Dreaming of a summer wedding brimming with heartfelt and unique personality? Then you have to take a chapter out of Isabel and Dermot's book. Our wonderful couple wed at the historic Killruddery House & Gardens in Co. Wicklow in a breathtakingly personal celebration that was beautifully brought to life with the help of their loved ones.

An incredible amount of thought went into every single detail and their celebration was botanical, colourful and absolutely magical. With a vibrant palette of pinks and oranges, a breathtaking floral print wedding dress, fairy meadow blooms, and books and handmade accents woven throughout, we know you will be blown away by all the meaningful details just as much as their family and friends were. All the beauty was documented superbly by Nina Val Photography.

Isabel and Dermot first crossed paths in university where they were both studying Law and Business but it was only years later when they connected on a dating app that they actually started chatting. "It was only a couple of messages before we agreed to meet, and what followed was a night of endless chatting. We ended up flying to Canada to live together 18 months later."

Their proposal took place in Quebec city when they were celebrating an anniversary. Isabel reflects, "It is such a romantic and historic setting, quite reminiscent of some of the old European cities, and we were looking out at the St Lawrence River with the Château Frontenac behind us when Derm got down on one knee, with a slight wobble in his voice, and asked the big question. The only thing I had requested was that he surprise me and not leave it too long. He did exactly that. It was only a few weeks after we had decided we were ready for the next step that he managed to pull everything together, including the ring, without me suspecting a thing. He is the most organised person I have ever met, so no one else would have managed it!"

Isabel and Dermot didn't dream of a perfectly polished or classic wedding but rather an immensely personal one. They wanted their celebration to be bursting with thoughtful details that had a story behind them. "We wanted our families and friends to be part of the day rather than just guests watching it happen. A huge part of that was making things ourselves. Derm has always been incredibly encouraging of my creative streak and, even when the result was perhaps less than professional, he was always positive about the fact that something handmade and a little bit messy can mean much more to the person receiving it than something polished and bought from a shop. That became a bit of a guiding principle for the wedding: it didn’t have to be perfect, but it should convey how much the people there meant to us."

Isabel has always adored books and they became one of the main threads running through the styling of their celebration on 27 June 2026. "We paired that with greenery, flowers and fun pops of pink, green and orange. I started with Pinterest and created a moodboard, which eventually became a 30-page style guide for our venue and suppliers so everyone could understand the vision."

When it came to planning their dream day there was a "very definite division of labour" with Isabel taking the lead on the aesthetic and all the DIY projects while Derm was the "sensible one" who ensured that all the creativity actually translated into a wedding.

She explains, "I definitely ran with the creative side of things. I had the Pinterest boards, the colour palette, the style guide and, eventually, what felt like an entire small manufacturing operation in our home! Dermot handled a huge amount of the administration, contracts, budget and practical planning. He wrote about half of the guest letters with me and was always incredibly supportive of whatever slightly ambitious project I had decided to take on. He was also the sensible voice when necessary. If I was halfway through three projects and had just had an idea for a fourth, he was very good at gently pointing out that I might want to finish the first three before beginning another one. I think that balance worked really well for us. I got to be creative and obsess over the details, while Dermot made sure we remained vaguely sensible and, crucially, actually got everything finished."

Their ceremony in the light-filled orangery was beyond magical with music by Dublin String Quartet and meadow-like floral arrangements from Yulia and Hanka at Killruddery House. "Our aisle completely exceeded the inspiration I had originally given Yulia. It felt like walking through a fairy meadow and I adore the photographs of it. The aisle was a little narrow, so there are also some very funny photographs of me laughing while my dad kicked moss out of my way as we walked down it. I think it was a good reminder that the day doesn’t have to look exactly as you imagined it to be wonderful."

The couple had originally considered a destination wedding as Isabel loved the idea of an outdoor ceremony surrounded by greenery. "A lot of my inspiration came from ceremony spaces framed by huge old trees, with fabric, flowers and greenery everywhere. Derm pointed out that we could go to all that effort and then it could rain, leaving us feeling like we had been cheated out of the day we had imagined. Ireland has so many beautiful wedding venues, so he suggested that we look closer to home. He was the one who found Killruddery, and it immediately solved that problem. It had all of the stunning outdoor spaces I had been drawn to in my inspiration, but also beautiful indoor spaces, so we knew that even if it rained we would still be delighted with the setting."

"I made our vow books for a slightly practical reason, I knew how many photographs would be taken of us holding them, so I wanted something beautiful," the bride shares. "When I looked at vow books online, most were essentially blank notebooks that you had to handwrite into. Dermot’s handwriting is basically illegible, and I also changed my vows several times, so I designed a cover that holds a printed booklet. This way the vows could be changed and printed rather than having to commit to handwriting them into a blank book. The same book also held our speeches, so it ended up serving two purposes. In fact, it could easily have been shared by anyone who was speaking during the day. It was really just a nice way of keeping the words we wanted to remember together in one place. It started as a problem I was trying to solve for our own wedding and turned into something I realised other couples might find useful too."

