Lucy Deevy and Ciaran O’Hare were married in Tuscany, Italy
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
We met on a dating app a few years ago in Dublin! The first half of our date was a bit of a disaster, we were not clicking, and we both thought it was going terribly. But we ended up dancing in McGowan’s pub by the second half. We had such a laugh together and now think it is hilarious how much we didn’t get on at the beginning of the date. We’ve been together since 2018, which doesn’t seem very long considering we are now married and have a two year old son, but as they say, ‘when you know, you know,’ and we honestly really did feel that when we met. We were both in our late twenties, had been in previous relationships and knew what we wanted in life and from a partner, so we said why wait when we felt it was right. Our son Jacob came in June 2020, and he has been the light of our lives ever since. He is the most cheeky, happy little man. It is hard for us to remember our lives before him now.
PLANNING
We could not have planned our wedding without Maria from Ionian weddings, who were the destination wedding company based in the UK through which we booked. Maria guided us through everything we needed to do in the lead up to the wedding and anything we wanted, we just asked Maria, and she chatted with the local team and venue in Italy. We basically just needed to give a yes or no to most things. Even when it came to sourcing a wedding nanny to help look after Jacob throughout the two days, Maria came back to us with several options we could organise (Angela, our nanny, was perfect). In hindsight, managing the wedding without a wedding planner would have been very difficult with us not being from Italy and knowing the laws around marriage ceremonies, paperwork requirements, and local suppliers. Maria made everything run smoothly.
THE VENUE
We were both sure that we wanted to get married outside of Ireland. I am not sure why exactly, but for myself, I could never see myself getting married in a traditional Irish church setting. Neither of us is religious, and going down that route didn’t feel right, so we knew we wanted a non-religious wedding outside of Ireland. Neither of us had ever been to Italy. However, we both wanted to visit there. In my mind, Italy was very romantic and rustic and fit with my ideas and views of our wedding. Ciaran admittedly loves Italian food, which was the main driver for him! We briefly looked online at different countries and venues, but when we came across San Galgano Abbey online, we were blown away! It was very rural, set in the Tuscan countryside with vast open fields. The Farmhouse was just 100 metres from the Abbey, split into two buildings of apartments, function rooms, and a café/restaurant. There was also a stunning natural pool on the grounds.
FAVOURITE MOMENT
Looking back, our favourite moment of the day was at the dinner, with everyone standing up at their seats, swinging their napkins in the air and belting out Oasis’ Wonderwall to Daniela on the Violin. It was also the song that we exited the Abbey with our bridal party after the ceremony and will now always be the song that sticks with us when we think back to our wedding and the amazing time we had.
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