DEE BREEN and Joe McVeigh were married in the Winelands of South Africa on January 6th. Fr Paul Taylor performed the ceremony in St George’s Church in Groot Drakenstein, Franschhoek, and 60 family members and friends travelled from Ireland to join their celebration at a private wine estate aptly named Vrede en Lust, or peace and passion.
From Athlone, Dee is the eldest of Mary and Noel Breen’s four daughters; her mother is the principal at Ballinahowen National School and her father is a consultant with Ericsson. She attended Our Lady’s Bower in Athlone and received a BA in applied languages from Dublin City University before studying marketing and public relations at Fitzwilliam Institute. She worked in fashion PR at Brower Lewis in London for two years and is now press and marketing manager for Harvey Nichols in Dublin.
Joe is also from Westmeath, from Glasson village, the son of Frances McVeigh and the late Judge Derek McVeigh, who sadly passed away last November after a short illness. He has three younger brothers and all attended Clongowes Wood College in Clane, Co Kildare, where Joe was school captain. Joe later studied law at University College Galway and is now a partner with DFMG Solicitors in Dublin. The couple met six years ago as postgraduate students and kept in touch while Dee was working in London and Joe was starting his legal career.
They became engaged on Christmas Day in 2007. Well practised in the art of event management in Ireland, Dee wanted to go a different route for their wedding and the prospect of South African sunshine in January had a distinct appeal.
Joe’s three younger brothers, Conor, Paul and Stephen acted as groomsmen and Dee’s three younger sisters, Fiona, Noelle and Emma were bridesmaids. As befits a fashion publicist, the bride wore a dress designed by Alice Temperley. The guests were led through the vineyards by a Cape Town jazz band called the Dixie Swingers for drinks on a lawn overlooking the estate before settling into a marquee perched high on a vineyard terrace in time for memorable and moving speeches at sunset. A South African 12-piece band, James Frank and the Sticky Triggers, got the party going.
Most of their guests made a winter holiday of it and stayed in the Camp’s Bay area for the week; the bride and groom went on safari in the Phinda Game Reserve for five days and to Thonga Beach Lodge on the Indian Ocean for a week. They are back at work in Dublin now – the bride organised the Harvey Nichols spring/summer fashion show recently – and living in Clonskeagh.