EP06 Planning the Dream: Weddings, Budgets & Taking the Leap with Martina O

What actually makes a wedding unforgettable? This week on The Delusional Optimist, I'm joined by wedding planner Martina O'Riordan (Martina O), who helped plan my own wedding, to talk about the reality behind those "perfect" days - from timelines slipping to behind-the-scenes chaos you never see.

We get into budgets, suppliers, and the pressure to create a Pinterest-perfect wedding, plus the small, intentional details that guests actually remember.

Martina shares her honest advice for newly engaged couples - where to start, what to prioritise, and how to let go of perfection without losing the magic.

We also chat about her journey from corporate events in Australia to building her business in Ireland, the leap of faith it took, and how she navigated the uncertainty of lockdown to keep it all going.

Whether you're planning a wedding or building something of your own, this episode is a reminder that the most meaningful moments are rarely the most perfect ones. 

You can follow Martina on Instagram here and see her work on her website here. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Hello there and welcome to the Delusional Optimist, the podcast about fresh starts, new beginnings, and navigating life's messy middle. Each week I speak to a guest who is building their dreams, the ups, the downs, and everything in between. The mission? To inspire you to take the first step in rewriting your own story and to remind you that it's never too late or too early to take a chance on your dreams. This week, my guest is a wedding planner Martina O'Reardin, who just so happens to have helped my husband and I plan our wedding day last May. So if you're newly engaged, planning your big day, or simply wondering what it's like to work with a planner, this is the episode for you. We talk about wedding trends, creating memorable wedding moments, the importance of budgets, Instagram versus reality, and so much more. And on the memorable moments front, Martina has a very special moment that I guarantee will send chills up your spine. We also had a chance to reflect on our respective wedding days and everything that went wrong online. And Martina also very generously shares her own career story, including a giant leap of faith, to move back to Ireland after six years living in Australia. We also talk about navigating the challenges of COVID and lockdown to keep her business afloat. Because, of course, as we know, lockdown had an enormous impact on the wedding industry, and it just stopped business for so many people. I really hope you enjoy this episode. It's a really good one. I know I say that every week, but it truly is. This is Martina. Martina, welcome to The Delusional Optimist. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Me too. And I think this is a funny chat because we know each other, but we don't know each other. So I feel like I feel like I'm gonna discover a bit about you through this conversation. And this is one of those interviews where I couldn't really prep. So I'm excited to see what's what we're gonna discover and where we're gonna go. Oh good.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

I hope your expectations aren't too high, by the way.

Staying Calm When Timelines Slip

SPEAKER_04 2:24

No, but I just think that you are like such an interesting person. I love your positivity, I love the work that you do, and I feel like you, I don't know, you're a girl boss, you're owning it, you have your own story. I did see on Instagram that you lived in Australia, you took this big decision to come back home, you set up a business. So there's there's a lot I want to get into, and you're just an incredibly nice person too, which always helps. And you're still saying that even after we've gone through over 12 months of wedding planning. You know what? I feel like if anyone was a problem, it was me. Stop. I still think of like our wedding day, and I'm like, how did you stay so calm when I was running so incredibly late to walk down the aisle?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Like, honestly, you have to kind of weigh up like what's going to help in this situation, right? What is not going to help is me coming into you and saying, Diana, we're running late. Get your stuff together. That's not going to help. At the end of the day, this was the very beginning of the day, you've the whole day ahead of you. So you really just have to stay calm and manage everybody else about weighing up what's the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Yeah, you were the calm underneath the chaos. But what was actually going through your head in those moments? Because I know that as the planner, you have so many things you're thinking about, the food being delayed, the kids standing outside, the music, you know, they've probably gone through their whole repertoire. Four times over. What's going on in your head when there's something like that that happens that hasn't been foreseen? Well, I mean, I'm sure that you've thought about these things in the back of your head, but when it's actually happening, what are you navigating in your head?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, look, the timeline is the timeline at the end of the day, but nothing ever goes exactly to time, right? So you your timeline is really there just as a bit of a comfort and a guide to everybody else. Sometimes it does go, you know, on track, sometimes it doesn't. Like, of course, there's absolute panic in me. Like you could be managing 15 different suppliers or 20 different suppliers. So there is sheer panic. And you've got like your guests and family and all these other people to manage, right? But I will say at the end of the day, it's about the team that you have around you. And the team, I mean your like vendor team, so your suppliers. So, like your string quartet, your celebrant, the venue, like the venue are huge here. I mean, your venue could have been coming to me saying, Oh Martina, no, this isn't good enough. Like, we we can't manage this. But like what stands out to me in that moment is that everybody is just incredibly like we're a team. So everyone's out for what's best for you. You as the bride, not me as the wedding planner. And that's really like the power of having a good team around you. So I'm always careful about my supplier team because that's when the dream work happens, and that's when when things you know don't go to the plan, that's when the magic kind of happens, really.

SPEAKER_04 5:31

Yeah, your suppliers are so vitally important. Like that is so true. And just to say the reason I was so late walking down the aisle was all my fault. And actually, it was boob tape's fault.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

It was boob tapes. It was boob tapes when I walked into that bathroom and saw those bits of tapes. I was like, well, we've got a problem here that I cannot fix.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

20 minutes of sticking, trying to stick boob tape on, getting clammier and clammier funny second. Also, it was a new brand I hadn't used. So that is one tip for brides. Like, practice, do a trial run if you're wearing body tape, and make sure that you know how that body tape works because this was a different type that I had ever used. Anyway, I did woke up the aisle in the end.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Do you know what? I hope you don't think about when you look back on your day, because that's not that's not what I see when I look back on your day. Like I look back on that day, and Colin's photos were just like absolutely magical. That lake, how lucky were we to get that weather?

SPEAKER_04 6:34

That is a risk you take when you want to do an outdoor wedding in Ireland. And I feel like whatever happened, the stars aligned in our favor because it wasn't looking so good for a second, for a hot second.

