Sinead Desmond is one of the most glamourous, bubbly and disciplined women in Ireland, from her daily 6am stints on Ireland AM to her columns and her photo shoots. It is a wonder she has any time to plan her up and coming wedding to businessman Davy Ryan who proposed to her earlier this year.

It was time to ask Sinead the question everyone wants to know.... how far have you got with the wedding plans?
“We’ve done a lot of work on the most important things and the first is who is going to be there. The second most important thing is where it’s going to be, because when I’ve been there and seen it then everything else is going to fall into place. There’s no point in us even setting a date because we don’t know where we want it to be. We know we want it to be in France, it’s kind of changing from the south of France, because we have holidayed there a lot and we really like it. We love Antibes and are big fans of Nice and Monaco. We really love the area around Villefranche-sur-mer where we spent our holidays last year and the entire Cap around Beaulieu-sur-mer. I speak French and David has done a lot of sailing around there. We feel a great affinity with France, we have a lot of friends over there and I lived in Paris too. We’re looking into the south of France because we want to hire something for a week.
 
Won’t that be very expensive?
It will be but for a week there you’d just get a day here in a fantastic place and we want it to be a bit of a holiday for our families and ourselves as well. Just from our engagement night where there were about 100 - 120 people, I spent the next day texting people to apologise for not spending more time with them and I don’t want my wedding day to be like that. I don’t want to look back and not have spent time with everyone who’s there. I really, really don’t want to do that and a lot of people have said to me that they felt that their wedding day was just gone in a blur and I don’t want that to happen. So we’re thinking of maybe having it on a Wednesday or a Thursday, which is a huge demand on people but we can’t decide on a day! We’ll be looking right down at the south of France but the locations aren’t big enough, because a lot of my friends have children and we want everyone to stay in the same chateau or villa.

Is this going to be a big expensive affair?  
No, I don’t want it to be expensive or lavish. I want a big old run-down country house in France. I don’t want a formal sit-down meal. I want the nice lady around the corner and her three daughters who are good at making decent homemade French food to come and do a buffet. I just want a nice summer garden party. We’re both very kind of ‘joined at the hip’ in what we want.

It sounds quite bohemian then?
Well, I want barefoot kids running through the fields…. I want it to be kind of ‘boho’ and just relaxed and fun. I want everyone to have a fun day. I don’t want to be some Bridezilla who’s freaking out because the lilies aren’t the right shade of white. I don’t want it to be about the small details. I want it to be about the big details like who’s there and are they happy. That’s what is important. But the more we look at locations the more we’re moving back into the Dordogne because they have much bigger houses there and greater capability. The south of France is quite squashed up along the coastline and the villas are not the same size there. We really want something on the coast, so in September when Davy is finished sailing, we’re going to take two weeks off to go out and just scout locations.

Sounds gorgeous! Now you have great access to wedding planners and dresses being on Ireland AM, so have you considered any ideas from others?
Well, a couple of designers have approached me and offered to make my dress, which is amazing, but I haven’t decided what to do yet. That seems like so far off. Until we choose the place, I really can’t see everything else. We know that we want it to be a nice relaxed day but elegant as well and quite chic. Flowers will be important to me as I really love flowers and I have spoken to Maurice from Madflowers and he has given me some great ideas. Obviously, if I go to France he can’t do it out there or ship the flowers out but he says that he can co-ordinate  with the florist out there. I would spend money on flowers. It’s one of my indulgences so I spend a lot of money on them as I collect orchids. Davy couldn’t care less if there were roses or dandelions but it matters to me.

And what about bridesmaids? Have you decided?
Yes, one is Sheila Cronin I met on my first day in school from way back and then Blaithin and the last is Kelly, one of my friends from Uni in England. I was only going to have one but Davy was saying that he was going to have loads of groomsmen. He said that I had to have five girls but I didn’t want to do that just for the sake of it. I just wanted my oldest and best friends to be there. Davy was more concerned about how it would look in the photographs because he’s having about five or six lads!

So is it going to be a big wedding then?
We started off wanting it to be really small but it’s amazing how things change. We started off wanting about 50 or 60 people but that’s just not realistic. We’re trying to limit it to 150 –160 because I think that anything above that and you won’t get to see anyone.

