Swept away during such a perfect day
BRIDES and grooms have revealed the heartfelt reasons why they decided to say ‘I do’ in the midst of a pandemic in a new feelgood documentary.
The emotional RTÉ programme captures the tears and tiaras of the weddings where love won through for six couples.
Absent guests watched through Zoom from halfway across the world – or a lot closer to home due to serious illness.
The father of beautiful bride Asyha Akbar Khan is captured wiping away tears of emotion as he watches her marry Kieran O’Leary in Cork from thousands of miles away in his home in Malaysia.
Donegal couple Ciara Boyle, 28, and Brendan Patterson, 32, originally planned a big white wedding for 200 people for this June, but they moved it forward because of her grandfather’s illness.
Ciara and Brendan live with their three children Shay, eight, Fiachra, three, and Faolán, seven months, at their Roscommon home.
Ciara’s grandad, Packie, was diagnosed with terminal cancer last July.
She said: ‘With my grandad being sick we brought our wedding forward. To be honest we were scratching our heads as to how we were going to do it and if it was feasible to have a wedding that quick. We actually entered a wedding competition.’
The couple won the competition to have their ceremony at the Cliffs of Moher but about a week before the wedding, her grandfather became too ill to attend the ceremony.
Insisting the wedding go ahead, he dressed in a suit and gave the couple his blessing via Zoom while watching the ceremony.
And bride and bride Dani Wrafter, 35, and Jo Murphy, 33, shed tears of joy as they became wife and wife in a ceremony in Dublin’s City Hall in November, watched by Dani’s two children.
For the couple, Dani’s Lupus condition was the reason why they didn’t want to postpone saying ‘I do’.
The pair had hooked up on the dating app Bumble.
‘Within two weeks of meeting each other we just knew and we decided that “yeah”, we’re going to get married,’ said Jo, n My Little Big Day will be shown on RTÉ One tomorrow at 9.35pm