Trusting Suppliers And Letting Go

SPEAKER_01 6:44

It looked like you never know because it changes so quickly here as well. So honestly, like my stress was probably the day before, wondering what the weather was going to be doing. You know, you're running late. I'm like, it doesn't matter. The sun is shining, we're at the lake. This is what you won't want it.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

Yeah, you wanted this, you wanted this, and it happened. Now that I'm we're recalling it, I'm remembering the magic of you showing us our reception room for the first time, because that was a big part of our planning journey throughout the year, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah, I just got goosebumps, huge planning, like, and this is you know, I laugh, and I do tell some of my couples about this actually, because sometimes you'll have couples that are so aligned on their colour scheme and everything like that. But Steve was so, you know, wanted the darker tones, and that's Steve, and you're so girly, and you wanted the lighter, brighter tones. So it's really about balancing those two so that you both feel like this is a part of you, not like, well, this is really girly and feminine, and you know, so that he kind of felt that it was his as well, because it is right, and sometimes that can get lost. So that for me was just such a proud moment because I really felt like he was quite vocal about what he wanted, you were vocal about what you wanted, and I feel like it was just a perfect match of meeting in the middle.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

And then when the sun set, it was so magical and cozy and romantic, and those were the words I think that we used. We wanted like romantic, cozy, not stuffy, but still like spring and oh, and it was the greenery, like it was just absolutely stunning, it really was. And that is one thing like a couple does need to accept, like you're putting trust in your planner, like you're not gonna be able to see the finished product until the end. And I think at times I did have a hard time visualizing if you can say that, but but that trust that we put in you, like it paid off a million percent because when we walked in, I was like, there's a photo, and Steve and I are both like, Oh my god, wow, I knew it would be beautiful. I didn't expect or know just how beautiful it would be. That's a home to you and the team.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Well, yeah, I I'm I love how I sit here and I'm taking credit for all of this, yet I did not touch a flower, right? But what you just said there, right? The one like most important thing for the wedding planning is trust. Because now I know you've got Chat GPT, right, which in the last 12 months has come along a huge way, but you're never going to be able to see exactly what's in the plan and in the pipeline, and you really do have to trust your suppliers, and that's where you know, that's where some people can really struggle because it's one day you want to get it right, and you need to get it right, and all of your loved ones, like the pressure but trust is the key thing, and I can see I can see with some you know of my clients that it's difficult for them to trust this flowerist that I've taught them to trust, or the stylist that I've taught them to trust. But it again, it's kind of where the magic happens. Like I put up a video on Instagram, I think it was last week, of a couple coming into a room in the K Club last year, and every time I watch that little snippet, oh my god, I just like I tear up because it is that moment, you know, and it just brings me back to that moment of being in that room and the them seeing it, and obviously the hours you've seen, the hours that goes into it, right?

SPEAKER_04 10:35

So yeah, it's magical for you too, basically it is.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

Yeah, I'm like we're in the back in time, I don't have the tissue out.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

I think one thing as well, like if upon reflection, sometimes you do just have to let go of things if they're not if it's last minute and they're not coming together. For example, we as you know had these little postcards made with a beautiful drawing that we wanted to write messages for each one of our guests, and thanks to postal delivery and delays and stuff like that, we got them a bit too late. So I did wake up at 6 a.m. on the morning of the wedding with the intention of writing at least two words. You're great, instead of like a full note as I had, you know, initial as we had initially planned. But I just realized that there was no way I was gonna get through 150 of them in the space of whatever amount of time I had to get ready for hair and makeup and finish writing my speech and all these things. So it was hard for me to let go of that because that was something that was really special that I really wanted for our guests to have, and we really wanted to honor our family and friends and for them to read these beautiful messages and how much they meant to us, but realistically, it just was not possible, and I had to let it go. But I really fought with myself until the very end to let go of it. So I feel like that is another thing that you know I feel like brides and grooms do need to accept that sometimes you do you can't have it all, and if something goes awry, you do have to just give yourself the headspace and just enjoy the day for what it is instead of like clinging on to that last thing like I was on the morning, you know. I should have really decided the night before and given myself the here the clear headspace, but I really wanted to make it happen, and yeah, I suppose I gave myself a bit of extra unnecessary stress when I could have just accepted it the moment before.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

I think I offered to write. Do you want me to write them? I was like, why are you writing these now?

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Yeah, but I do think sometimes you do just have to accept what it is, and sometimes things just don't come together, and it's meant to be that way, maybe. I don't know. Do you do you feel like that's sage advice or oh yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Like not going too much into kind of the styling or items to take away from like what obviously what you were doing was very personal and was something that was really important to you. But you know, when I'm doing kind of styling, I realize, you know what, Ireland is actually quite a small island. And a lot of the couples that I would work with are coming from the US, for example, and we don't have the same, we'll say, items and decor things that they would have or are so accessible in the US here. So sometimes we have to kind of like, okay, so that plan isn't going to work, but we need to kind of tweak the plan. And you know, so that's probably a bit of an awareness for them as well, in relation to, oh, okay, Ireland is a small island, and that's just one thing in relation to kind of styling and design. But yeah, letting it go is definitely, especially when you're down to the crunch time, like the night before or the morning off.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Yeah, I should have let it go the night before. I still look at the little cards and I'm like, the joy you could have brought to our guests. And still send them out. Wait, and you know what? We still haven't sent our thank you cards. Is that really bad etiquette? Like what is the open window for this type of stuff?

Martina’s Leap From Australia Home

SPEAKER_01 14:00

That's not that's not unusual. You know what? I actually just got one last week, and I have it here still on my desk, actually, from a wedding a year and a half ago, 18 months ago. Obviously, Ken is a total surprise, but just reading the words, and I was just thinking, oh my like it's a really lengthy like um note, and I was thinking, oh my god, after all this time, you've taken the time to write such a long note, you know, because I just sometimes think, oh well, after 18 months, I'm definitely forgotten. So seeing that I was like, I was so emotional reading it because I just thought, oh god, it's just so nice to know that people are still thinking about you.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

Of course. How could you be forgotten when you've been the third person in the relationship for a few years?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

In a non-weird way, in a non-weird way, but then you go off on your honeymoon and you leave me behind, and I'm like, guys, because it does take me, I'm sure I explained to you this to you at the time. It does take me, it could take like a week to actually get over a wedding, because you do have such a bond with the couple, and then obviously the communication ramps up the closer that you actually get, and you come to know their family and their friends just by them talking about their family and friends, and then you meet them the night before, and then obviously the next day you're gone, and I'm driving down the road, and like it's so emotional, and obviously I'm exhausted, right? But it is I call it the wedding hangover because I'm exhausted the next day, a little bit emotional, and you do kind of you do feel a bit of FOMO in the following few days because obviously the couple are gone. Can I go on honeymoon? I know someday, someday someone else, some couple wouldn't bite me on their honeymoon.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

