inside the Bridal Room
A BIT ABOUT THE COUPLE Joy Neville, former ladies Ireland rugby captain and Six Nations Grand Slam winner, is the rugby development officer in Limerick Institute of Technology. Joy hails from the North Circular Road. Simona Coppola, a Monaleen lady, is a project manager at Intel. THE MEET Scott’s bar three years ago THE PROPOSAL “We spoke about getting married a year into the relationship and planned on getting engaged March of 2014 however Simona surprised me and proposed Christmas 2013. We were attending the independent annual sports awards in the Wesbury Hotel in Dublin. Simona booked us into the Wesbury for the night where the ring appeared soon after the function that day,” recalls Joy fondly. WEDDING DATE June 21, 2015 WEDDING VENUE Dromquinna Manor in Kenmare, Co. Kerry “A fabulous location with amazing views and extremely friendly and helpful staff. The staff are extremely helpful but most of all the owners John and Gwen Brennan were just a pleasure to work with they made our day very special,” said Simona HOW MANY GUESTS? 109 guests WEDDING DRESSES Both purchased in Aibheil in Adare. “Throughout the process Simona and I booked separate appointments and made it aware to the staff in Aibhel that we would not be revealing the dresses to each other until the day of the wedding. Challenge number one was to ensure that we didn’t pick the same dress.” FLOWERS Simona’s aunt Wilma Arcai did the flower bouquets and arrangements CAKE Simona’s mum and aunt made the cake
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PHOTOGRAPHER Poppies and Me WHO OFFICIATED THE CEREMONY? Marian Purcell FAVOURITE MEMORY “We will never forget the ceremony, it’s was extremely personal, emotional and filled with love.” HONEYMOON Four days in Rome and 12 days in Southern Italy. “I was informed that since I’m marrying into the Italian family, we had to honeymoon the Italian way,” said Joy. SPECIAL BITS “We steered clear of a traditional wedding, The ceremony content was personal to us and had both our oldest brothers make speeches on behalf of our families. This worked out really well. They brought a different twist to the speeches they were fun, young, and emotional; the perfect mix. Also it was nice having the ceremony and the reception at the same venue,” said Simona PERSONAL TOUCHES “We created our ceremony with Marian, we chose poems and readings that we wanted to use on the day. We asked our families would they like to write a personal piece and read it out at the ceremony. My nephew Finn (aged 8) wrote a piece with his mum Lynda and Simona’s niece Alessia (aged 8) also wrote something with her mum Lorraine. Both pieces were written about us and were very touching,” recalls Simona. “We both decided to write our own vows and read them out instead of using the generic I do’s. We felt that this way allowed us speak from the heart and say what we felt for each other.” Simona adds, “A few of my friends wrote a funny poem about Joy and I as a couple, which they read out after we tied the knot and also Joys mum Mary picked a beautiful piece that she read out to conclude the ceremony. For us we wanted the ceremony to embrace all our guests, it was a mixture of emotions to say the least.”