So you’re looking at a buffet in an old run-down beautiful house?
Yes, I’m looking for a lovely old French house or villa with enough outhouses maybe to house people on the ground because a lot of my friends have kids and I don’t want them to have to worry about travelling and taxis.

It sounds fantastic even though the dress is on the long finger?
You know, I have no ideas about a dress. I’m not one of those girls who have been dreaming about her wedding since she was six. That’s not me at all! I never thought I would get married. And half of me just wants to elope to Vegas and get married over the weekend.

And the other half wants to have a nice intimate wedding?
Only because Davy knows that I would regret it and I would, I really would! Sometimes I get freaked out at the whole notion of the organisation and I think, no, I know that I will hire a wedding planner.

I think that’s a wise idea actually;
I know, it sounds celeb-tastic but I just don’t have the time to do all of the things that need doing to make the day that we want. I haven’t gone down the road of the wedding planner yet.

And do you know when you’re going to have it exactly?
We’d like to have it in the summer, so when we go out in September and see the locations, hopefully we’ll fall in love with one and just organise it there. Ideally we’d have it at the end of May or June.

And you’re going to have a church wedding in France? I didn’t realise this but we have to get married in a registry office first in Ireland, which really almost made us rethink the whole thing.

And you wanted a church wedding?
Well, we both want a church wedding because we are both quite traditional. Well, Davy said he always wanted to get married in Ireland and I said ‘That’s fine!’ Then when it came to it we said that we love France, but if we could get the weather here we would in a heartbeat. It’s the weather! I know it’s a huge demand on people to ask them to go abroad but sure we are going to take the place for the week so all they have to do is pay the airfare and buy a guna. They won’t have to put their hand in their pocket for the week. Some people expect people to pay a lot of money but I’m not going to have some crazy mad hen party in Paris and then another one in Bulgaria. I’m not going to make huge financial demands on people. I just want them to be there.

What about Hair & Makeup: Any ideas?
Actually for hair and make-up, I know who I want… Derek Carberry for make-up and Michael Leong for hair. That would be a splash out, but I’d really like them to be there. I did a shoot for them with RSVP and they just make me feel fantastic. Derek did some make-up the other day and said that would be great for your wedding and I went ”Yes it would!”  I would splash out on hair and make-up and flowers and nice frocks for my honeymoon.

Speking of Honeymoons have you anwhere in mind?
In terms of that destination, Davy really fancies the idea of a safari in Africa, but I’ve been there and done that. It’s not as if I don’t want to go and see elephants, but I’d like to do something that neither of us has done, so  it would be something new for both of us. I have stayed in one of the best resorts in the world, The Four Seasons in the Cook Islands, on one called ‘Aitutiki’ and it blew my mind. So I thought maybe Hawaii could be quite cool and Davy and I are huge fans of Magnum PI! That sounds really cheesy but he was my first crush and Davy’s first hero, the kind of guy he wanted to be, so although it’s not definite we are seriously considering Hawaii.

It sounds fantastic; you seem to be making some loose decisions at least?
Well yes, but honestly, so much is up in the air, we’re going to wait for the location first. At least the suits will be taken care of - Louis Copeland is going to look after Davy for that. He knows what he wants; well at least he thinks he does… red waistcoats and red scarves because of the Munster connection!

And have you considered bridesmaids’ dresses?
There is going to be red somewhere as the bestmen are all Munster lads as well so they’ll be happy with the red. I might tie that in somewhere with the bridesmaids. Again, I’m not sure yet?

What about the entertainment?
We spend a lot of time talking about music and entertainment. I think that’s a big part of that as well. There was a band we saw down in Kinsale, two mad lads on banjos, which I think we’d like to bring out there. I think we’ll bring an Ipod and our own tunes. It would be great later on in the night to have traditional Irish music and we’ll probably have an 80’s session after because we are from that era.  I’d just like the wedding to be a nice summer garden, bit of croquet on the lawn, but if the weather is bad you need a plan B.  I really don’t want the planning of our wedding to be a stressful, unpleasant affair, because you see so many couples who aren’t happy in the run up to their wedding because they are going mental. I want Davy and I to really enjoy it and I have to say he’s even more into it than I am! I don’t my wedding to feel like it’s run like clockwork by some army sergeant. I just want everyone to have good day.  I don’t want any stress though I’m sure that’s impossible to do. That’s our goal anyway, so hopefully we’ll get there in the end!
Written By Lisa Cannon