It should be part of the package.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Exactly, it should.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

I get a free holiday at the end of it all after all the hard work.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

I know, but then reality of it, got the next wedding, you know. So yeah, it's funny though.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

See the way the bride and groom or groom and groom or bride and bride, the couple after a wedding are like, you know, there's the elation of we've had the day, it's amazing, and then it gets a little quiet, but then there's the photos and the videos, and it ramps up the excitement again. Do you go on that journey too?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

100% like in the background, what you don't see is me texting the photographer, just wondering, when are we getting the previews? And like following up because I get a series of a high on the day, right, from different moments throughout the day that are probably the moments that I knew were going to mean so much to you. It's kind of hard to take it in on the day because I'm still very much in like I'm working, I am in planner mode, like my focus has to be like just getting from A to B to C to D. But when I get the photos, that for me is oh my god, look, look what we just did, you know? And oh, I love looking at the photos, like I get such a high from that. And the videos, I just got a video, two videos in the last two weeks. And oh my god, it just takes you back to I was a big part in making that happen and creating the beauty and just seeing the joy on the couple's face, and you can hear the laughter, and you can see their reactions to things, and yeah, I love it. So that's probably where I get my biggest sense of like satisfaction.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

You mentioned that there's moments on the day that you personally like really look forward to, and I realize those moments can change depending on the couple. But what are those big moments that you really anticipate on the day as the planner?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

I love the moment before going down the aisle because like quite often that can just be, you know, me and whoever's walking down the aisle, right? So quite often it's the bride, so that can just be me and the bride, and it's and obviously whoever's walking them down the aisle, right? But that's I really like that moment because that's a moment for me to just instill a bit of calm take a breath. This is what you're walking into, like breathe in, breathe out for a few minutes while we're waiting for the processional. So I love that moment. And my other top moment, depending on how much time we've put and thought we've put into kind of the styling in the room, is the room reveal. Because that's you've got so much in the room reveal. You've got like all the styling details, you've got the cake, you've got like so many, the staging, so many different bits and pieces. So that's probably my other kind of joyous moment. And to be fair, that's probably one of my favorites because that kind of marks a little bit the like you're close to the end of the day, which means that everything you've put together, you know, the couple are really happy with and the couple love touch wood. So yeah, I love the room reveal.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Have you ever had something go awry behind the scenes unbeknownst to the couple, and you've been like scrambling to make it work until the last time?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yeah, I mean, there always is. There's always stuff that happens. It's your job to protect the bride and groom, and that's always my priority is to protect them from whatever is going on behind the scenes. Cause there's always stuff, you know, and it could be like even guest things that you're not aware of, or somebody forgetting something, like a supplier forgetting something, or genosis is always stuff going on. Like I remember one wedding, I had a cake turn up, and it was really not what the brief was, right? And this was from a very reputable supplier. But again, it comes down to like the team, you know, at a brilliant flowerist that day. And I just remember we were standing there and we were looking at this cake, and we were like, How are we gonna sort this out? Yeah, and between the two of us, I quite impressed. We really did an exceptional job based on, I was like, here's the Inspo photo. Um, and the couple still don't know about that, and that was years ago, you know. So you are always doing things behind the scenes. Like, I probably do things now that I'm probably not even aware of myself that are, you know, like little fixes. God, I remember once, and this was such an important wedding. This was years ago, not long after I'd started out. The mask booklets went missing, delivery like went missing. But they were delivering it, they were delivering it. So, you know, I was like, Well, what do I do? Do I reprint them? And obviously, the couple don't know about this, so do I just reprint them or do I hold out and hope that they arrive? And they arrived, but they were sopping wet, like they absolutely couldn't be used. But again, the power of having good people and good suppliers around you. I just instantly did a reprint. The couple never knew about it. We've a really good network of wedding planners, like we all know each other, and we've always got a good kind of you know, if I need advice on something or somebody else needs advice on something, we'll message each other. And there's always things like, This is going on. Any advice? What do we do? So it's good to have that network as well. One of the people that I Chat with a lot actually is Blonid, who has her own. Oh, she was there on your day, right? She assists me at all of my weddings. And this is so Irish, right? And this is she'll laugh that I'm even telling the story now. But we first met when we were assisting another wedding planner years ago. And we met for the first time and we were chatting. And where are you from? Where are you from? You know, the usual, like you're trying to form a connection with somebody. Um, to fast forward our grannies or sisters. No, so we and like the wedding planner, right, was just looking at us going, what is happening here? It's so Irish. So, like, we've got such a good friendship now. She assists me on all of her or all of my weddings, and I'll assist her with some of hers as well. And we kind of, you know, have a good, we bounce off each other a lot, and that's really lovely.

SPEAKER_04 22:57

I love that so bizarre. You couldn't get a closer, well, you could, but it's a pretty close familial connection, isn't it? Yeah, it's not even uh the third cousin removed, it's like yeah, my granny's sister. That's amazing. I love that, or maybe that is third cousin removed.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

I don't know, but I actually, as you're saying it, I'm like, it probably our grannies were sisters.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Yeah, yeah, maybe, but it's fabulous. I love it. So nice. Irish, it's so nice. You've mentioned that you've been doing weddings for a long time. So I suppose we should talk about how you got into weddings, what were you doing before weddings, and what was it about weddings that drew you in? Oh, weddings.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

