Wedding of the Week: Holiday romance led to Cork marriage

Sat, 12 Aug, 2023 - 15:01

Elaine Duggan

WHAT began as a holiday romance blossomed into so much more and led to the wedding of Christine Walsh and Nathan Tunaley.

Christine from Hollyhill and Nathan from Nottingham met in Benidorm, back in September 2018. They are now living in Hollyhill, where they bought Christine’s family home.

The couple feature in this week's Wedding of the Week feature.

Christine recalled: “We instantly clicked and seemed like we’d known each other years, there was no awkwardness or silent moments.

Nathan being from Nottingham we assumed it was just a holiday romance. But no, we text as we returned from holidays and spoke / text every day - wasn’t long before we were flying back and forth to visit each other.

Christine said when the couple first met, they ‘instantly clicked and seemed like we’d known each other years, there was no awkwardness or silent moments’.

Nathan moved to Cork in January 2020.

“All was great until Covid hit and Nathan couldn’t travel home for a number of months, this was hard for him but definitely made us stronger as a couple, we survived lockdowns,” said Christine.

She fell pregnant in October 2021 and Nathan proposed in January 2022. His initial plan was to propose at Christmas 2021 but went shopping Christmas Eve for the ring in Nottingham with his daughter Lacey and nowhere had rings in Christine’s size so it had to be ordered. His parents shipped the ring over and he proposed in January on a night away in Limerick.

Christine Walsh, from Hollyhill, with daughter Clara, who turned one recently.

Christine continued: “My due date was 19 June, Nathan’s birthday, that didn’t happen so I thought maybe 24th June baby would arrive - middle of both our birthdays but no baby had her own plan and arrived a day after my birthday - 30 June 2022, we welcomed our daughter Clara, 11 days late.”

Christine and Nathan held their two-day wedding celebration at the Cork International Hotel. They were married on June 17, followed by a barbecue the following day.

The month of June really is a special one for the couple, so on June 17 2023, they married surrounded by family and friends in Cork International Airport Hotel.

“The day was fantastic,” the bride said.

From the day we viewed the venue we knew it was right for us.

Day two, they also had a BBQ at Cork International which was Father’s Day but also a celebration for Nathan as he was turning the big 40 on Monday June 19. The following day they flew off to Lanzarote for a week with Clara.

“It was an amazing first family holiday and couldn’t have gone without Clara. We returned a week later to celebrate my birthday on June 29 and Clara’s 1st birthday June 30.”

The couple met on holidays in Benidorm but had a long distance relationship for a while before Nathan moved to Cork.

Best men were Nathan’s friends from Nottingham, Phil and Warren. Bridesmaids were Leah (Christine’s niece) and Lacey (Nathan’s daughter). Page boys were Christine’s nephews Eoghan, Teddy and Thomas. Flower girls were Christine’s nieces Mary-Kate, Kiera, Clíona and the couple’s daughter Clara.

Wedding of the Week: Cork couple's dream day came true