The bridal party style oozed relaxed elegance. Red bridesmaids dresses are just so romantic, aren't they?

"One of my favourite things about the wedding was how many people ended up making it with us," the bride reminisces. They filled their day with gorgeous handmade elements that their guests loved which included fans for their ceremony that Isabel's mum and aunt spent hours making.

Isabel's mum and grandmother made their wedding cake with her aunt icing it and her brother 3D printing their initials.

Another incredible detail was the traditional Irish-style pillar post box made out papier-mâché for cards, complete with a slightly cheeky sign on the front. "We also had a ‘park your pumps’ basket because we didn’t want to spend money buying lots of flip-flops that might not be the right size for people. Instead, everyone could bring their own flats and leave their heels when they wanted to dance. We also had personalised wine-glass charms with each guest’s initials. One of my favourite moments was when the men in my family decided after dinner that they were much better used as little tie charms!"

Isabel's bold botanical organza wedding dress was from Sash & Bustle in Toronto and it perfectly spoke to their beautiful theme. She wore sweet bridal flats which were in fact communion shoes from Next and her accessories included her mother’s wedding day necklace and earrings from Halo in Glenageary.

Isabel admits she had free rein when it came to picking the colour palette for their summer celebration. "Derm is RG colour-blind but he was absolutely committed to the palette regardless. When an emergency tie replacement was needed on the morning of the wedding, he was very quick to critique the options being presented to him. His groomsmen could overhear the entire video call from the back seat on the way to the venue, including him admonishing his father with the words, 'You call that rose gold?!'”

Their photographer Nina Val was an absolute dream to work with. "None of my friends had been married in Ireland, so I was essentially flying blind when it came to suppliers. I found Nina through One Fab Day, which is one of the reasons I was so happy to do this feature in the first place. I know how useful these real weddings are when you’re trying to find suppliers without personal recommendations."

"Her work speaks for itself," the bride continues. "I loved the slightly magical, fantastical edge to her photographs, which fitted so naturally with the look I had imagined for the wedding. But I knew she was the right photographer for us during our introductory call. I was talking about how much I love magical things and told her that whenever my mum sees a fairy door in the forest, she sends me a photograph of it. Nina then told me that she had a little fairy door in her home library. At that point I thought, 'Yes, you get it.' And she was just as wonderful on the day. She was the kindest, loveliest human and our families absolutely adored her. She managed to capture all of the little details we had put so much work into, but also the people and the atmosphere, which was exactly what we wanted."

Their reception styling in the 19th-century renovated barn The Grain Store was bursting with sweet shades of pink and orange. "We bought our own table runner fabric and found candles in a little shop in Blackrock Market and we had a made a drinks menu from fabric that my mum had sewn into a banner, using heat-transfer vinyl for the drinks and descriptions. The same fabric became one of the colours of our napkins."

Their table plan will be any book lover's dream, we can't stop swooning over it! "Rather than giving everyone a conventional wedding favour, we wanted to give each guest a book that had been chosen specifically for them. We sourced books from charity shops, library discard sales and even our own bookshelves. The process took almost two years from initially sourcing books to finishing the final designs. I learnt how to rebind books through some amazing bookbinding artists on Instagram who generously share free tutorials online. I had only rebound about seven books before I decided to make more than 70 for our wedding, so there was definitely a learning curve! The important part for us was that each book had a reason behind it. We weren’t just giving everyone a nice-looking gift."

“The book and its design were meant to say something about that person, our relationship with them, or a shared memory. For example, my brother had started reading science fiction and loved Dune, while when we were little we used to read Goodnight Moon together. I chose The Martian by Andy Weir for him because it was a book he actually wanted to read and I could create a design that combined those elements. My mum’s book was her favourite book, which felt particularly fitting because she is the person who gave me my love of books in the first place. My father-in-law loves fantasy but is also very philosophical and reflective, so I chose Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for him. I thought the book captured both sides of his personality and gave me lots to work with for the design."