So I have in all of my jobs actually, not by intention, just by chance. Like one of my very first, so I did business and accounting in college, right? I accounting, I I don't know how I just didn't know what I wanted to do. Like I remember reading the book What Colour is your parachute? cover to cover, how many times trying to figure out like what is it I want to do? And one of my first jobs out of college was with Google, and I was on the the university recruitment team. So we got to go around Europe, recruiting, and I would do the event of wherever we were going. So that was kind of my first taste of events, and then every job I had after that seemed to involve some element of events, and then I recession was kind of hitting Ireland, and I kind of wanted to continue progressing in my career, so I made the decision to go to Australia because I knew at that stage in Ireland it was like you were kind of stuck, is well, what I felt. So I went to Sydney and the goal was career progression and got a job at BUPA over there. I was in marketing for a few months and then got the role of corporate event manager and managed to progress there over the years. Oh, they were so good. Like, as part of being on the leadership team there, they invested so much in you as a person and you know your career progression and upskilling you, like they really were exceptional. And it was probably through that kind of mentoring work that I think it was my manager actually said to me, What's next? Would you actually think about like starting your own business? And at that stage it was very much corporate. And I remember thinking, yeah, sure, not having a clue. So I kind of started a business over there. I mean, when I think about it now, I actually called it like little cherry events, like the cherry on top, right? Did you know what I don't really know what I was thinking? But I wasn't really taking it that seriously, and I I don't know if I really wanted like I didn't fully set up the business. But then I decided I wanted to get into the wedding side of things and started doing a diploma and wedding and event planning just to give me more of an insight into the wedding space. I obviously love love and love connections and love watching first dates. Like that's just I just love seeing the connections between people. And then I kind of decided I was home in Ireland for a trip, and something just clicked and something just felt right. So I decided, you know, I think it's time to move back to Ireland, and that was my plan to set up the business to move back, which was a huge step and a huge transition because I'd been in Australia for six years, and I remember the I went to Pali for two weeks before coming back to Ireland, and I think I like I remember even packing in Sydney, and the night before I remember just lying in my suitcase crying because I was like, What am I doing? But it's part of that, like you know, it's part of the the journey and that you have to go through. So I got back to Ireland after my two weeks of crying in Bali, and yeah, it was just my goal was to get a job as a wedding coordinator in a venue, and that was actually really difficult because I was overqualified and I hadn't worked in hospitality, and typically at the time, hospitality only wanted to hire hospitality, and then I was just very lucky to get the job that I did in a hotel, in a fab hotel in Cork, and that was where I got loads of exposure to weddings and was able to set up the business on the side because it was the maternity cover. And yeah, that's what happened, and haven't looked back, like was very clear. You know, did all the courses when I got back, like the start your own business course and everything like that. But had to keep reminding myself because imposter syndrome, I know, are we kind of exhausted about hearing about it? But it's such a real thing. The fear of what am I doing? The fear of failure, the fear that you're never going to be good enough. And you're always comparing yourself to those who've been in the industry for years and years. And what I kept forgetting was I'm I'm not just after leaving school and setting up this business. Like I've got years of experience of running and organizing events. Like it's the same thing. Like you can see with you know the wedding planning, it's the structure, and a lot of it is the same, you know. But obviously, you've got the nice love story when it comes to the wedding. So it was really challenging, really challenging, but stuck with it and then COVID hit, but we won't talk about that.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

It sounds like you had to give yourself a lot of pep talks in the very beginning when you were trying to find your footing and setting and building your name because, yeah, as you say, imposter syndrome, maybe maybe we do all talk about it. Maybe it is, but it's a very, very real thing, and it can literally make you freeze and just stop and not progress at all. So those pep talks with yourselves were very important at that time, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Yeah, they definitely were, but look, it's still it still creeps in, you know. Obviously, as the years go by, the more your confidence grows, but you still doubt yourself, you know. You still, I think everyone has has those moments of doubting themselves. But like it's hard to believe now looking back that I moved home in 2016, so I'd set up the business in 2017, and yeah, it it's hard to believe that it's got to this point and still growing strong. Thank God.

COVID Survival And Back To Business

SPEAKER_04 29:48

Thank God, and it's because you're good, you're like you're great at what you do. If you weren't great at what you did, you wouldn't, it wouldn't be good. So go you. You made it happen. You said we won't talk about COVID, but I mean we kind of do have to talk about COVID because weddings were on a hiatus for the most part, at least weddings as we knew them. How did you navigate that chapter? Because no income coming in, or certainly less income coming in. Did you have to think of a plan B during that time?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

I did. Um, so COVID hit, and I like was going into my busiest year, and I'd actually taken on somebody as well. So I'd hired an employee, and we were, oh, she was amazing. I say, well, it's past tense because I, you know, really had to sit down and look at everything. And I remember my accountant and business consultant at the time saying, you know, you're literally you're going back to the beginning here in terms of like income, which is so devastating to hear, right? Because you're doing so well, and you and your amazing employee, Marid, you're both just like really clicking and bonding. So not only that, but you've got all these couples that you've lined up for the next 12, 18 months, and you don't know what's happening. You know, it was just such a wild time and also complete curveball. But one day I was sitting at my desk and my sister rang me, and her husband had become quite ill. She was on the way to the hospital. They were based in the UK at the time, and she didn't have any support over there. So I literally had to pack my bags, go straight away. I remember my brother was booking my flight to the UK whilst I was packing and trying to get over there as quickly as possible. And I was over there for a few weeks at the very start of COVID. So I was having the calls with my clients and my consultant and accountant while I was over in the UK. And my brother-in-law was not doing well. He's now doing wonderfully well. But you know, we didn't know at the time. And so you've got that happening. All of your couples, like, I just remember just the calls of tears and just no idea. Like, okay, we could move at six months, and then you might move at six months, but then we have to move at six months again. And it it was just such a surreal time. And then I remember coming back to Ireland after a few weeks, and Ireland had gone into shutdown. And I remember so I was flying back into Dublin, and I remember Doni, my husband, saying to me, Well, you know, the motorways are closed, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to pick you up or not. And I was like, I'm gonna be in Dublin Airport, I'll need to get home. Do you know? It was just that like level of one thing after another and what's just going on. So yeah, look, we had just got engaged, or had we even got engaged, maybe not at the time, but we wanted to buy a house and my business, like it was literally at the you know, earliest stages. So I had to kind of decide what do I do? Obviously, I've got a very strong corporate background, so I was very lucky to get a job as a marketing manager with a law firm in Cork. So I was then doing that as well as the business, which was difficult because then you're kind of juggling the two. But look, had I not done that, I wouldn't be sitting in my house today because I would not have got a mortgage, and that was our goal at the time. And like, there's no way the bank would have said yes. And obviously, I needed, you know, to survive, but that was really difficult because then I was kind of juggling the two for a long time, and we got engaged, got married, and then we were on honeymoon, and I decided that it's time to go back in full time now. I kind of had a fear of going back in full-time because you get used to you know, somebody paying your wages, your holidays. I would say sick days, but I never I don't think I probably took a sick day. But you know, you get used to that level of security pension. And so I had the fear, but honestly, everything works out for a reason, and I am a firm believer. So it all worked out thankfully, got back into the business full time, and it's just been going from strength to strength since so. I'm grateful for you know, things happen and all my lovely couples, like some of them did during COVID, just end up cancelling and decided that because a lot of my couples would have been US-based, yeah, and they did get married in the US, and then others stuck with Ireland and we saw it through, and it was amazing, and it meant so much more, you know, it was just beautiful, but yeah, that was that was the journey.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

