When & where did you both meet?
Both of us moved to the sunny sandpit of Dubai in 2008, Kate in June and Shane a bit later in November. Despite a smattering of friends in common and the expected professional path-crossing of journalists and PRs, we didn’t actually meet until October 2014. Kate had known Shane’s flatmate, for several years and had even been to their apartment on many occasions before the evening, over Eid weekend, when events conspired for us to be there at the same time.
When Shane was first introduced to Kate he apparently asked why he hadn’t met her before, because, as he told the girls, “She is so my type!”.
Kate does admit that she didn’t tell any of her friends that she had met a lovely guy that weekend – mostly because, after what seemed to have been 24 hours of partying, she wasn’t convinced that Shane would remember any of it!
Who & proposed & how did they do it?
In the late summer of 2016, Kate got home from work one day and asked Shane why his shaving kit was missing from the bathroom – he said it was cos he had shaved in the spare bathroom that morning. A bit later on he admitted that actually, he was taking Kate away for the weekend, and had even arranged for her to have the following day off work with her boss directly. Although he wouldn’t say where they were going.
It turned out to be a gorgeous water bungalow villa at Anantara the Palm, where we had a wonderful weekend relaxing, sunbathing and enjoying a couples massage followed by ordering room service from the kid’s menu – a tradition we try to do each time we have a weekend away. After that, Shane admitted that he had set all this up in order to ask Kate a very important question……. to which of course she said yes!
How long were you wedding planning?
About 18 months
Do you have a top tip either specific or general about the day?
The best piece of advice we received was to decide what was important to us, focus on that and not worry about anything else. We decided the most important thing was to have as many of the people we loved from around the world celebrate with us and went from there.
Is there anything that you’d do differently if you were planning your wedding day again?
No it was just perfect. (ok maybe some bug repelling citronella candles would have been an idea….)
Who did your hair & makeup?
Hair for the bride and bridesmaids was done by Marion from Ritzy’s Hair Salon; makeup was Mary Loughrey Makeup Artist. Both did fantastic jobs!
Where did you get your cake, car(s), flowers?
Our cake was from House of Cakes and Flowers from All Occasions Florists who were recommended by Kinnitty Castle.
Who was your videographer?
John from Avalon Video – he was fabulous!
Where did you go on honeymoon?
We had a short mini moon to the Seychelles after the wedding and will do a Safari / Victoria Falls / Capetown trip around South Africa next month.
Anything else that you’d like to share?
Just to reiterate to focus on what you care about and don’t worry about anything else. Also definitely invest in a good photographer as those are you main memories – plus you’ll probably see some things you miss on that day!
