Our wedding story: ‘I remember looking around and thinking, it doesn’t get any better than this’

[ irishtimes.com/weddings ]

They grew up 10 minutes from each other in Co Louth, but Aoife Boyle, from Blackrock, and Richie Marron, from Ravensdale, first met in 2005 when they were students at Trinity College, Dublin.

They moved to London six and a half years ago; Richie is a lawyer there and Aoife works for Morgan Stanley.

On a frosty December morning in 2013, Richie proposed in Battersea Park, and on 8th November 8th 2014 they were married in St Oliver Plunkett’s Church, overlooking the sea, in Blackrock, Co Louth.

The Blackrock church choir sang throughout the ceremony. The bride's brother Conor sang and played guitar to Christy Moore's The Voyage and friends and family - including the bride's other brother Niall and groom's sister Frances - were asked to do readings

Afterwards the newlyweds made the 10-minute journey to the newly-opened Bellingham Castle which they and their 160 guests – from New York, Boston, New Zealand, Singapore, London and closer to home – had to themselves for the weekend.

The bridesmaids were Caitriona Carty, Emily Hardaker and Lorina Mahapatra; best man was Conor McCarthy and groomsmen were Darren Hamilton, David McDonnell and Harry Ormsby.

The couple list their favourite parts of the day as the ceremony, speeches by the bride’s dad PJ, the groom’s dad Harry, the Best Man Conor McCarthy and the groom himself.

"Mid-way through our first dance to Van Morrison's Moondance our bridesmaids, groomsmen and family and friends all joined us on the dance floor," said Aoife. "I remember looking around and thinking, it doesn't get any better than this." Two days after the wedding, Aoife and Richie flew to Nairobi for their two-week honeymoon which started with a safari adventure in Tanzania and ended in Zanzibar.

We’d love to hear your wedding story. If you’d like to share it with our readers email weddings@irishtimes.com with a photograph and a little information about your big day

Photographs: Nick O'Keefe - nickokeeffephotography.ie