

if you can get someone to pick some up for you, it's been worth it to me... so far!

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MY FH is 100% irish. Mom is from Limerick and Dad is from Donegal. We are having a lot of his relatives from Ireland come over. I am so excited. I have researched a few traditions. Now I received a bell as a engagement gift which I love the whole idea of by the way.

Now I have also seen that some people hand out little bells at the ceremony and when it is over and we walk out everyone rings the bell. I have also heard of having everyone ring the bells instead of clinking the glasses. What do you think of either of these? I am leaning towards the bells in the church. But will the relatives from Ireland think that it is corny?

TIA

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I'm late to this thread!

I'm 100% Irish, but American born. My FI is Irish, Italian, Menonite (Amish), and Welsh... but I'll have a REALLY long Italian last name after we're married.

My FI has red hair and blue eyes... but the red hair comes from the Italian side of the family. There is lots of red hair in my family, too.

I have to go back and catch up on this thread!