Aoife Duggan and Owen Duignan, from counties Mayo and Meath, met in their first year of a commerce degree at University College Dublin and got engaged during a holiday to New York last year.
The week beforehand, Owen travelled to Aoife’s family home to ask her parents’ – John and Bridie Duggan – permission.
“He really rushed into it,” laughs Aoife, an accountant with the Kerry Group in the United States, “after only 10 years of dating!”
Owen, who works in IT, finished a thesis for his master’s degree in software engineering the week of the couple’s wedding, which took place in the bride’s local church in Knockmore, on July 29th, 2016.
Music during the ceremony included an instrumental version of the song Married Life from the Pixar film, Up.
The bridesmaids were two of Aoife’s eight siblings– Attracta and Edel Duggan – and the groomsmen were Niall and Kevin Kenny, twin brothers who are Owen’s childhood friends.
His parents are Peter and Sile Duignan and as the couple live in Madison, Wisconsin, they were particularly grateful to their families – Aoife’s mother made the cake – for their help and support from home and for the opportunity to catch up with loved ones.
Another highlight of the day for the bride was, “generally just wearing my dress – I didn’t want to take it off, although the top is a separate piece so at least I can wear that again!”
At the reception in Knockranny House Hotel in Westport, Co Mayo, while the Bentley Boys took a break, Owen’s uncle and a friend played the tin whistle and the fiddle – while a cousin of the groom and his friend launched into some impromptu Irish dancing.
“Following some serious dance lessons in the US,” the couple’s first dance as newlyweds was to Billie Holiday’s The Very Thought of You.
And, “the Tayto sandwiches at the end of the night went down a treat”.
Photographer: Richard McCarthy Wedding Photography, richardmccarthy.ie
