Our Wedding Story: We met at French College

Aoibheann O’Daly & James Mountjoy

Aoibheann and James, both from Dublin, first met aged 17 at French College in Clongowes Wood College.

James is nearing the end of a PhD in electronic engineering in UCD, while lecturing a first-year engineering module. Aoibheann is a company director of interactive fashion brand, Love & Robots.

Remembering their engagement, James says, “We went to London to see a Monty Python show. The next morning we went for a walk in Greenwich, before our flight home that afternoon. I wanted to propose at exactly noon, on the prime meridian, but I hadn’t anticipated just how many people would be there . . . with cameras. So I brought Aoibh behind a tree before bringing up the subject, on bended knee.”

They were married in a humanist ceremony in Castle Durrow on September 11th, 2015. The Dublin String Quartet played during the ceremony into which Aoibheann arrived to Ben Folds's The Luckiest and the newlyweds exited together to When I'm Sixty-Four by The Beatles.

Among the readings were A Ballad of Home by Eavan Boland (after whom the bride is named) and an excerpt from The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. A friend read You've Got a Friend in Me from Toy Story, by Randy Newman and groomsman John Adams crafted his own reflection: he personalised the words to Christy Moore's The Voyage and sang while playing guitar.

There was a reading and candle lighting for James’s mother, Deirdre, who passed away in 2013. James’s sister and brother, Trish and Dave shared this task. Their father is Jim.

Aoibheann, whose parents are Geraldine and Tony, made the wedding invitations which featured a laser-cut facade with a silhouette of her and James. The entire wedding party – which included Aoibheann’s two sisters – helped with scalpel-cutting and hand-sticking each one. Photograph: Ronan Shaw, ronanshawphotography.com Sarah Geraghty