Carla Byrne and Darren Gunning Darren, from Mullingar, a mature student of computer science at NUI Maynooth and Carla, from Celbridge, Co Kildare, met playing poker, in 2007.
Their eldest son Zach (3) was 1½ years old when they got engaged; Dexter was born a year ago. On August 21st, 2015, Carla and Darren were joined by 40 family and friends and married at the registry office on Grand Canal Street, in Dublin.
The bride travelled from home in a vintage VW campervan with her parents, Labour councillor Kevin Byrne and Patricia Byrne, bridesmaids (sisters Lesley-Anne Uzice and Louisa Kelly) and flower girl, Zoey Uzice (3).
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“This was really special as for most weddings the mum of the bride doesn’t get to travel with the wedding party,” said Carla whose favourite colour, yellow, appeared in different manifestations throughout the day.
The bridesmaids wore yellow dresses and carried yellow gerbia daisy bouquets; the daisy wedding cake was made by Jenny of Craic and Cakes; and the newlyweds' first dance – "and by that I mean our very first dance: Darren hates dancing so we'd never danced together in eight years" – was to Coldplay's Yellow.
“Zach saved us by bopping along with us just as we were thinking, Why did we pick a slow four-minute song,” says the bride, laughing.
Darren's parents, Micheal Gunning and Jan Gunning, were there with his grandmother, Bridie Farrell.
On the way to dinner at the Michaelangelo restaurant in Celbridge, the newlyweds stopped at Libby Sheehy’s Springfield Guesthouse, a Georgian manor house outside the town, for champagne hosted by the owner and photos with her Great Dane.
The bride's aunt and godmother Elizabeth Mooney, a seamstress, personalised her dress with a sparkly belt; and nephew Alex Uzice (12) did the movie artwork for the table names. The groom's cousin Niamh Mulligan, a jeweller based in Moate, made the bride's wedding ring.
Photographs: Lorna Tracey
