Wedding of the Week: Cork couple wed on their 10th anniversary together

A COUPLE were married this summer on the exact day that they first got together, 10 years ago.

Kelly Sexton and Darren McCarthy live in Cobh, where Kelly is from, while the groom hails from Killeagh.

They feature as our Wedding of the Week couple.

Recalling how they met, Kelly said: “I literally fell for Darren. We were on a night out separately with our group of friends in the nightclub that used to be attached to the Commodore Hotel (Club C) when I took a slight fall and Darren was the only gentleman to help me up.

“Mortified, I ran away saying ‘thanks’ but thought nothing more of it until I was leaving the club and Darren was there again, this is when we got chatting and here we are 10 years later, married.”

Darren proposed at home, during Covid, on New Year’s Eve.

They were married on Friday, August 18, in Cobh Cathedral by Fr Tom McDermott on their 10th anniversary together.

The bride had two dresses, her ceremony dress was bought in the Moderne, with alterations by Maya O’Brien. Her party dress for the reception celebrations was designed by Ernest Perryman Designs. Her shoes were from The Rainbow Club. Bridesmaid dresses were from The Princess Rooms, Cobh, while all the men’s suits were bought in Suits Distributors.

Parents Karen and David Doyle, and Ber and Tim McCarthy, were present, along with both grandmothers, Nóirín Doyle and Betty O’Connell, and the bride and groom’s siblings, Eoghan and Ciara Doyle, and Neil and Graham McCarthy, along with extended family and friends.

The reception was held in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Little Island, and the couple were full of praise for the venue.

Granny Nóirín Doyle did the flower arrangements in the Cathedral and the bouquets. Claire, from Crafting Cork, did wedding stationery/craft pieces. The wedding cake was by Ellen’s Kitchen. Brian from Arclight Weddings captured their day. To Have and to Hold decorated the church.

The Boogie Band kept the dance floor rocking. Their first dance was to The One by Kodaline. Kelly recalled: “Kodaline was the first concert we went to when we met and the last concert we went to before being married.”

Stand-out moments of the day included her best friend singing her down the isle, the last walk with her dad before becoming a wife, and a quiet moment she and Darren grabbed together in the reception room, where they had a small dance together without anyone else knowing. 

“We really got to soak up that moment.”