A case of all white on the day as four weddings go ahead despite weather

THE Billy Idol lyrics, ‘nice day for a white wedding’ rang true for several couples in West Cork last weekend. 

Storm Emma might have threatened to jeopardise their nuptials, but local hotels and others pulled out all the stops to make sure they said ‘I do’ against all the odds. 

Limerick couple David Ryan and Sarah Birrane got married a day earlier than planned in Rathbarry, with just their parents in attendance.

‘Our priest Fr Michael O’Shea suggested to us on Thursday morning that it would be wiser to get married that day,’ David told The Southern Star.

‘We pretty much went as we were and Sarah didn’t even have her wedding dress on and it was probably the best decision we made.’

David said they couldn’t praise wedding and events manager Marie Dooley of the Celtic Ross Hotel highly enough ‘as she fixed everything for us.’

The happy couple held their reception in the hotel on Friday where Sarah got to wear her wedding dress in the end, complete with pink wellies for the day that was in it.

Meanwhile, Claire Ryan and Barry Buckley who were due to get married at Fernhill House Hotel in Clonakilty last Friday ended up moving the wedding to Sunday due to the weather.

‘We were getting worried. We rang the hotel on Thursday morning to see if we could move it to either Saturday or Sunday and they got back to us straight away to say they could do Sunday,’ said Claire.

‘Our registrar, Rena Noonan, who is based in Kanturk  said she would drive down on Sunday which was another thing off our mind.’

Claire and Barry then spent all Thursday morning contacting their guests about the new arrangements.

‘I couldn’t believe we had no problem with any of the changes and it worked out better, too, as both my brother Kevin and Barry’s sister Michelle got to attend our wedding. Only for Fernhill House Hotel and our registrar we wouldn’t have been able to do it,’ added Claire.

Skibbereen bride Lizz Ryan (nee Hudd) and her husband William Ryan from Leap also feared the weather would disrupt their wedding last Saturday.

‘It was getting very stressful by Friday as a lot of our guests were cancelling and I had lots of family members from the UK who couldn’t make it. 

‘But we were determined to go ahead,’ said Liz.

‘We have to thank Council staff who came on Saturday and gritted our estate in Skibbereen and cleared the church yard in Leap to enable us to get there.’

Liz also praised Brian and Liz Sheehan of Studio Plus videographers who got up at 4am on Saturday morning in Cork city to ensure they could get to Leap for her wedding.

‘Despite losing about 80 guests it worked out in the end and we had a brilliant day.’

Meanwhile in Dublin, Glenn Cooper from Enniskeane wasn’t going to give up on ensuring he got to marry his Brazilian fiancée Ione Porto in Monkstown parish church last Friday. 

And following a call-out on national radio, Ione made it to the church on time, thanks to local gardaí who brought her to the church in a patrol car.

‘It was such a crazy day but she was delighted to get there and it just seemed to be the story of the day. We were never going to cancel it as the day coincided with our three-year anniversary and we were determined to get there,’ said Glenn.

Glenn’s parents Philip and Lorna managed to make the wedding, but a lot of their guests were unable to attend.

The ‘Marty Party’ also descended at their reception later at the Raddison Blu St Helen’s Hotel when RTÉ broadcaster Marty Morrissey did a live link from there for The Late Late Show and the former Dancing with the Stars contestant even managed a few dance steps in the process.