2FM presenter Lottie Ryan talks wedding days and new work opportunities
The 2FM presenter reveals all about her dream Italian wedding next month and life on the radio
Lottie Ryan got all the rubber stamps done last week in front of the registrar as the law requires. Now it’s full steam ahead for her wedding day proper to Fabio Aprile which will take place in May. This will be when Lottie gets into her white dress to say ‘I do’ at a ceremony in Italy. Even so, the 2FM presenter isn’t breaking out into a sweat about it.
When we meet, she is sitting in the RTE radio canteen, drinking a reheated cup of tea, preparing her next showbiz news bulletin - and exhibiting zero pre-wedding jitters.
‘No, nerves don’t enter it at all,’ she insists. ‘I actually have been very lucky, I think, because it’s a very, very small gathering and I think because of that the planning has been relatively easy. So I haven’t been stressed at all. I’m just excited and really looking forward to having a party with my ➤
➤ family and a couple of close friends.’
It is an exciting year for Lottie. As well as tying the knot next month she was recently promoted, leaving her weekend early breakfast show for week days.
‘Basically I’ve joined the Breakfast Republic team and I go live at 6am and I look after 6am7am and then Bernard O’Shea, Keith Walsh and Jen Zamparelli join me at 7am and then I do a bit with them in between that time. And then I also do the entertainment bulletins every hour until one o’clock.’
Lottie is busy - and so is her new husband. Fabio runs the family business, the Roma chip shop in Dublin’s Ballyfermot, and there were no arguments about where the wedding party would be.
‘He’s Italian so it had to be Italy, I think. The food alone is enough reason for me to say yes to Italy,’ grins Lottie. ‘It was fairly set in stone from the get- go.’
So, just her family, his family and a few close friends? ‘Pretty much. It’s very small.’ Any particular reason why they eschewed the big, fat Irish wedding?
‘It’s not who we are. We’re very private. I don’t really speak too much about my relationship with Fabio and in keeping with that we’re not,’ she insists. ‘ We wouldn’t be into having anything overtly extravagant. It’s just not who we are. It’s very simple, about celebrating with the people who have been with us on the journey for thirteen years. And eating as much pizza as possible!’
There has been no guest list drama, no table plan terror - nothing at all to induce a bout of bridezilla.
‘I know that some people find it really difficult, who have big, big weddings,’ she concedes. ‘I just think maybe the way I’ve chosen to do it has resulted in it being a pleasant experience - so far! So far!’ she repeats, laughing. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to be like the week before!’
Well, at least Lottie, 31, already has possibly the biggest to- do item crossed off the list: finding that perfect dress. Many brides-to-be spent hours - days, even - hoisting on endless shop-soiled samples and making uncertain grimaces at their reflections in wedding department mirrors. Not Lottie. ‘I have a dress,’ she reveals, smiling. You might imagine that Lottie, her sisters Bonnie and Babette and their mother Morah — who give every impression of being four fashionistas —trawled through every bridal boutique in town. But you’d be wrong.
‘I got it in my first shop,’ she reveals, with a hint of understandable triumph. ‘People had warned me: “Oh, it’s not normal dress shopping, don’t get stressed about it.” Because [for] a lot of people it throws them off, all the different styles, and it can be quite daunting”. I had fully prepared myself that this might be something time consuming and could take a while but thankfully it presented itself to me in the first shop, so that was awesome. My sisters and my mum were with me,’ she confirms.
Were they surprised their shopping expedition was so, well, expeditious?
‘We wouldn’t be into having anything overtly extravagant ... it’s just not who we are’
‘I think so, yeah. I don’t know how usual or unusual it is to find it in the first shop. I have heard from other people doing it as well. One of my friends said she found hers in the first shop too. So it does happen.’
It does - but a lot of women keep on looking anyway before eventually returning to that fateful first dress…
‘I was warned in the shop not to do that,’ says Lottie. ‘ They did say: “We’re not telling you what to do…” But they did warn me, saying: “It’s probably a good idea to stop looking now.” So I stopped looking.’ Was it in a style she imagined she would like? ‘It’s not what I went in for,’ she admits. ‘But apparently that’s normal as well. They reassured me that’s normal.’
Whether it is normal or not scarcely matters because Lottie is smitten with her choice. ‘I knew instantly. Instantly. I love it.’ She won’t give away any more details about The Dress. In a sly attempt to figure out if it is slinky or bouffant, I ask whether it will need its own plane to get to Italy.
‘I don’t even know how that works, actually,’ says Lottie, wondering how the dress will be stored on the flight. ‘I have to do some investigating. I’ve actually no idea. Can you take it as hand luggage? I’ll have to investigate. I’d say they’ve a procedure in place…’
What about her wedding shoes and accessories?
‘It’s pretty much all wrapped up. Which is good because now I have time to just get excited and enjoy the process and the lead up and not be bogged down with any planning.’
