RENEWAL OF WEDDING VOWS IS A REAL FAMILY AFFAIR!
ONE of the more unfortunate by-products of the coronavirus pandemic has been the cancellation of weddings all over the country. Thousands of brides-to-be have had to put their plans on hold while we wait for restrictions to lift, the emotional cost just as large as the financial.
But one Oylegate family have proved you don’t need lots of people or lots of money to get hitched; all you need is a determined little priest, some well-behaved guests and a home-made cake.
Elaine Moore and Gavin Casey are actually already married and will celebrate their eighth anniversary at the end of this month. However, one member of the family was eager to see them do it all over again.
‘It was my five-year-old son Brión’s idea, he was always on about how he wanted to see us getting married,’ says Elaine. ‘It was something we’d planned on doing for him at some point, and we’d all been feeling a little bit down on ourselves, so we decided to go ahead with it.’
Yet Brión didn’t want to just see his mammy and daddy wed, he wanted to take an active part in the ceremony.
‘I wore my original dress. Brión was the page boy, our daughter Annie was the flower girl. Brión walked me down the aisle and gave me away and he was also the priest,’ Elaine laughs.
Reading from his own special bible, Father Póg Mo Thóin asked, ‘mammy, do you love daddy?” To which Elaine replied, ‘I do’.
He then asked Gavin, ‘daddy, do you love mammy?’ Gavin replied, ‘I do’.
The priest then added, ‘you may kiss the bride’ and the happy scene was complete.
Cheering the couple on were a selection of Brión and Annie’s teddies, a rapt audience who maintained social distance for the duration of the service.
Afterwards the guests were treated to some of Elaine’s home-made cake and the happy couple had their first dance to Phil Collins’ ‘In the Air Tonight’ - which Elaine said was ‘ the only
CD I could find’.
Reflecting on the day, Elaine said it had lifted spirits during what has been a tough time for everyone.
‘ The kids were getting fed up at home so it cheered us all up. I remember our wedding eight years it was the most stressful thing, planning it. But this was so simple and so easy to do.
‘Brión is delighted now, it lifted his little mood, he’d been on a downer - but this is something he’ll remember forever.’