Rachel and Conors Romantic Red Carton House Wedding Flowers

There are some weddings where the flowers are a beautiful finishing touch — and then there are weddings where the florals become part of the entire atmosphere of the day.

Rachel and Conor’s wedding at Carton House was most definitely the latter.

Rachel and Conor first reached out to Anna May from the US last year, planning their Irish wedding surrounded by friends and family at the beautiful Carton House in Kildare.

From our first conversations, Rachel had such a clear vision for how she wanted their day to feel: romantic, dramatic, luxurious and filled with rich red tones.

We met at Carton House and walked through the spaces together, talking flowers, colour, candlelight and how we could transform the reception room while creating a floral story that would flow from their outdoor ceremony right through to the evening celebrations.

And from there, we got to work.

Designing Rachel & Conor’s Carton House Wedding

For the reception, Rachel wanted to make a statement.

Deep reds. Layers of candlelight. Dramatic draping. Abundant flowers.

The room itself was transformed with the help of the brilliant team at Gorilla Design, who created the most magnificent deep red draping.

It completely changed the feeling of the space and gave us this rich, dramatic backdrop against which the flowers and candlelight could really come alive.

Our floral palette was unapologetically romantic.

We used red roses, deep burgundy peonies, hydrangea, anthuriums and rich textural ingredients, creating arrangements that felt abundant and luxurious while still retaining that looseness and movement that is so unmistakably Anna May.

Amongst all those rich reds, we also included Bells of Ireland as a little nod to Conor’s Irish roots.

It was a small detail within a much larger design, but those are often the details we love most.

Flowers can do so much more than simply decorate a room. They can quietly carry little pieces of a couple’s story throughout their wedding day.

Flowered Candelabras, Red Roses & Candlelight

One of our favourite elements of Rachel and Conor’s reception had to be the flowered silver candelabras.

We wanted height and drama in the room, but we didn't want anything to feel rigid or overly formal.

So rather than simply dressing the candelabras with candles, we flowered them.

Red roses, burgundy blooms and beautiful textural ingredients were worked through the silver structures, allowing the flowers to climb, tumble and move around them.

They became almost like floral sculptures within the room.

The taller designs drew your eye upwards towards that incredible red draping, while lower floral arrangements brought the colour back down onto the tables. Using different heights throughout the room allowed us to create a feeling of abundance without every table looking exactly the same.

And then came the candles.

Lots and lots of candles.

Tall red dinner candles sat amongst the flowers on the candelabras, while delicate glass candleholders and smaller candles were layered across the tables below.

As the evening drew in and the candles were lit, the combination of rich red wedding flowers, silver candelabras, deep red draping and flickering candlelight completely transformed the room.

It was bold.

It was romantic.

It was luxurious.

And it made one hell of a statement.

An Outdoor Wedding Ceremony in the Grounds of Carton House

Before the reception transformation came the ceremony.

Rachel and Conor chose to marry outside in the beautiful grounds of Carton House, surrounded by their family and friends who had gathered in Ireland to celebrate with them.

On the morning of the wedding, we made our way to the bridal suite where we met Rachel and her sister and delivered their bouquets.

Rachel’s bridal bouquet was created entirely from rich red roses.

Timeless, romantic and incredibly striking, there was something so beautiful about keeping her bouquet to one flower and allowing that saturated red colour to do all the talking.

From there, the Anna May team moved outside to begin styling the ceremony.

The grounds at Carton House are already such a beautiful backdrop for a wedding, so we didn't want the flowers to compete with their surroundings.

Instead, we used them to frame them.

Loose arrangements of rich red and burgundy flowers lined the ceremony aisle, bringing the colour palette from the wedding out into the landscape while allowing the grounds of Carton House to remain part of the design.

The Carton House team were absolutely wonderful to work alongside and couldn't have been more helpful as we brought everything together before the guests began to arrive.

And then Rachel walked down that flower-lined aisle to Conor.

Seeing a design that has existed in conversations, site visits, moodboards and proposals for months suddenly become the backdrop to someone's actual wedding ceremony will never get old.

From Ceremony Flowers to Reception

Once Rachel and Conor were married, our work wasn't finished.

In fact, round two began.

One thing we always consider when designing wedding flowers is how we can make beautiful pieces work throughout as much of the day as possible.

Once the ceremony had finished and the guests moved on to celebrate, our team carefully gathered the ceremony flowers and brought them inside.

The arrangements were then repurposed and restyled throughout the reception room, giving those flowers an entirely new moment.

It meant the floral story didn't suddenly stop at the ceremony.

The same rich colours and textures travelled with Rachel and Conor into the next part of their celebration, becoming part of the reception alongside the flowered candelabras, table arrangements and candlelight.

As we placed the final flowers and lit the candles, all those individual elements we'd been planning finally came together.

The flowers.
The candelabras.
The draping.
The candlelight.
The tables.

One complete room.

Rich, romantic, dramatic and luxurious — but most importantly, completely Rachel and Conor.

A Carton House Wedding to Remember

From Rachel and Conor’s first message arriving from across the Atlantic to standing in Carton House watching the final candles being lit, this was such a special wedding for the Anna May team to be part of.

Rachel and Conor trusted us with their vision and gave us the freedom to really design, and those are always the weddings where a little bit of magic happens.

A huge thank you to the wonderful team at Carton House, who were so helpful throughout the day, and to Gorilla Design for creating that magnificent draped setting for us to flower.

And finally, a very special image credit to Anouska Love Story, who captured the day so beautifully. From the outdoor ceremony and those quiet morning moments to the richness and atmosphere of the reception, these photographs tell Rachel and Conor’s story perfectly.

Rachel & Conor, thank you for bringing Anna May into your Irish wedding story and trusting us to create something so special for you.

For Life’s Moments...

Planning Your Wedding at Carton House?

We’d love to hear what you’re dreaming up.

From bridal bouquets and ceremony flowers to statement reception florals, installations, candle styling and complete room transformations, our bespoke wedding flowers are designed around you, your venue and how you want your day to feel.

Planning your wedding or looking for flowers in Dublin? We’d love to help. Get in touch with Anna May Floristry, your flower boutique in Rathgar Village, to discuss your wedding flowers, event styling or bespoke bouquets.