If it had been a real wedding, local hotels might have been reluctant to hire out rooms for the reception. Just in case the Letterkenny branch of the family decided to turn up, writes Miriam Lord
There was every likelihood they might have caused a disturbance at the afters when these political cousins finally married.
The wooing went on for quite a while between Fianna Fáil and Niall Blaney.
On the surface, it seems a strange match. Baby Blaney - a quiet sort of chap - with little to bring to the arrangement, save an existing Dáil seat and a long history of internecine baggage.
Fianna Fáil, on the other hand, already enjoying Niall's unswerving support without having to commit to an official relationship.
It's called having your electoral cake and eating it. In the darkness of a Dáil vote, the Donegal outsider's shoes could always be found under the Fianna Fáil bed.
Was yesterday's joining together of the two an example of Fianna Fáil doing the decent thing? With an election looming, hardly. But for some as yet unfathomable reason, Taoiseach Ahern set his cap at Independent Fianna Fáil deputy Niall and was determined to get him.
No point in going back to the 1970s, when the split occurred between the Blaney camp and the Soldiers of Destiny.
Better to focus on yesterday's touching reconciliation in Leinster House when Niall marched happily up the aisle and into the arms of the Fianna Fáil family.
There was "sustained applause," reported one moist-eyed backbencher, when Bertie and Baby Blaney plighted their troth during the coffee break at the parliamentary party meeting.
However, dark rumblings were afoot back in Donegal. Baby B, it appears, while technically from the Letterkenny area, is not all he seems.
He hails from Fanad, which is a good 20 miles from Letterkenny, which is not the same thing at all.
Cue dire warnings from Fianna Fáil stalwarts in the town about running an Independent candidate in the forthcoming election should Bertie decide to take the hand of the baby blow-in.
For years, Niall - and his father Harry before him, and his uncle Neil before that - was the only Independent in the village. Now that he has gone mainstream, there is a gap in the market.
Mind you, Fine Gael has already spotted this, and next year an independent Blueshirt will be on the ballot sheet along with the official one.
So Baby B returning to the fold may not spell the end of Independent Fianna Fáil in Donegal North East.
Doubtless, Bertie will do his oil-on-troubled-waters routine and try to soothe those ruffled constituency feathers.(Sending Noel Dempsey to start the process the other night may not have been the best way to start.)
But while the electorate returned one Independent and two official Fianna Fáil in the last election, it is highly unlikely that they will gift the party a royal flush with three straight Fianna Fáil seats next time out.
What is Bertie, the master strategist, up to?
It was the talk of Leinster House yesterday afternoon, as word began to filter through that young Niall had accepted the Taoiseach's proposal and was throwing in his lot with the party his uncle left all those years ago.
But there was little talk of past upheavals in the Dáil bar when the Blaney clan arrived in numbers to mark the family's return to the fold.
A contingent of more than 20 friends and family members arrived in high spirits, recalling those celebrations usually seen when a newly-elected deputy arrives in the House for the first time.
Photographs were taken and drinks were raised to toast the reunification of two great political houses.
Soon-to-be Fianna Fáil TD Niall was easy to spot among them.
In the sweltering summer conditions, he was the one in the good grey pinstripe woollen suit, with his shirt buttoned up the collar and his tie perfectly knotted.
Proud as punch, Dad Harry raised a small whiskey in the boy's honour.
Around 4pm, he got the call to go to the party rooms on the fourth floor, where he was met by the Taoiseach and paraded around like a prize bullock at the ploughing championships.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house.
This had nothing to do with Baby Blaney, but with the fact that backbenchers were enduring their fourth and final consultation meeting with Ministers, while they should have been out enjoying the good weather.
All their own fault, and it'll be a while before they start whingeing in public again.
With the members' restaurant closed for refurbishment, the happy Blaney party repaired to Buswell's Hotel for dinner.
And Niall's new colleagues legged it away from Leinster House as fast as they could.
The Letterkenny faction didn't show.