I’ve never been with a guy who’d wear a dress for me before

Ciara O’donnell had always fancied getting married in a suit and she certainly wasn’t going to walk down the aisle.

So she and fiancé Bobby Cook – whose romance blossomed despite an awkward first meeting – decided to swap roles.

Ciara donned a tux alongside her three bridesmaids, while strapping 6ft 4in Bobby put on a £45 frock and tiara and got his two groomsmen to wear dresses, too.

Bobby said: “We always joked Ciara wears the trousers in the relationship, so it made sense for her to wear them at the wedding.

“Ciara said she wouldn’t be walking down the aisle for me, so I walked down the aisle for her. So we decided to do everything backwards. I took her family name. It was so relaxed and everyone had a great laugh. There were a few gobsmacked faces.”

Ciara said the idea kicked off when they visited the wedding venue and she joked that he should walk down the aisle instead of her.

“We decided it would be so funny. Me and Bobby can be a bit wacky and we thought if we did it, it would really break the ice and give everyone good form at the start of the day. “We wrote the ceremony as well.” They kept their plans a secret from nearly all the guests until the big day.

The bridesmaids knew they would be wearing tuxedos, but the groomsmen had no idea they’d be in frocks.

Bobby, 35, said: “I wouldn’t let them try the outfits on before in case they backed out, but on the day, they loved it. They cried tears of bemusement when they saw the dresses.

“We were all in hysterics. I was a size 18 and they were all 14s.

“Ciara and the girls had no problem buying their tuxes, but we had a lot of trouble.

“A lot of places didn’t want me to try stuff on. The bridal places we tried were reluctant, so I ended up buying online.”

Ciara, 35, added: “The bridesmaids were fine with the suits – girls can look really good in suits.

“But my brother was one of Bobby’s groomsmen and he kept texting me, ‘when are we getting our suits?’. I had to say, ‘ you aren’t getting one’.

“Because they are all hairy and tattooed, it was funnier.”

Bobby, an HR executive from Swansea, South Wales, even persuaded his dad Linton to walk him down the aisle.

“When I told my dad what we were doing he shook his head, looked at the ground and said, ‘What are you like?’

“He didn’t give me a pep talk – just said, ‘let’s get this done’.

Bobby admitted he was a bag of nerves before his appearance in front of their 70 guests in Belfast last month.

“When the door opened, everyone there erupted in applause and laughter. It really carried me down the aisle,” he said.

The couple wrote most of their own vows – and exchanged balls and chains, as well as rings.

Bobby said: “Although the service was quite funny and shocking – we weren’t doing it to make a mockery of marriage.

“It was a big thing for both of us, all the words in the service were so personal.”

The couple hooked up three years ago – despite a cringe-making first meeting.

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