My Wedding Day with Heidi Higgins: I’m a fashion designer but I didn’t design my wedding dress

Heidi Higgins: "Because I was a fashion designer, most people would have thought I’d make my own wedding dress but strange as it sounds, wedding dresses weren’t my thing, and actually I find it really hard to design in white."

We got married on July 18, 2014. We had the reception at the Lyrath Estate Hotel in Kilkenny. I’m from Laois, and my husband is from Tipperary, and we met in the Left Bank in Kilkenny. 

We used to go out a lot in Kilkenny because it was probably the closest city life really to both of us. So when we were choosing a location for our wedding, it made sense to return to Kilkenny.

We also had a big enough wedding with 240 people, and the Lyrath was able to accommodate that big number. Our ceremony was in the church in Ratheniska in Co Laois.

I took the reins on the planning. My husband just nodded along happily when I ran the plans by him. For our invitations, I’d commissioned someone to create a painting of myself and Gearóid, and we turned that painting into our wedding invitation. We still have the original painting hanging in our bedroom.

Because I was a fashion designer, most people would have thought I’d make my own wedding dress but strange as it sounds, wedding dresses weren’t my thing, and actually I find it really hard to design in white.

Heidi Higgins and her husband Gearóid on their wedding day.

So a friend of mine, Delphine, who runs House of Delphine in Tralee, designed my dress. When I got engaged, I went straight down to her studio and tried on several different types of dresses there, and we came up with a design. She also designed the bridesmaid dress for my sister.

It was a black-tie wedding, and Gearóid got his suit in Louis Copeland. The guests were all in black tie too. People were giving out a little bit when we said black tie, but on the day everybody really enjoyed having the excuse to wear the black tie. My husband actually wore his suit two years ago to his cousin’s wedding.

On the day of the wedding, I was feeling a little bit sick. Do you know, I was flying around trying to organise the wedding itself, I’d also just moved my shop and I was going to be off work for about 12 days, so I was trying to organise everything for work. Because it was July, my factories would have been in production for the winter collection, so I needed to make sure that every button, every zip, every trim was where it was supposed to be, so I wouldn’t be getting calls to sort stuff out when I was away.

Heidi Higgins: "I took the reins on the planning. My husband just nodded along happily when I ran the plans by him."

So I remember on the morning of the wedding, my family went out for breakfast, and I didn’t go because I just needed the quietness of the house. I remember having a nice cup of tea and my breakfast in the stillness of everything. And I was able to just take that time to relax.

My husband was casual out on the morning of the wedding. Apparently, he was out hitting a sliotar around in the backyard of the farm with his brother.

It was a little bit grey in the morning but at 12pm, when I was just leaving the house, the sun burst out of the clouds. I was going to be travelling to the church in my uncle’s white convertible Mercedes, so it meant we could leave the roof down!

The ceremony was so lovely; it was one of my favourite parts of the day. It was fun and not overly serious. The priest, Father Kevin, knew us well and put us at ease; he mixed humour with the traditional ceremony very well.

Heidi Higgins and her husband Gearóid on their wedding day.

After the ceremony, we had an ice cream van outside the church and everyone was tucking into ice creams, so again, we were so lucky with the weather; eating ice cream outside wouldn’t have been the same if it had been raining.

The Swinging Cats were our wedding band; they’re still going strong today. They were brilliant.

For our first dance, we had Into the Mystic by Van Morrison. With 240 guests, the dance floor was always going to be full, and everyone was up for having fun.

I love hosting parties in general; there’s always something happening at our house, so the wedding was exactly what I wanted. I wouldn’t change it for the world. You know, lots of people had been very good to me when I was setting up my business, and there were my school friends, my college friends, cousins and family, friends of the family as well; it was lovely to catch up with people that we hadn’t seen in so long.

We hadn’t lived together before the wedding. It just didn’t make sense as I had my business in Laois and he had the farm in Tipperary, so it was lovely to have that to look forward to after the honeymoon — finally moving into our first home together.

• Formerly a fashion designer, Heidi Higgins now offers sewing retreats and workshops in Tipperary. Her autumn retreats and classes will be starting at the end of September. Visit www.heidihiggins.com