Wedding of the Week; Cork couple who met on Tinder enjoy magical DIY wedding day

Sat, 09 Mar, 2024 - 06:00

A COUPLE who met on Tinder, bought their first home, and went through two college graduations and multiple DIY projects together, have tied the knot.

Michelle O’Connell, from Inch, County Kerry, and Stephen O’Sullivan, from Grange, Cork, were married on October 6.

The couple had their wedding celebration in The River Lee Hotel, presided over by Michelle’s aunt, Lilian Smith of Rising Time on RTÉ.

Michelle said: “We had a firm idea in mind for what we wanted for our wedding. We wanted retro, disco, Studio 54 with reds and pinks and just fun and laughter.

We struggled to find a lot of what we envisaged. So we thought, screw it, we’ll do it ourselves.

This involved making their own seating chart, Stephen building and programming a working audio guest book, tying mini disco balls to homemade place settings, designing, commissioning parts, and building an LED sign and backdrop.

Maid of Honour was Aoife Foley, bridesmaids were Aisling O’Callaghan, Allie Matthews, Sinéad O Connell. Best man was Paul O’Keeffe, groomsmen Brendan O’Brien, Kevin O’Leary, and Donal O’Connell (ring bearer).

The couple had their ceremony and reception in The River Lee Hotel.

Taylor Swift featured heavily in the wedding day. Michelle said: “Our table names were Taylor albums, which we made by printing and cutting vinyl and attaching to vinyls we found in my grandad’s house.

“We had our first dance to Lover as the line “ I loved you three summers now honey, but I want them all” mirrors our journey together.”

The bride got her dress in Memories Bridal, hair was by Shane Connolly Bridal @REVO hair and beauty, make-up was by Rebecca O’Donovan.

They also paid tribute to their rocker/goth teen years as the bride walked down the aisle to Black Parade performed on tin whistle by her brother’s girlfriend Róisín McCloskey (an accomplished traditional musician) and Stephen’s brother Martin read an extract from Metallica’s Nothing Else matters.

Michelle said: “Until the big day we had about 165 disco balls of varying sizes clogging up our spare room.”

Michelle said: “We did a quick dip to the civil registration office the day before and did the legal in less than four minutes.

On the day, we were ‘married’ by my aunt Lilian. Lillian has been a radio DJ for years (presenting Rising Time on RTÉ Radio One) so was perfect at it.

They had speeches before dinner, during which Stephen did a monologue about a GAA and soccer household coming together. They then gifted the groom’s dad a local GAA jersey from Annascaul (Michelle’s local team) and the brides’s dad a Manchester City jersey.

The bride’s grandfather, Dermot Smith, who was very dear to her, was remembered by lighting a candle, with a funny sign.

Their retro themed cake was by Ramune @ Mscupcakecork, washed down with pink prosecco and two signature cocktails, the Taurus (her star sign) and the Libra (his sign).