Yeah, it's been quite a journey, hasn't it? But I suppose having gone through those ups and downs along the way, when it works, you know, when when you get to the point that you've been working towards, it's so much more rewarding. And I feel like I always say that, but it is if it just was plane sailing all along, you'd almost be like, Oh, it's nice. But because you got here and you had to really work hard to get to be to be where you are, you can really appreciate just like even just the luxury of being able to work from home and manage your schedule a little bit, you choose your couples because I'm sure you choose them as much as they choose you, you know. So all of those things, being able to pay your your own wage, being able to choose when you go on holidays, being able to feel the satisfaction of like, I did this and I'm doing something that I love every single day. And I'm sure parts of it that you don't love all the time, but it's nice and it's all worked out, and then it did because you had to traverse all those yeah different bumps along the way, you know, which is amazing. And you could have given up, but you didn't.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Could have given up, yeah. It has it's amazing. Now when you say it like that, I'm like, oh my god, I just you know what? Like, so often you're just you're racing, you're racing, and it's always so busy that you very rarely get time to actually sit back and you know look at oh, because your head is just in the details so much, so it's not often you actually get a moment to say, Oh god, look at where we are. You know, so it is it is amazing, still busy, but it is amazing.

Wedding Trends And Guest Experience

SPEAKER_04 36:28

How have weddings changed in those last 10 years?

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Oh my god. I guess my weddings have naturally changed anyway, right? Like I was always kind of very much focused on the US market, those coming into Ireland to get married. And I guess my weddings have just naturally changed and grown, and budgets have gotten bigger and everything like that. But like the landscape has really changed. I think after COVID, there was a lot more, you know, smaller, micro, more intentional kind of moments and weddings. And now I feel like I'm looking at this year, and all of the weddings are like really big numbers. So I still think there's those micro weddings happening. But I mean, you've weddings of 200, and that's like, you know, 200 people coming from the US into Ireland for this wedding, and it's unbelievable. Like it's just it's such an experience, and that's what all my couples are really focused on. It's the the end-to-end experience for their guests coming in, and it's from that touch point of you know, our welcome night, or we might do a pub night in Dublin before the welcome night, and then we have the wedding day, and then you have the day after. So it's like it's crazy the all the experiences they want. And I just love that. Like, I love the night before the wedding, chatting with guests that have they might have been in Ireland for a week before the wedding, traveling around and hearing about their experiences is just amazing. And then on the other side of things, you've got like your styling changes, like the vintage is coming back, draping is going to be really big this year. People are trying to get really creative with food so that it's more of an experience, and you've lots more kind of experiential kind of things happening on the wedding day as well. So that could be, you know, your illustrator, or like we had somebody doing calligraphy, you know, writing people's names and little gifts last year, little kind of favors for guests during the cocktail hour. So there's lots of like moments happening that are more, I guess, thought-through moments for the guests, and that's really kind of interesting to see. And it kind of challenges you a little bit as well, because I think people are gonna away a little bit from tradition, and they're kind of trying to like make things a little bit different. So that's really interesting because you really have to think through every single detail and every moment of your timeline to make sure that it is the proper flow for the whole guest experience. So it's funny because it's just, you know, the traditional wedding would have been, you know, your drinks reception, your dinner, your late-night food, your dancing. So that's kind of changed a little bit.

Instagram Versus Budget Reality

SPEAKER_04 39:27

There's a lot of weddings in the last year that have gone TikTok viral, and they're the very like extreme OTT, like super experiential weddings. I'm assuming that can be quite difficult to pull off. And is it hard when a couple comes to you and they're like, I saw this and I want all this? And and you're like, okay, okay, okay, we have to rein it in because the budget budget dictates a lot of what can happen and what can't, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:55

It all comes down to the budget. So, and that's my biggest challenge at the moment is obviously in the last 10 years, people are so much more exposed to weddings from like a high-end weddings from TikTok, from Instagram, from wherever it is, and they, you know, they'll put their Pinterest boards together, but that they have no, you know, reality of what the budget for that wedding is. So we're now seeing like million-dollar weddings in an instant, and the flowers are huge, and there's so much happening. So it's really difficult to actually deal with kind of the reality of that. That's a real balancing act is okay, your expectation is here, but the budget is here, and the reality of what we can afford is here. So that that's definitely a challenge, and that that's going to be a challenge going forward because the more viral, like you've mentioned, that these kind of weddings are becoming, but there's no, but FYI, this wedding costs four million, you know.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

You wish there was a bit more of that transparency online so that couples who are planning their day can just already come in with that knowledge as opposed to like coming in all excited, and then you're kind of like not bursting their bubble, but bringing them back to reality. I know that's not quite so achievable.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

And sometimes I really do feel like I am bursting the bubble, and I hate to do that. And usually, like what I where I start with the styling and design is okay, we'll start with like, you know, what you're trying to achieve for the day, and we'll work on our style boards, and then we'll put everything on the wish list, and then we'll cost it up, for example. And that's usually where the the bubble is burst because then you see the reality of what the things actually cost, and so that that can be a real challenge. I hate being the kind of fun place, but then it's about focusing on like what's important, and it's about pairing it back a little bit as well, and focusing on, you know, okay, so we can't have like these 10 things, but why don't we do these three things really, really well? Yeah, that it is a huge challenge, and I see that being a challenge everywhere, like things have changed so much. Like in a lot of these videos now, you'll see, for example, like indoor drones, and now I'll have couples asking for indoor drone footage and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 42:33

If someone's just got engaged, what are the first three things they should be considering as they start their planning journey? One is obviously, do I get a planner and do I not? And why should I? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_03 42:44

I was gonna say budget number one.

