Our Wedding Story: Met in Dublin, engaged in Miami, wed in France

Declan O’Neill and Gráinne King

Declan, an accountant from Kilkenny, met Gráinne, a solicitor from Athlone, through friends who lived in the same apartment complex in Dublin in 2009.

“Dec likes to say I only called around with my friends as I had my eye on him,” recalls Gráinne with a laugh.

“In my version of events – the true one of course – he feigned an interest in Florence and The Machine to tag along on a group weekend away to a gig in the Ulster Hall in order to make his move.”

After a hiatus of a year or so when Declan went away travelling – “I kept a close eye on things back home” – the couple got back together and moved to the Cayman Islands in 2015, where they currently live.

Shortly after arriving there, Declan planned to whisk Gráinne away to Miami, where he was going to propose.

“My (not so) best-laid plans were scuppered when we missed our flight. We managed to get on another later that day but my planned beach proposal turned into a rushed room proposal and the kitchen was closed when we finally turned up for our romantic celebratory meal.”

“She said ‘yes’, though, so I’m marking the weekend down as a success!”

Gascony

After coming across countryweddingsinfrance.com, a wedding planning business run by Patricia O’Reilly, Declan and Gráinne visited several venues in Gascony, where they found Chateau de Malliac, outside the village of Montréal du Gers.

“We thought the Cayman-Ireland-France wedding planning logistics would be a bit of a nightmare, but Patricia, who has the patience of a saint, couldn’t have been more helpful throughout the whole process. We couldn’t sing her praises highly enough.”

Strict residency requirements apply before you can be married in France, so in order to have the French church wedding they wanted, Gráinne and Declan had a small civil ceremony in Ireland with just their parents – Paddy and Mary O’Neill and Ray and Helen King – as witnesses.

Then, on July 30th, 2016, they were married in a church ceremony by Gráinne’s uncle Fr Ciarán Kitching in the village with celebrations afterwards at the chateau.

Their first dance was to Absolute Beginners by David Bowie, after which the band Brightlights took to the stage.

“The weekend absolutely flew by. Neither of us can really pick a favourite part; living so far from home, what we probably loved most was having so many of our friends and family enjoying themselves together in the one place. We were blown away by the number of people who made the trip and their goodwill and humour over what was an unforgettable weekend for us.”

Photographer/videographer: Matthew and Mischke Weinreb, The Passionate Lens. www.facebook.com/thepassionatelens