How I met my partner: Movie making couple script the perfect meet-cute and love story

A love-story fit for the big screen is what film programmer Holly Buckley and filmmaker Mikey Whelan live up to every day.

Holly, 27, who hails from Togher, first met Mikey, 27, who hails from Tallaght, four years ago, while studying a Masters Degree in Galway.

“We were both doing a Masters in film in 2021 when we met,” said Mikey.

“I was coming out of one of my classes and Holly walked into the back of me.

“We had a laugh about it, and I think the next day I asked her out.”

Remembering the day, Holly said: “It was very immediate. I thought he just wanted to hang out with me as friends and talk about films.”

While their meet-cute was one for the ages, Holly detailed how their first date could be lifted straight from your typical rom-com as a series of unfortunate events, paired with a little bit of nerves, provided for “a first date nightmare”.

“It was actually Mikey’s birthday when we went on our first date,” said Holly.

“It was a bit of a disaster — a bird s**t on me, and then my phone died, so we couldn’t go anywhere. It was covid times and you had to show your certs to get in places, so I made an absolute fool of myself, and I didn’t really know it was a date at first either.”

Things quickly turned around for the couple, as the following day they experienced their first kiss whilst out with friends.

“The college group got together for my birthday the next day at the Pálás Cinema where I worked,” said Mikey.

“Holly asked me if the night before had been a date, and I remember saying ‘I hope it was’, and we kissed.

“Five days later we were boyfriend and girlfriend — I just felt so comfortable with her.”

Six months into dating, the couple decided to move into an apartment together in Galway city, where they reside to this day.

“It’s been great — our apartment was a bit of shell when we moved in but now it’s got Holly and Mikey all over it,” said Mikey.

Holly said: “We have our lovely rituals here. We collect Blu-Rays of films that we love, so every Tuesday we sit and watch them together and make a night of it — we call it ‘Blus-day’.

“We’re always very busy with work, so we try to make a point of doing something in the house.”

Fast forward to 2023, Mikey decided that Holly was the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, having known “since day one” that he wanted to propose.

“I had it in my head that Holly was perfect — the conversation just flows, I’ve always been in awe of her,” said Mikey.

“That August we went to Florence together. There’s a jewellers there that’ll make jewellery for you in front of you — so that was my plan, to ask Holly to marry me while we were in Italy, and then we could go into that shop and get the ring made.

“What I didn’t know was that this shop actually closes for the month of August, for the owner’s family holidays, so I was in a foul humour that day.”

While Mikey had this special proposal planned, this unsuspecting development threw a spanner in the works, ultimately pulling him back to the drawing board.

Having returned from Italy ‘sans engagement’, Mikey shared his plan to propose with Holly’s sister, who vetted his back-up plan to pop the question on the Aran Islands, and also helped to pick a ring.

“I proposed on Inis Mór that September — but Holly actually kind of knew, I thought I was being sly, but I wasn’t,” said Mikey.

“It was around our anniversary, so I said let’s mark it by going to the Aran Islands, and I remember Holly asked if I was going to propose, so me, her sister, and her family all had to gaslight her into thinking I wasn’t going to.”

Holly said: “I had a feeling because he was acting off. For a few weeks beforehand, we were looking at different locations of jewellery shops because Mikey said he wanted to shoot a film there, but he was actually trying to see what rings I liked.”

Recalling the special moment, Mikey said: “When we got there, we walked up to a place called the Black Fort – it’s on a cliff, it’s a beautiful spot that looks out on to the horizon.

“I was trying to find a nice moment, because there were other people around, so I was kind of dragging her from place to place, and at one point I just pulled the ring out of my pocket and asked her to marry me.

“I didn’t actually go down on one knee, because we were close to the edge, but we did sit down after and I put the ring on her finger then.”

Holly said: “He gaslit me so well that it was such a shock — it was such a good moment.

“I felt like we were the only two people who existed, it was so magical; I felt so warm and fuzzy. It was the perfect place too, because we went to Inis Mór together a bit, so it was better than proposing to me in Florence.”

Staying on script, the pair are planning to get married on the Aran Islands in May of 2026, surrounded by some of their closest friends and family members.

“It’s going to be a small wedding; we go to the Aran Islands quite a lot so that’s why we’re going to do it on Inisheer,” said Holly.

“We’re actually going to get married on the beach, weather permitting, and my cousin Ken is going to play some music during the ceremony.”

Mikey said: “Holly’s first nephew was also born this year, so he’ll be at the wedding as well, which is special.”

Following the wedding, the pair are thinking of honeymooning in Mexico, after the discovery that Holly has some Mexican lineage.

“I found out recently that I’m actually 20% Mexican, so we’re thinking it’d be nice to go there for our honeymoon,” said Holly.

“We haven’t really planned that far ahead yet though, we work mostly in the summer, so we’ll probably spend some time on the islands after our wedding and then go on a honeymoon later.”

As the couple prepares for forever together, they did share a dream which one day they hope to realise.

“After we get married, we want to stay in Galway, get a house, and one day, we want to open a cinema together,” said Holly.

Mikey said: “Film is our whole world, and the cinema where I used to work, which was a big part of our life, closed down. We were there every day; it was the centre of our community of people, so we’d love to open our own one and bring that community together again.”