SPEAKER_04 42:47

Well, we'll do with the planner thing. I mean, I feel like we've given a good overview so far, but what can you as a planner offer a couple? Because some people might have an idea of what a planner does, but you do so much more than what a person might think a planner does.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

And do you know what? Even sometimes I forget, and I feel like sometimes I kind of, you know, when you reach out to me, for example, and you're off to getting engaged and you're looking for a planner, and we meet and we have our initial call. Sometimes like I forget some of the things that I actually do that are just natural to me. And sometimes they can be a bit hard to explain as well, because like you do really become a part of the family. And look, I know you've got like in Ireland, you've got over 20,000 weddings per year, right? That's registered weddings. And it's a small percentage of those 20,000 weddings that are going to get a wedding planner. And you have to be realistic. That's why I say budget is always going to come first, right? Because it's either in your budget or it's not in your budget. So, in terms of what the wedding planner actually does, like I think like the first thing that I help my couples with is the budgeting. So About. I know I'm like budget, budget, budget.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Yeah, it's so important, though.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

It's very important. And look, that has to be number one. But a lot of the time I'll source the venue for the couples and all of the suppliers. And as we were chatting about earlier, like the suppliers are key because that's like they're the gold to create the day that you're envisaging and the day that's going to just bring maximum impact for you and your guests. So that's a key part of it. And then it's about creating the day or the few days. Obviously, the timelines as boring as the budgets in terms of talking about them, but the timeline is key, really. That's like all the nitty-gritty, as you would have seen, but that is the nitty-gritty. And that is like usually I'll say to my couples, is that on our timeline? Is that happening? That's kind of the, you know, this is what's included in your package. But like at the end of the day, you become part of the family for the 12 plus months. Like you become their emotional support. I was going to say emotional support animal. I become their emotional support animal. You know, you really do become the emotional support for a lot of things because there's so much going on behind the scenes that you're not involved in like family dramas, intricacies. Then you've got the expectation versus the reality. So there's a million things going on, and you really do take on the the whole package. You do take on the whole package, and that's really hard to explain to people because you don't know until you're in it right.

SPEAKER_04 45:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

And you now don't know until you look back and see the amount of interaction that we had over that 12 plus months.

SPEAKER_04 45:41

I feel like at times you were my brain. You were functioning of my brain. I feel like Martina, how does what do I do? And you're like, you do that. I'm like, oh, okay, cool. You know, or like Martina, I'm not so sure about this. It could have been anything, like doubts about the dress, doubts about the venue, like second guessing color schemes. It could have been just like anything. You were at the other end of the phone. And that aside, a huge part of what you do when I feel like it's a part that's hard to manage unless you are type A bride, is all the emails, all the emails between suppliers, like between the venue, like you stay on top of everything, and then you you you give us these documents with dates and you know what's expected in terms of deposits and when the next installment is, and that in itself is a God's end because it's so hard to keep on top of all of that, especially if you're not orientated in the type A category and you're a little bit more scatty or frazzled, or just have a busy brain. So, like, even that in itself, like that's a huge part of what you do as well. You take away a lot of that admin stuff that is otherwise on your shoulders, and that can be hard to juggle when you are a busy couple and there's a million and one things happening and can be quite forgetful about things sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 47:01

Yeah. And then, like you mentioned, some of the type A personalities, then you know, they obviously have hired a planner, yeah, but they want a lot of the detail and they want to be involved, and that's tough for them because they have to trust you as their planner that you know you're doing X, Y, and Z behind the scenes because they obviously they have you know our spreadsheet or our documents or whatever it is, and so they're not involved in the the kind of day-to-day emailing and all the logistics going on behind the scenes, and like there could be 15-20 suppliers, and there could be you know 15-20 emails with each supplier, like it really just depends. So it is it's a lot of admin, a lot of logistics, but it's a bit fun.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

I'd like to say we had a bit of fun, also a lot of fun along the way. We did.

SPEAKER_04 47:51

So back to the what three things should a couple newly engaged be considering. You mentioned budget, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Sorry, budget, budget, wedding planner, and I would say because obviously your budget is going to drive everything right, your venue is going to be over 50% of the spend of your budget. So, well, whatever, yeah, around 50%. And that's where you go to next, really, is looking at where and when. And you know, is it going to be in Ireland, outside of Ireland, where in Ireland is it going to be? How far do you want your guests traveling for it? Does it need to be in your airports? And how many can you invite? So you can see like every decision is driven by your budget. Because you can't have a wedding of 200 people in with say Ashford Castle or well, Adair Manor, if that's just not in your budget. It does all come down to that, which is very sad. But once you get past that little hurdle, then you know you can start creating and visualizing and putting together what the dream is for you. I always say to couples, the biggest piece of the jigsaw is getting that venue in place because then you can really start to visualize the rest of the pieces.

First Steps After Getting Engaged

SPEAKER_04 49:09

Yeah. It's uh yeah, for me from what I remember, budget, your numbers for how many people you want, and then the numbers also can sometimes dictate the venue because a venue might have a certain capacity limit or starting point or whatever. And I think another thing that couples who have not yet got into the nitty-gritty of the planning journey don't realize is as well, and one thing I learned was that venues have their own rules and regulations. So you might love a venue and it could, you know, be in your budget, but then there's a stipulation of you have to sell or book out 50 runs for two nights on both nights, and then that becomes a little bit more difficult because you're thinking of your guests and are they gonna want to spend this money? Can they afford to spend this money? You don't want to bankrupt someone just because they're coming to your wedding weddings are expensive for guests as it is, so yeah, there's there's a lot of there's there's a lot of learning along the way when you're when you're planning. What trend do you secretly love? Oh trend. Or maybe you're not a trend person. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

You know what I absolutely love is only because I did it last October, but you know, draping is really coming in, right? And we did a wedding last October, and it was an out it was Lotto's Town Castle, and it was an outdoor ceremony, and we did draping at that. Now it was a huge risk for a lot of different reasons, but it was absolutely magical, and there's nothing better than even seeing the video on the movement of the draping and the wind, and oh, it was just so I love I love that.