It doesn’t even sound like Lottie will go suitshopping with Fabio - she’s leaving his wedding attire up to him.
‘Oh, he is a very stylish guy. He knows what he likes and he’s well capable. He’ll look fantastic. Everyone likes a guy in a suit.’
Lottie will hire someone in Italy to help her look a million dollars on the day and she also has help a little closer to home.
‘I’ll have my makeup done but my sister will probably do my hair.’ Which sister? ‘Bonnie. She’s brilliant. She’s just bloody
My dad is included in every landmark occasion we have - he’s with us, full stop
➤ fantastic at hair and makeup and all that kind of stuff and I trust her. She also won’t take offence if I say: “I bloody hate it! Fix it!”’ Will her sisters be her bridesmaids? ‘I won’t say who is going to be my bridesmaid but it’s small,’ she repeats, of the ceremony.
There will be a church marriage before the reception because both the bride and groom ‘have a strong faith’. Lottie’s father was legendary RTE broadcaster Gerry Ryan, who died of a heart attack in April 2010, aged just 53. Recent newspaper reports said her actor brother Rex would walk her up the aisle instead.
‘I won’t comment on that if that’s okay,’ she says.
Of course she will be thinking of her beloved Dad so it seems trite to ask whether she has any plans to include him in the ceremony in any special way?
‘I think he’s included regardless. He’s included in every landmark occasion we have whether it’s birthdays, Christmas, any time the family holiday - he’s with us regardless. I don’t think I need to come up with some novelty way of marking that. He’s with us, full stop. He’s absolutely there.’
Her fiance and her father had the chance to get to know each other. Lottie and Fabio met way back in 2004 on a night out in former Dublin club Zanzibar.
‘ That’s not terribly romantic, is it?’ she grimaces. ‘Zanzibar - which doesn’t exist anymore. It became Bondi Beach and I drove by the other day and it’s shut down. So I don’t think there’s anything there at the moment but Zanzibar at the time was the hot spot, the cool place to go. It’s not particularly romantic but that’s my story and I like it.’
She didn’t know Fabio before that evening but there was an immediate spark between the teenagers.
‘I don’t think I would have agreed to go on a date with him if I hadn’t liked him straight away so it was definitely an instant thing.’
Now they have lived together for several years in Clontarf, just down the road from her mother and his family in Raheny. The couple were secretly engaged in 2015 - it didn’t even make the news until the following year - and Lottie shows off the elegant, diamond encrusted ring.
‘It’s just a solid circle band. I think it’s called the donut because it has no edges.’ Was it a surprise? ‘Yeah, it was a surprise when he proposed.’ Even after all these years? ‘Yeah! Because it wasn’t something… I just hadn’t planned it. It was a very welcome surprise, obviously. I think it’s nice to have it as a surprise. It’s nice for the girl to be surprised - or the guy to be surprised. Even if you’ve spoken about it a million times. For the moment it happens, to have that moment of shock is lovely and a special moment.’
She won’t give any more details, saying, ‘I’m not going to reveal anything about the proposal’.
But the wedding plans are in the final stages.
‘We’re actually in the middle of trying to pick music at the minute so that’s a fun process. That allows for a glass of wine and a bit of fun on a Saturday night. Just listening to different songs and trying to pick them.’
Like a lot of modern newlyweds, they might postpone their honeymoon until a later date.
‘We haven’t actually decided anything but I think planning the wedding is enough for a while. And it might be nice once it’s finished to have something else to look forward to and to plan, rather than trying to get it all done in the one go. We haven’t made a decision yet but I’d say it might be nice to wait and have something else to look forward to.’
As for starting a family, her big eyes widen at the very mention of it. ‘No, no, no. Not right now.’ But she’s not averse to the idea? ‘No, it’s just… I absolutely want a family. Just not right now. Right now is wedding and work and when that happens, it happens.’
Work is hugely important to Lottie who believes in being dedicated and driven.
‘Obviously you always want bigger and better. It’s natural to have ambition, I think. You have to be ambitious. I’m ambitious, I have goals and dreams. Currently I feel like I met one of them,’ she says, of her new weekday morning show.
She talks of having only recently learned to ‘stop and smell the roses a little bit’.
The wedding in May should be a good opportunity for that.
‘Absolutely. To take stock,’ she agrees. ‘It’s so important. Otherwise life is going to pass you by. And you’re going to look back on things that were so important and think: “Why didn’t I take that in and enjoy the moment when I was living it?” You don’t always get a second chance at these things. And I’m totally guilty of doing it so much which is why I want to consciously say I think it’s important to slow down sometimes and say, “Wow, look at what I have”. And not to constantly think, “What can I get? What can I get? What can I get?” Yes, do that a little bit, you have to do that. But also enjoy what’s happening, however small the accomplishment is.’
New job, new husband - and a whole new chapter for Lottie in 2017.