As we were travelling from Ireland to France just a few days before the wedding, we were slightly limited by our décor options, so I had to fly with the décor or get it in rural France. Luckily some guests drove and got the ferry and could bring a small number of items for us!

Our theme was Bohemian Black tie, with a lot of inspiration from the 1920s, natural florals and botanics.

Table Centrepieces:

For our table numbers, I went hunting for pictures of Macken and I at a certain age, so for table one we were babies, table seven we were making our First Holy Communion and for the unlucky guests at table 12, those awful Confirmation and pre-teen pictures.

I would advise taking a few months to do this so you can ask both families for some good pictures. I just scanned them into a Word document and printed onto white card from Dealz. My dad is a forester and provided the wooden round bases, it was lovely to have a little bit of home with us in France! If your dad doesn’t have a forest you can pick up similar centrepieces on Amazon.

For the flowers I asked the florist to keep it really simple – and we also spread some confetti petals on the table. One of my friends brought the date block and we just popped it on the tables on the day.

Instead of a traditional table plan, I got these teeny little envelopes from Etsy, printed with text from a Midsummer’s Night Dream. Outside I wrote everyone’s name and inside – viola, was their table number. They were all hung on ribbon on the bush outside the reception venue.

For each place setting, my stepmom collecting and dried (in a labour of love over a number of months!) over 100 beech tree leaves and sprayed them gold. I attempted calligraphy for each guest’s name!

For our wedding menu, I designed a simple menu and printed on white card from Dealz. You can buy the template for cheap here on Etsy! I popped a few on each table.

Tears of joy: It was about 27C on our wedding day – and with a black tie dress code I’m sure our guests used these hankies to dab off excess sweat more than to wipe tears of joy. Anyway, my amazing bridesmaid Lisa wrapped over a hundred linen napkins I ordered from China with kraft tags, purple ribbons and our initials.

Ring bearer: My sister-in-law literally found this box in the Chateau we were staying in – it was something I totally overlooked and forgot! How about this for an arty pic!

Simple signage: In hindsight, I think most people are pretty good at finding the bathroom, dancefloor, etc. They do it on any night out or other occasion, so these wedding signs I could have done without. I got them from Amazon and they didn’t break the bank so that’s ok. Talking Tables Blossom & Brogues Wedding Venue Signs for a Wedding Reception, Multicolor (6 Pack)

Stationery: For our Save the Dates, we bought postcards from the village of Jonzac where we were getting married and stamped them with the date, location and our wedding website URL, with a lovely stamp from Not on the High Street. Our invitations were by Appleberry Press and were lovely thick paper, I went for double thickness and it made all the difference. I  forgot to bring some of the Save the Dates and invitations to France so our photographer could get nice shots, hence these ones!

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Credits: Pictures by Kieran Harnett Photography