SPEAKER_04 51:08

And I actually I know the the wedding you're talking about, they had like a and marquee type setup outside with the drapes and flowers, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was very, very nice. Oh, yeah, it was stunning. It's funny, like you don't think too much about weddings until you have a wedding, and then after you have a wedding, you're obsessed with weddings because you know the emotions that people are going through, and you know how much every decision meant to them. Is there a trend that you could do without that you're like, oh we don't really need to do that, do we?

SPEAKER_03 51:46

I'm thinking of it and I'm thinking of uh some funny things.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Oh, a trend that we could do without. No, do you know what? There's nothing really like trends come and go so quickly, you know, so uh there's nothing really that I think, oh god, that really I'd really love to see that gone. Um maybe sparklers, but then you see the finished product, the photos, and those photos are amazing. But only I only say sparklers because it just it just logistically when you're playing with fire, you know, literally things can get burnt. Have they got burnt? Oh god, yeah. I've seen photographers nearly get a sparkler in the eye. I don't know how they do it. I stand well back with my little fire extinguisher. But do you know, but again, then you see the photos and you just think, oh, it was so worth that.

SPEAKER_04 52:47

Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. Draping is gonna be an answer here, but is there a trend that you or just a tradition that you wish more couples would embrace?

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Yes, the first look.

SPEAKER_04 53:00

Oh, yes. Do you know sometimes I wish that we had done one?

SPEAKER_01 53:05

I do too. Go ahead. Tell me why first look because I think a it's like you know the day is so busy, right? And no matter how many people tell you to be in the present moment, it's really difficult because you know there's so much going on, you have 150, 160, maybe 200 people there, and everyone wants to chat to you, and you are the focus of attention. And I just think that first look gives the couple a moment of calm. Just the two of them, and photographer and videographer, and content creator and planner. But I I I'm usually not there like hiding behind a tree or something. I just really think it gives them time to actually just have a moment between themselves, and some of them will do private first vows and everything there, and some will opt to get their photos done at that stage as well. So photos even with family, both sides of the family, which is fab because it then it means during your drinks reception, you will have that time with your guests.

Trends Worth Keeping And Dropping

SPEAKER_04 54:16

Well, I'm sold. You you've sold it to me. Well, it's a bit late now. When we do the bow renewal and I wear the other dream dress that I couldn't find and I had in my head, that's when we'll do the first look again. When pl when couples are planning weddings, they're so focused on the little details, and sometimes they overfocus or hyper-focus or get lost in that. What's one detail that guests actually do remember? Because sometimes the smaller details do get forgotten about, like when you think about weddings you attend, you know, not everything is remains as like the first thing that they think about when they think of your day. So, what's one thing that couple that guests do remember from a day? Apart from obviously the food and the music.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

So when I meet the guests at the day after, it's never like it's never one particular thing, it's like the series of everything I'm usually hit with. Oh my god, yesterday was so amazing, from this to this to this, you know. So it's never like I couldn't pin it down to one particular thing, it's a series of moments, but I guess it's moments that have been put in there for a reason, right? That mean something that make it special. Like the two real, really special moments stand out to me. One is your wedding when Steve did the song, yeah. And oh my god, that was just like pin drop, magical, most magical moment. Like honestly, just such a special moment. So I can I imagine like that that moment of him creating that for you is something that really stands out to your guests. And another moment that really stands out from a wedding was last September. The father of the groom, it was again at the speeches moment. So, you know, yes, we want to break it down, and we only want four speeches, and they need to be quick. At the end of the day, a lot of the magic can happen during that time as well. The father of the groom had been quite sick in the well, say, the 12 or 18 months of our wedding planning, and he got good news that he was clear of cancer in the last few months before the wedding. So the bride had said to me, Any ideas on what we could do to kind of honour this moment?

SPEAKER_03 56:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

So I came back to her with this idea that uh I think for some cancer patients for their last chemotherapy session, they used to ring the bell to signify that it was the last session. So we got little bells for each setting. And oh my god, it was just shivers when you said that. It's I've honestly never experienced anything like it. It was just such a moment. Everyone in that room ringing the bell to celebrate his you know, health and the day, and oh my god, it was just such a real standout moment. So I'm sure like asking guests, you know what their kind of memory was, it's kind of those moments that I think are the ones that you've really thought through that are not just the cookie cutter, yeah, but are special to you and to your guests.

Moments Guests Remember Most

SPEAKER_04 57:50

Less sweating of the small stuff and more considered approaches, yeah. Intentional moments, that's where it's going. Okay, intentional moments, that's the phrase. Is do you have a tip for like best low-cost investment for a high impact? Oh, so is there something that you know it doesn't cost that much, but the payoff is amazing?

SPEAKER_03 58:16

Oh, you're like, girl, everything costs.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

Yeah, oh the one thing I always, you know, do encourage, and I'm talking now purely styling here, right? Linens, changing the linen in the room. Like I think honestly, that has the biggest impact on the room because you know, 90% of the weddings that you go to will have uh white table linens, and I think that can be a real pointed difference to the look and the feel of the room, and can make it a bit more personal and unique to you both when you're kind of your colours are coming together and your color palette is coming together. That's probably one thing I would I always encourage is changing the linens or even simple, low-cost, big impact, a coloured candle.

SPEAKER_04 59:14

Yeah, just a little something to intrigue the eye. We can't wrap up without talking about your own wedding.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Oh my god. It was four years ago now.

SPEAKER_04 59:26

You had a COVID wedding, if I remember correctly, or not quite.

SPEAKER_01 59:30

Yeah, it was just at the end. So I think we were we had to finish at midnight, and we could, I think maybe the 50 opened up just before we got married. So it was yeah, it was Fab. We got married in the church in Cork. It was actually the church that my uncle used to be the priest in, and it was just across from the Dean Hotel in Cork. So we booked the Dean before they'd even finished their room, and obviously we wouldn't visit it or anything because A, they had construction going on, and B, it was COVID. I would say I lost my mind slightly during the planning of the wedding. Okay, I never want to do that again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:16

Really? Yeah, because we think as a wedding planner, planning your own wedding, it would be a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

No, I absolutely really did not enjoy it. Why? Because I did not take my own advice and I got too stressed out about the little details.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:38

Well, what little details, linens, linens and candles.

