Wedding of the Week: Cork couple decide to elope after two cancellations

AFTER ten years together and two wedding cancellations due to Covid, it was third time lucky for this Cork couple, who decided to elope.

Heather O’Donoghue and Jamie Hodnett enjoyed a fairytale wedding day in Portugal, in the most beautiful little church up a hill by the sea. They feature in our Wedding of the Week.

“Just the two of us, the most romantic day we could have ever hoped for,” the bride said.

Heather is from Youghal and works in finance and Jamie, an engineer, is from Ballymacoda. They live in Glanmire.

The couple met when they were in 5th year in secondary school, but didn’t get together until they both went to the same college in Cork.

They got engaged in May, 2018, in Rome.

The wedding took place in 2021 in Cacela Velha in Portugal.

“Our wedding planner, Michael Hegarty, had told us about the church and we fell in love with it instantly when we went to see it,” Heather said.

They were supposed to have 120 people at the same church and venue in June, 2020, and again in June, 2021. However, with Covid, that didn’t happen.

Heather said: “We fell in love with that church and that area of Portugal, we still wanted to get married there, we didn’t want to put it off any longer and felt like our lives were on hold, we didn’t want to put anyone under pressure to travel so we decided to just have the two of us - and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Band The Originals Algarve played at the ceremony and among the songs they played were Just The Two Of Us by Bill Withers and Waiting On The World To Change by John Mayer, which both were pretty fitting.

The bride got her dress from Memories in Cork, along with her cathedral length veil. Shoes were Jimmy Choo. Jamie’s suit and bow tie were from Gentleman’s Quarters in Cork.

The bride’s make-up was by Susana Aleixo and hair was by Joanna Reis.

Heather said after the ceremony they enjoyed a romantic dinner together at Infante Panaramico, overlooking praia verde beach - and the food and service were both amazing!

As to what was the most memorable thing about the day?

Heather said: “How relaxed and happy we both were. We had rented a white BMW convertible for our trip, and leaving the church, in that car, with the top down and the sun shining and Jamie driving was the happiest I have ever been.”

The photographers were Maria and Sandy Wedding Photography. Videographer was Orlando Horta.