Thursday, March 01, 2012

Couple in civil ceremony trial run at country’s first gay wedding fair

A hotel in Limerick was the only place to be in Ireland last Sunday for same-sex couples looking for information on how to plan their nuptials.

The Absolute hosted the country’s first ever gay wedding/civil partnership Fair.

David Nally, 28 from Athlone, and Neil Ash, 27, from Athy, Co Kildare, are to say "I do" at a civil ceremony in Co Laois in Jan 2014.

The couple were pleasantly surprised as they got even more then they bargained for, when they were asked to take part in a fake civil ceremony to show others how the service is performed.

David said: "It was great fun and it was nice to practice the ceremony for when the real thing happens. It gave us an idea of what to expect too. The minister showed us how to plan the ceremony and we had a good chat about whether we were religious and all that too. We know how to say ‘I do’ now.

"It’s good to see something like this happening. It’s kind of a sign that things have changed and hopefully there will be more and more events like it that are geared towards a wedding that is not so traditional.

"A lot of the fairs are geared towards traditional weddings so, it’s nice to have this but, it would also be nice to have something similar that is not just specifically gay weddings but more so alternative weddings."

After unsuccessfully trying to source a wedding fair that could meet their needs, David said they were delighted to go to an event that catered specifically for one of the most important days of their lives.

"Obviously we were thinking about starting to look around at wedding fairs but there was nothing geared towards us so, it’s great to have something specific that is geared towards a civil ceremony too. The highlight for Neil and I though was probably the civil ceremony. It was a bit surreal."

Marianne Purcell and her partner Shane Costello, from Raheen in Limerick are behind gayweddingsireland.ie.

The pair set up the business after seeing a major gap in the market for same-sex couples.

Ms Purcell said: "We’ve had amazing feedback from everyone who came and who took part. We had 51 vendors and 50 couples, which was great."