Royal Romance meets modern elegance with Rachel and Timothy’s Chic and Stylish do at Killymoon Castle
Ever heard the saying ‘the one will always find their way back to you’? Well Rachel and Timothy Smyth from Blackskull prove this theory to be true.
“We’ve always known each other since we were young through family friends,” Rachel explains. “Then around three years ago we bumped into each other again in church where Timmy saw the perfect opportunity to ask me on our first date!”
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“Rachel had moved away for a few years when we were younger, so seeing her again was quite nerve-wracking, but I asked her to go for a walk in Hillsborough Forest Park and we’ve been going strong ever since,” Timothy says.
THE PROPOSAL
Fellas…take notes. On their second anniversary, Timothy surprised Rachel with a treasure hunt around Ireland riddled with different clues and memories, all leading to the big prize – the ring!
“The treasure hunt was on our anniversary, 24th September, so there were 24 different clues!” Rachel shares.
“It started at Hillsborough Forest Park where we had our first date, then led to some of our favourite places, and every stop had a little clue and memory from our relationship. One of them was my favourite book Pride and Prejudice, and Timothy had cut out a heart through the pages to show my favourite quote from the love scene.
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“The last stop was Whiterocks Beach in Portrush. When I got there, Timothy had set up a gazebo and spelled out ‘Will You Marry Me Rachel?’ with candles on the sand, then he got down on one knee and of course, I said ‘YES!’”
THE PLANNING PROCESS
The pandemic may have stopped a lot of things, but it wasn’t going to prevent this perfect pair from tying the knot and creating the perfect ceremony on 7th April 2021.
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“We always wanted a small more intimate wedding, so we knew we weren’t going to put off our date any longer,” Rachel says. “We also just wanted to get married and weren’t going to let Covid get in the way!”
Rachel and Timothy had a beautiful intimate wedding with 25 guests and were very lucky with planning their big day themselves.
“We kind of planned everything ourselves and thankfully things went quite smoothly for us. We decided from the start we wanted a really relaxed and personal day and it turned out perfect for us,” Rachel says.
Rachel also made a lot of her own wedding décor after discovering a love for crafting and starting a new business venture ‘Joyful Creartions’ where she creates and sells bespoke décor for weddings and much more!
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“I love creating things, so I made a rose arch for a décor piece and we loved how it turned out,” she shares. “I also made our little welcome décor pieces at the entrance of the castle which tied in with our rustic theme.”
DREAM WEDDING SUPPLIERS
Killymoon Castle in Cookstown was the perfect place for Rachel and Timothy’s dream fairytale wedding.
“My dad actually knows the woman who owns Killymoon Castle, Dorothy Coulter, and he came home one day and said ‘How would you like a castle wedding?’” Rachel shares.
“We originally thought with Covid we wouldn’t get anywhere, so we were thinking of having a simple wedding in a forest or on a mountain somewhere, but we the loved the idea of getting married in a castle!”
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“It was a stunning location, both inside and out,” Timothy adds. “We loved going around the castle getting our photos taken and the castle grounds were amazing. Dorothy was also really helpful working around us and she did some venue styling as well with flowers going up the staircase and on the banisters.”
After the ceremony, Rachel and Timothy had a little treat for their guests with Annie’s Bean Machine coffee cart waiting outside the castle.
“Everyone was able to get a cup of coffee and she gave out a wee box with muffins and treats for an afternoon snack,” Rachel says.
“We then went back to the house after for a laid-back evening with our favourite Chinese – it was really nice and comfortable. We are also hoping to have a bigger celebration with more family and friends when restrictions allow.”
Rachel went for pastel pink and green flower arrangements from Nettles and Petals in Omagh.
“We wanted something very natural, so we had a lot of eucalyptus and pastel pink peonies and roses with some greenery to match with the sage green bridesmaid dresses,” she says.
“Our cake also matched the flowers perfectly! Timothy’s sister is an amazing baker, so she did our wedding cake for us with madeira sponge and it tied in with the rustic style with eucalyptus along the bottom and pink peonies from the bouquet.”
WEDDING WARDROBE
Although dress shopping can come as a challenge during a pandemic, Rachel knew she wanted a princess dress to fit her castle fairytale fantasy.
“The only thing I guess I missed out on with lockdown was wedding dress shopping,” she explains. “I would have loved to have tried on dresses with my family and friends, but everything was closed.”
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Luckily, Rachel was able to find her dream dress online and looked stunning in an ivory lace Alexandra ballgown.
“When I seen a picture online, I fell in love with the princess style and thankfully it was perfect, and I loved the long train and how it flowed,” she says.
Rachel also choose stunning sage green bridesmaid dresses to tie in with the natural and rustic theme of the day.
“They were perfect for a spring wedding and very flowly and minimal, everyone looked lovely,” Rachel continues.
Timothy and the groomsmen looked sharp in vintage attire with matching light brown herringbone tweed suits from an online store, Empire Outlet.
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“The suits were all ordered online as well – at first they actually came at the wrong size and you would have been able to fit about three men in them,” he laughs.
“So it was a bit last minute trying to get them sorted, but thankfully we got them in the end and it turned out well.”
CAPTURING THE DAY
Capturing the day were Ryan McDonald Photography and Eddie McDowell at EMD Media who was the videographer.
“We had been looking around for different videographers and we loved Eddie’s video style,” Rachel says. “We loved how our video turned out – it was very cinematic and looked like a fairytale movie!”
“Eddie actually recommended Ryan to us and we saw his photographs were amazing and we absolutely loved how ours turned out,” Timothy adds.
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“They both worked together on the day and made us feel really comfortable and captured us naturally in the moment. We really loved going on the castle grounds after getting our photographs taken – I carried Rachel down the stairs in one and we got some on the Romeo and Juliet balcony, it was incredible.”
FAVOURITE MOMENT
Rachel and Timothy shared so many special and sentimental moments on the day that will stay with them forever.
“It’s all about those simple things – like when the music plays and you link arms walking down the aisle as Mr and Mrs, it’s a very special moment,” Rachel reminisces.
For Timothy, one of his favourite moments was getting to see his beautiful bride walk down the aisle.
“I remember Rachel coming up the stairs and I turned to see her in her wedding dress, that’s when I got a little bit emotional and had to fight back the tears,” he laughs.
“There were so many special moments. We also loved having that quality time together going around the castle getting our photos taken and at the end we also had a horse and carriage waiting for us – riding off together as husband and wife was a really great feeling, we’ll never forget it.”
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