A Pared Back and Simple Covid Wedding

Couple: Emma Tighe and Colm Crowley
Engagement length: One year
Wedding date: 2020-08-08
Wedding location: The Honan Chapel, UCC and reception and the Maryborough Hotel
Photographer: Kevin Kiely Photography

Emma and Colm matched on Tinder! They were chatting for weeks, but Colm never asked her on a date. She was on a date with someone else and saw Colm at the pub they were in. She recognised him from his pictures and waved. Colm messaged her the next day to ask how the date was and finally asked her out!

“Colm always does magic tricks for my nieces and nephews which I am usually not too impressed with. One day he was extremely excited about a new magic trick he had to show me and the kids. He had a coin in his hand and showed it to all the kids, saying he was going to make it disappear, which he did. He then went to pull it out from behind my nephew’s ear, but instead, my nephew produced a ring box and Colm got down on one knee.”

“Our wedding was very pared back and simple. Having had to reschedule due to Covid we wanted to keep it as fuss-free as possible. That way, if it had to be rearranged again there would be minimal work involved. We fostered dogs all through lockdown and this was our theme. The tables were named after each dog we fostered and had a picture of each as the centrepiece, with our forever dog at the top table. We made a donation to the charity we fostered to in lieu of favours. Our wedding was in the Orangery in Maryborough, which needed no additional decoration. The hotel provided candelabras and centrepieces containing white roses and greenery to match the bouquets.”

Emma wore a Santa Clara wedding dress which she purchased from Cinderellas’ Closet. It was a ball gown style with a satin high neck top and full tulle skirt. She had a tulle veil with satin trim. Colm wore a blue Wenitto 3 piece suit from suit distributors in Cork.

There were 5 bridesmaids, one of whom was expecting a baby. She was 9 months pregnant at the time of the wedding, due to the original date being rescheduled, so they had to change her dress last minute. The girls wore a mix of TNFC and Maya vintage rose bridesmaid dresses from Asos. The boys wore navy suits with grey waistcoats from Suit Distributors. Their ties matched the groom instead of the bridesmaids.

“It was a very intimate and personal ceremony. We were very lucky that Colm’s uncle is a priest and he officiated the ceremony. My Aunt is a very talented singer who performed all the music for the mass. This made it extra special and was ideal considering we were working with restricted numbers. There were lots of laughs and happy tears throughout.”

Emma and Colm had their reception at Maryborough House Hotel in Douglas.

“We booked it only 8 weeks in advance. Everybody in the hotel was excellent from start to finish. We used the Orangery for the meal, which is a beautiful, intimate room with access to the gardens. Drinks on arrival were served in the garden to take advantage of the good weather. Everything was perfect. Food was beautiful, staff were brilliant and every need was catered for.”

“Kevin Kiely was our photographer and again, was rescheduled at short notice and we found him extremely accommodating. He fitted into our intimate day seamlessly and while he went mostly unnoticed he also added some much-needed direction and coordination to the day to ensure we got all the pictures we wanted from the day. There were lots of children in our wedding day and Kevin was excellent at getting and keeping their attention for the pictures. We were absolutely thrilled with our pictures and the service provided.”

“We couldn’t have a band so for the dinner, we made a podcast of all our guests’ first dance songs or the couples’ ‘special song’ which we asked to be included as part of the RSVP. It was lovely to see their faces light up as each of their songs were played. For the reception, we made a party playlist. It didn’t feel like anything was missing on the day. For favours, we made a donation to a local dog shelter whom we had fostered from throughout lockdown.”

“It is hard to pick out one individual moment but the intimacy of the whole day was brilliant. Due to the small number of attendees, everything was relaxed. We were able to spend lots of time with everyone at the wedding which gave us an opportunity to really savour the day and soak it all up.”