Today’s real wedding couple Raychel & Razvan (also known as Raz) had such a beautiful, modern, bi-lingual wedding in Belfast city centre. Filled with an incredible atmosphere, gorgeous touches (Raychel describes it as minimal-meets-modern-romance) a hand-fasting ceremony, sweet favours personally made by the bride and a stunning £400 wedding dress, it has the beautiful ease of elegance that city wedding couples do just so well. Photos are by Jonathan Ryder who always captures weddings with his own style of relaxed, beautiful glamour. From ceremony to cake cutting, we're so glad he was capturing the whole thing so we can give you a peek at their simply beautiful Titanic Hotel wedding!

First things first, let's get to know our couple a little better. Bride Raychel is from Donegal in northwest Ireland, while groom Raz hails from Maramures in Romania. The couple who currently live in London first meet on a dating app. Bride Raychel fills us in, "We met on Hinge in London, at a time when neither of us were really looking for serious long term relationships, but after our first and second date, we both knew this thing was too full of potential to be casual! We basically went on a first date and never stopped."

Those dates led to love, and Raz proposed to Raychel while the pair were holidaying in Hawaii. "It was an absolute dream," the bride says. "We were on a quiet beach on the island of Kauai, watching the sunset. It had rained on and off all day, and the clouds parted to reveal a glimpse of amazing sky just for a few minutes and we were in awe. Raz got down on one knee and opened with “ I didn't prepare a speech or anything”, then proceeded to make a very emotional, accidental speech that has us both in tears."As soon
as I said yes, it started to absolutely lash rain and we just laughed and kissed and then decided to sprint into the sea to make it official!".

Once back home planning began with the couples hearts set on a summer wedding in Belfast. They decided on the Titanic Hotel in Belfast to host 100 of their loved ones for fun-filled wedding weekend in the city. "Our wedding was really focused on our loved ones coming together, because we had so many
people travel from Europe, the UK, Canada and America!," the couple tell One Fab Day. "For many guests, it was their first time in Ireland, and many of the Irish guests were also living abroad, and were looking
forward to reuniting with their own families at the wedding. We truly just wanted a big family party kind of feel!"

"We also wanted to show our appreciation for all the travel and effort people had put in by offering little things like really considered wedding favours they could treasure forever, and we also put money behind the bar for the whole reception because people had already put so much into getting to Ireland to be with us. We also didn’t want to distract ourselves with so many details to worry about, that we wouldn't have the headspace to stay present in the day."

"On the day, our wedding was very relaxed, which many people told us they appreciated so much. By
total coincidence, our guests ended up booking most of the rooms in the hotel, so we had a brilliant big weekend of bumping into family and friends every time we left our room. Our ceremony/reception/wedding prep all happened under the same roof, so as soon as we all checked in on the Friday afternoon, there was no transport needed at all until we checked out again on the Monday. It kept the vibe so relaxed and our guests really settled into the hotel and enjoyed everything the local area had to offer."

For their relaxed celebration in the city, the couple choose a historic venue that didn't need a lot of fuss or styling. When asked what made the iconic Titanic Hotel 'the one' for them, they say, "Our goal was to have a wedding that really ‘felt’ like us, young, creative, unfussy and orientated towards all our favourite people celebrating together. As creatives, a serious pet peeve of ours is the “heavily-patterned-function-room-carpet” (no offense to every country hotel in Ireland!) In our experience, it can be a detail like this that can really pull focus in wedding photos, and clash with any other patterns or colours used in decor, even the guests outfit or the bride and groom’s style! It was a priority of ours to find a beautiful big room with great light and minimal details. (a tougher task than we anticipated)."

"As soon as we saw the ballroom in the Titanic Hotel, we knew we had found the perfect space. We fell in love with the light, airy style of the function room. It was so beautiful, but more of a modern style with its wooden floors and big windows, we couldn't have asked for a better room and it was a real talking point of the weekend. It was so full of character without being overly fussy or heavy, and we knew our decor could be easy and minimal because the room and feature windows were doing so much of the work. So many guests said that visually, the wedding was one of the most beautiful they had been to, which meant the world, and really confirmed that we’d made the right choice. Even the band told us they were excited to play a set there, because they’d heard it was such a great room."

"Also, it's worth mentioning that we really felt we got our money’s worth with the packages the hotel offered. Compared to other hotels we considered, we were swayed by all the little extras we could include at no extra price, and all the options the hotel had available. We didn’t want to break the bank on a wedding so getting a venue with generous additional details was a huge plus."

On July 6th 2024, Raychel and Raz were married in a historic Drawing Office at the iconic hotel exchanging rings from Lark & Berry, and Tiffany. Keeping things minimal in order to the historic space shine, the couple added foliage and soft white blooms to create an altar like setting. "We wanted things to feel like our own personal take on a fairly classic vibe. We wanted to elevate the features of the beautiful space, instead of trying to create a whole new look, so we kept our florals tall and leafy, and brought in hints of warm creams, light yellows and blush pinks to add warmth to the white room, and work with the light wooden floor."

