Our Wedding Story: A proposal on Brooklyn Bridge

Maeve O’Neill and Dan Pellegrinelli have known each other since they were eight

Final year medical student Maeve (28) moved with her family from Clonmel, Tipperary to the United States aged three for her father, Pat's work.

At first, the plan was to spend three years in Pennsylvania and return to Ireland but they ended up in New Jersey where Maeve grew up.

"My childhood memories really feel divided between NJ and summers in Tipperary," says Maeve, studying at Colombia University, New York.

“My dad would come for a shorter period, but my mom Sandra and my older brother and sister and I spent each entire summer holiday there.”

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She and New Jersey native Dan, a research analyst, have known each other since they were eight and were in the same class in school.

Dan's parents are Ellen Dugan and Arnold Pellegrinelli.

The pair started dating aged 17 and were together nine years when they proposed to each other on the Brooklyn Bridge.

That night they flew to Ireland and on meeting Maeve’s cousin Gerard at Dublin Airport, they asked him to officiate at their wedding.

The Millhouse in Slane was the first place they visited and booked it for August 1st, 2015.

Maeve, who had a best woman and seven bridesmaids, had planned to wear a dress made from her mother’s and the groom’s grandmother’s dress.

That didn't work out and with three weeks to go, she found her Maggie Sottero one in Cameo Bridal Wedding Dresses shop, in Kilkenny.

The couple used the WeddingMix app to crowdsource video footage which they combined with that of the videographers – the bride’s uncle John and brother-in-law, Jakawan.

The newlyweds' first dance was to a rendition by The Rattleshakes of Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper.

Instead of a full honeymoon, the newlyweds spent time with their families and friends in Ireland and three days on Inchydoney island, west Cork, before returning to their real lives in New York.

Photographs: Paula O'Hara, paulaohara.com