Her husband's book was one her favourites conceptually: The Ross O’Carroll-Kelly Guide to South Dublin. "We are currently trying to buy a house, and when I first met Derm I thought his accent was him doing an impression of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly because I am from Blackrock myself. It turns out that is just how Derm sounds!" It was an immense labour of love to bring the favours to life as each individual book could take anywhere from four hours of active work to 16 hours depending on how intricate the design was. "Even before the actual bookbinding, there was a huge amount of preparation. If you want to use ordinary fabric on a book cover, it needs to be treated in a particular way to turn it into suitable book cloth. I spent hours designing the covers in Canva and, for the more detailed designs, sometimes hours weeding the heat-transfer vinyl. Each book then had to spend around two days in the book press. By the end I had two presses constantly on the go, and most of my weekends for months were either spent trawling charity shops looking for books or actually making them. Whenever my parents came to visit, they would take completed books home with them so I didn’t have to worry about shipping more than 70 books separately. Very few people knew what I was doing. It was mainly my immediate family, two friends in Canada and Derm."

The reactions from their loved ones was everything they dreamt of and more. "We had people texting us afterwards saying how blown away they were, and telling other people about the concept of the books. That was exactly what I had hoped for: that the gift would feel like something that could only have been made for them. I genuinely can’t pick a favourite design. There are some I’m particularly proud of, but both of our parents’ books are particularly special to me. My dad’s honours some of the hikes we went on together, while my mum’s represents the person who gave me my love of reading. With my in-laws, I thought they would love the books themselves, but the designs were particularly intricate and I was really proud of how professional they looked. Derm also got to insert some inside jokes into the covers for the lads, which I loved because it meant the project wasn’t entirely mine."

They knew their guests would be curious about what books everyone was given so Isabel's brother built an online “Library” where guests could look up all of the books. "He built the website from scratch because that’s what he does for work, but because he is also a bit of a perfectionist, he set up a little photo studio to photograph every single book so that they would look professional and cohesive on the website. The website was the same one we had used for our invitations. My brother actually updated the Library from his phone during dinner, so all the work went live only after people had seen the books in person. That meant we didn’t spoil the surprise beforehand. It also meant that when all the books went home at the end of the night, we’d still be able to see them again. Our friends particularly enjoyed seeing the choices we’d made for other people, as there were plenty of gentle jokes at each other’s expense. For example, our friend Finn had previously described his taste in books as 'hot trash', those guilty-pleasure books that aren’t necessarily literary masterpieces but are very fun to read. I had struggled my way through The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, but immediately thought it was perfect for what Finn had described as hot trash. I designed his cover with a bin on fire inside the keyhole as a little joke on the original Housemaid cover. He thought it was hilarious when he received it."

That wasn't all as they also wrote every guest a beautiful personal letter explaining how much they meant to them and why they had chosen their particular book. "This was one of the things that mattered most to us because the whole book project was really about the people receiving them. Dermot and I wrote the letters together, roughly splitting them between us. It was another part of the wedding that was very much a joint effort, even though I was the one physically making the books." They also made hand-painted bookmarks designed to look like flowers and tote bags for everyone to take their books home in. "The bookmarks were displayed in yoghurt pots from my hen party. I have a very strong belief that everything can be reused!"

Every moment of their reception was soaked in fun and that included how they opened the dancefloor. "We didn’t want a traditional first dance because we wanted everyone to be on the dancefloor with us rather than standing around watching us. We had intentionally planned two things to get the party started. First was our ‘T-shirt toss’. I had designed a graphic for the wedding and made a collection of pink and green T-shirts, plus one gold T-shirt. Whoever caught the gold one won a bottle of champagne. That was our excuse to get everyone out of their seats and onto the dancefloor. Then we launched straight into Waterloo, which was our means of actually getting the party started. By that point everyone was already on the dancefloor, so there was no awkward transition from dinner into dancing."

As for their wedding planning advice, the day really is what you make of it they say. "The thoughtful touches can make a huge difference to the experience, but equally, if you aren’t having fun, you can spend an enormous amount of money trying to create an atmosphere that people will actually create for you themselves. If people are comfortable – somewhere to sit, an appropriate temperature, good food and drink – and they feel recognised and appreciated for spending the day with you, they will bring their best selves. Their energy will light up the venue more than any flowers or live band can. And if you want to make things yourself, I would say do it because you enjoy it and because the thing will mean something to the person receiving it. Don’t worry too much about whether it looks professionally made. For us, the DIY was never really about crafting for the sake of crafting. It was about having a story behind the things we gave people and giving our family and friends an opportunity to be part of the day. The things people remembered most were often the things with a story behind them."

Isabel and Dermot honeymooned in Mauritius which was a fabulous way to unwind after the intensity of the wedding. "We would highly recommend it. It was the perfect mix for us: stunning scenery, snorkelling in the coral reef and hiking in the mountains, but also the option to spend an entire day doing absolutely nothing by the pool. The food was amazing and the people were incredibly welcoming."

Congratulations Isabel and Dermot! The warmest thank you to our amazing couple and to Nina Val Photography for sharing today's sensational Killruddery House wedding with our readers!

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