High Impact Styling On A Budget

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

Linens and candles. Yeah, I just laugh when I think about it now. But and it's so funny actually, but like it was such a fabulous day. Enjoyed every second of it the night before, loved it. But I was like, this is so typical Martina wedding planner because obviously I'm not used to being the bride, right? And we were leaving the room to go across to the church, and I took an umbrella because I was afraid it might rain. So I had my hands full of my little bag and my umbrella. What did I forget? My bouquet.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

So I forgot my bouquet. So we're back together. So me and my pops headed off in the car. The car brought us around to the church, dropped us off, loads of photos, and then do you know what? We got to the church, and standing there was Fanula, my wedding florist, looking at me, and I just looked at her and I just went, Oh, the bouquet. So thankfully, it was like five minutes, and next thing I just saw her run. I mean, like honestly, has anyone forgotten their bouquet going to the church before? But the wedding planner forgets her bouquet? Yeah. Thankfully, we were all running on time, and it was all fine, but like just a funny moment. And do you know what I didn't have actually was a me. I didn't have a me outside the door to take me to tell those, take those breaths.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:28

Yes.

Martina’s Own Wedding Lessons

SPEAKER_01 1:02:29

And I am not joking, I galloped like a little horse down the aisle. Like my dad was even saying to me, slow down. I I ran. I'm like when I picture myself, I'm literally galloping down the aisle.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:47

I'm sure it was slower than you think you were, but also at the same time, how and also like because you had that experience, you are adding value, even more value than to someone's day because you know how it feels when you don't have someone there to tell you to take that breath and how you felt. Shoulders up, stressed. So you're there and being like, girl, I didn't have this on my day. Yeah, to tell you take that breath.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

Yeah, and it's just because I was so worried. I had somebody go in and do like the details and the styling and everything like that for me. But I was like, But you're you know, I know the run of the day, like I don't need somebody there, but just even small things like opening the door when you're going to the church, you know, that just small things that I just had wasn't thinking. I was like, well, I'll be fine because you know, so yeah, it's funny looking back on it now.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:43

I love that your dad is like, slow down. My dad kept going, kick it, kick it, kick it, because because of the steps I had to go. So he I was told to kick the dress, flick the dress with my feet, because because otherwise so he kept going was like kick it, kick it, kick it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:02

Oh my god, so cute.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:06

He's like with each step, kick it, kick it, kick it, and it's the Eastern European Iceland. It was absolutely adorable. Dads are the best, and how lucky the best, how lucky we got to have ours on our day.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

How lucky, and I'm very, you know, I do think about it a lot when you know I've couples that obviously don't have their people to walk them down the aisle. But yeah, and you took on a challenge, by the way, with your like 50 steps to go down.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:39

It was definitely I actually did nearly trip. Did you I don't know, you probably didn't see, but on the video, neither did I the tripping is very, very much like my personality. I'm a klutz and like goofy. So even though I did almost trip and it didn't look the most elegant, it was me, and it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:00

But did anyone? I definitely didn't notice, and I would say nobody noticed, but I look back on those photos, Diana. You know, the air like the drone footage. Oh my god, yeah, just of the landscape, all of your guests, you coming down the aisle.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:14

There's a beautiful shot as well of Steve and I because of your encouragement facing our guests, which was actually one of my favorite moments, being able to look out and see all these gorgeous faces from different chapters of our life all together was so so nice. And seeing like their happy, smiley faces. Any nerves I felt were like washed away because I'm like, ah, they're here in the moment, they're here for all this is gonna be so special. But there is one photo anyway, and I don't particularly love my face in the photo, but the photo itself is beautiful because the sun was in my face. But the photo itself is so beautiful because of like the the gorgeous floral arrangement that Tina made, and then the lake glittering glistening in the background, and the sun was actually. At the right moment, and just it just looked like a painting. I was like, no, if only the artist could have made my face look less scrunchy because of the sun. But the painting so like the visual is so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:13

Yeah, the flowers. So beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:17

Well, thank you for giving me my special day and making Steve and I so happy and giving us our dream. And yeah, I know all the couples you are working with and will work with going forward are just gonna adore their special day because they have you on their side who's there championing them and just making their vision come to life.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:38

So thank you for what you do. We love you. Well, thank you for choosing me.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:44

You know, you put your trust in me, and I totally I'm very aware of that. You know, I'm very aware that you're trusting me with so much. So I do, I appreciate that. And I I honestly feel like everything happens for a reason, and we were brought together for a reason and for the day that you had and the moments and everything. So and I loved it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:16

Yeah, me too. Thank you. Thank you. Until next time, Martina, until the next wedding, whatever that might be. The Vower Renewal, the Bowrenewal, yes, indeed. So we'll just treat it like a wedding.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:29

Yeah, yeah, we will. I'm ready for it. Tell Steve to get writing.

Closing Thoughts And Support The Show

SPEAKER_04 1:07:34

Yes, we need a second song, please. Uh, thanks a million, and uh, thank you for coming on my podcast. Thank you. That moment with the bells. Oh my goodness. I could not stop thinking about that moment with the bells for the longest time after our chat. It's just so fine. Tinglingly, tingling-ly, is that a word? It is now beautiful. And um, yeah, thank you for listening to this episode with Martina O'Reardin, who goes under the name of Martina O in her wedding planning business. And if you are looking for a wedding planner or you know someone who is, I could not recommend her more. We loved every moment of working together, and she helped us build and pull off our dream wedding, and we are so grateful. Thank you so much for listening this week, as always. Uh, if you've missed our other episodes, there are plenty of amazing, interesting, beautiful conversations for you to catch up on. And like always, if you'd like to leave a review or a rating, I would be so grateful because it helps more people to see the podcast. You might also see in the show notes I've introduced a new thing where you can buy me a cup of coffee, and that's just if you enjoy the show. You can help support me create more episodes by giving a small donation. There is absolutely no pressure. I love making this podcast. I'm going to continue making it, but every little helps along the way. I'm putting so much of my time and passion and creativity into making these episodes. So, yeah, if you can spare a cent, that would be most welcome. But if not, that's okay too. I'll be back again next week with another great guest. Thank you so much for listening!