Caitlin O’Reilly, a director of program management at Sephora, and John Stanley, director of digital communications at First Republic Bank, were introduced by their mutual friend while living in New York. Caitlin later found out that John grew up in San Francisco with her best friend from college, Julian Labagh, who ended up officiating their wedding. After dating for three years, John proposed on Christmas morning, while they were visiting her parents’ winter home in Tulum.
Even though Caitlin grew up in Maine, her father was from Ireland, so she’d spent her childhood summers visiting family in County Kildare, near Dublin. And since their guests were coming from all over the world, the couple decided that Ireland would be a good meeting point for their wedding.
The bride and her mother visited Kilkea Castle, where her uncle had gotten married many years before, and it had recently been renovated, so it was the perfect place to host their 150 attendees. To help plan and style everything, they hired Martina O’Riordan, who sourced many of their vendors and executed all of Caitlin and John’s requests, even with an eight-hour time difference.
The rehearsal dinner was held down the road from the castle at Burtown House & Gardens, which farms and sources its food sustainably. The bride wore a Brock Collection dress, Les Couronnes de Victoire preserved flower earrings, and Chanel wedges and adorably toted their toy poodle, Sully, around. “We wanted this evening to be welcoming and comfortable,” Caitlin explains. “We hired a local trad band—traditional Irish music—that had everyone dancing throughout the barn.”
At Jin Wang, Caitlin chose a simple, off-the-shoulder Lela Rose gown and a cathedral veil. Her bridesmaids complemented her well in blue Dannijo slip dresses, and to dance later on in the night, she changed into a mini Retrofete dress and Loeffler Randall heels.
“Working at Sephora, I have access to so much beauty, but I am fairly minimal with makeup in my day to day life,” the bride explains. “I became a bit obsessive about skincare leading up to the wedding and consider Tegan at International Orange in San Francisco my skin guardian angel.”
In the gardens of the castle, the bride walked down the aisle with her mother and step-father to “Fields of Gold,” played live by a harpist from Dublin. Caitlin’s cousin later accompanied the harp for a rendition of the traditional Irish song, “My Lagan Love.” The sky remained clear for most of the ceremony, and it only ended up sprinkling a little toward the end of the ceremony. Once announced as a married couple, everyone headed to the castle’s bar for the cocktail hour.
Then in Baronial Hall, people found hand-drawn botanical prints with personal notes at their seats and were served a delicious four-course dinner. “Mid-way through, one of John’s groomsmen instructed us to run outside, as a rainbow was above the castle,” the bride says. “It felt very fitting.” Once inside again, and after toasts were given, the couple opted to skip cake and instead created an Irish coffee bar—ideal for keeping a dance floor packed for a few hours.
The Bentley Boys played “Into the Mystic” for the newlyweds’ first dance, and once the reception ended, most of the younger crowd stayed up in the castle bar until the early hours of the morning. Directly after the wedding, the just married couple headed to Menorca to decompress on the beach for a few days before heading back to San Francisco.
