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Australian Alexandra (29), a teacher and personal trainer, met music producer “Lance” (36) at the age of 18 while visiting her cousin Mark Wilkinson – who had recently married Lance’s mother Olive – at Tyrrelstown House in Dublin. Alexandra’s grandfather Michael Dickson had proposed to her grandmother, Jennifer at the front gates of the house in 1950.
The couple’s first date was to a Powderfinger concert on May 13th, 2004 and when Alexandra returned home to start university in 2005, “he followed me over for a holiday and convinced me I couldn’t live without him”.
On May 4th, 2014, while visiting the Dickson family, Lance proposed on the tropical Great Keppel Island off the coast of Alexandra’s hometown of Rockhampton.
They were married on June 20th, 2015 at St Peter’s Church in Dunboyne, where Lance grew up and for which family friend Heather Bielenberg arranged the flowers.
On the way to the reception at Tyrrelstown – in a 1928 Model A Ford driven by Lance's uncle Robert Smith – the newlyweds planted a rare lime tree, Tilia henryana, in the parklands of the house.
The bride designed her own dress (crocheted by Caroline Mitchell) and those of her bridesmaids, sisters Rachel Sullivan and Harriet Hansler, and Lance’s sister Jessica Bielenberg.
The best man was Simon Rudd and groomsmen were friend, Barry Powell and brother in-law, Richard Bielenberg. Alexandra’s brother John Dickson and Lance’s cousin Christian Greene were ushers, the page-boy was Lance’s nephew Nicholas and the flower-girl was Alexandra’s niece Evie.
The 130 guests – some having flown from Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, the UK, Greece and Germany – joined the couple for a three-course meal using vegetables from the gardens of the house. Broghna Wilkinson did the bouquets and flower arrangements for the tables and was “the go-to woman on the day”, said the bride.
The jazz band Bunk, played during the garden champagne reception and Cult Called Man played after the meal and into the night.
The couple's first dance was to Dancing in the Moonlight. A highlight for Alexandra was when her new husband performed Message in a Bottle, Johnny B Goode, and Folsom Prison Blues.
The newlyweds had a short honeymoon with their Australian family in Ballyconneely, Connemara then returned to live in the cottage they built in the grounds of Tyrrelstown where Lance runs Camelot Studios.
The couple plan to start marketing Tyrrelstown House as a wedding venue in the future.
Photographs: Katya Koliban Photography, katyakoliban.com
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