The couple worked with Humanist celebrant Ciara Turley to make a ceremony script that told the story of them, acknowledge both their families and cultures, and their journey together. Along with the couple’s personal vows, the ceremony also included a hand-fasting ceremony ritual which used strands of Donegal Tweed to represent Raychel, and traditional woven bands made in Raz’s home county of Maramures, in Transylvania. "Our celebrant Ciara designed a perfect handfasting ceremony for us that had everyone in tears. It was really important to us to acknowledge ourselves as equal partners, and that we will grow and change and continue to be each others rock though all life has in store for us. Ciara also managed to work loads of Romanian and Irish phrases into our ceremony which our guests loved.

Once Raychel and Raz were pronounced newlyweds, they had a friend hit play on the song Just My
Type by Saint Motel. "It's a big saxaphone/trumpet filled number we love and instantly brought a lively party feel as we walked down the aisle together while people cheered and clapped," the bride reminisces.

For her wedding look, Raychel opted for a non-traditional look that made a statement but didn’t feel overly ‘bridal.’ She found what she was looking for in a £400 V. Chapman in sage-green. To complete her wedding day look she added a second-hand veil and shoes which she cleverly found on Vinted, satin opera gloves and gold jewellery. Raz looked equally dapper in a black tuxedo from Charles Tyrwitt.

At the reception, guests were seated at tables filled lush foliage arrangements, taper candle holders with colourful candles and custom napkins for each guest embroidered by the bride using a collection of
plain and patterned fabrics in their colour scheme. "We really wanted colourful candles to bring more life to the tables for dinner time and to ensure the room didn't look too white washed so we bought loads of tall candles in tones of gold and yellow. The brand Ester & Erik carry so many beautiful colours and are brilliant but quite pricey. Raz and I did some research and found about half the colours on a website called Nordic Nest and they were half price, so we were thrilled and they added so much to the room! Overall, the effect was a minimal-modern-romantic kind of look, and from morning to evening, the room was magical."

Both the monogrammed napkins and candles doubled up as favours for their guests. "We designed
and made a collection of 3 sizes that would look great as a little trio at home. Everyone got to take a set home after the day 2 event. We purposely over-ordered on candles so people would have fresh ones to
take home and use in their candle sticks."

Reminiscing on their day, the couple tells us what made their day really special and personal to them. "We felt a certain responsibility (as I’m sure most people do) to give everyone the best time possible, considering so many had travelled and/or come to the county for the first time. So putting research and money into things that would make a great party were well worth it to us. We booked the most incredible band because we know our friends and fam love a boogie, and designed a drinks menu for the open bar that would have something for everyone. People couldn't get over the hand made elements and were so thrilled to take a lovely gift home that they would actually use. It was funny, emotional and so sincere, it was another notable thing people commented on that meant so much to us."

They add, "One other element that we really appreciate now looking back, was that we didn’t feel there
were cameras in our faces all weekend. We were really eager to feel in the moment at all times, and not feel pressured to be posed and self conscious throughout the day. We purposely sought out a photographer with a more laid back approach ( he was almost invisible throughout the day, but still captured incredible photos) and we asked our pals to take loads of little video snippets instead of hiring a filming crew, so we could make some video content ourselves when we had the time. We did set aside a hour for wedding portraits and family pics, but that was totally enough, everything else was candid and natural and easy."

"Lastly, we wanted to make the whole celebration as bi-lingual as possible. We had the ceremony script translated and printed in small booklets for any Romanian-speaking guests. All signage had both languages and we also decided that all wedding speeches would be done in duo’s, with one English speaker and one Romanian speaker, this was also a perfect way to allow more of our friends and family to participate in the day."

Raychel and Raz shared their first dance to The Swing Cats performing Someone Like You by Van Morrison before everyone joined them on the dance floor.

As for any words of wedded wisdom for other planning their day? Raychel says, "Stay true to your own vision, don’t let people sway you with what they think you wedding should look like.Whether it’s a non-traditional dress or if you want to serve tacos for dinner, do it! Keep it as personal as possible and do it with intention. Your guests will love it all the more if they can feel you shining through."

The bride adds, "As a couple who planned a wedding in Ireland from abroad, it can be a challenge trying to do research from a distance and visualise everything from behind your laptop, but just know that it's better to over-do the research and be totally informed, than agree to the first and easiest option and then regret it. We also found it difficult to carve out the time for planning, while both working and living busy london lives. So book a local date night, leave your phone at home and make it a mission to discuss and decide a few wedding priorities/details while you have a pint and a pizza. The day is for you both and about you both, so make it a team effort."

After the epic weekend of celebrations the pair are looking forward to heading off on a European honeymoon soon. "Because we had such a far-flung engagement, we’re looking forward to a closer to home European honeymoon. The intention is to find a beautiful air b&b in rural Italy/Portugal, do a very indulgent food shop and turn off our phones for a week. We just want to swim and snack and snooze!".

A huge congratulations and thanks to Raychel & Razvan for sharing their utterly gorgeous and relaxed Titanic Hotel wedding day with One Fab Day and to Jonathan Ryder for the wonderful photos.

Tying the knot? We've even more Irish Real Weddings for you to check out!