My Wedding Day with Alan Hughes: 'We had two weddings, before and after the referendum'

We got married, or had our civil partnership, on September 30, 2011. We had two weddings, really: The civil partnership in 2011, and then, after the referendum, when we were able to get married, we upgraded to the full marriage. But the big, actual ceremony was in 2011.

We had the ceremony in the Unitarian Church on Stephen’s Green, and our reception was in the Round Room at the Mansion House. It was a funny story there, because Karl and myself were going, ‘Where would we get married?’ And then, at the same time, we both said, ‘The Mansion House.’ 

So we phoned them and asked if they were free on September 30. This was in May, and we knew we had to move the wedding along, because my sister wasn’t well, and Carl’s sister wasn’t well, and we wanted to make sure they were there. 

Anyway, the Mansion House said, ‘No, September 30 is not free’. We were about to hang up, and they said, ‘This is for next year, isn’t it?’ and we said, ‘No, this year.’ They had a look and September 30 was free — it was meant to be!

The night before the wedding, we stayed at the Morgan Hotel with our families and close friends. We booked a load of rooms there. On the morning of the wedding, everybody was walking around in their dressing gowns; there was no big rush to do anything; it was really chill. 

And I remember my sister, who passed away since, said to me, ‘I feel like I’ve been away for a week.’ Paul and Lisa Fitzpatrick, who own the hotel, really looked after us. It was just lovely and relaxed, and that was the tone we wanted to set for the day.

Alan Hughes and Karl Broderick during their wedding ceremony.

The ceremony was beautiful; we had the Dublin Gospel Choir, and we had Brian Kennedy singing. He sang the song Somewhere from West Side Story, accompanied by Cormac de Barra, who’s a well-known harpist, and everyone got choked up during that. I was bawling crying when we were saying our vows; it was incredibly emotional.

After that, everybody walked through Stephen’s Green from the church across to the Mansion House. It was such a lovely sort of atmosphere; people were singing and dancing across Stephen’s Green; it was a joy.

Alan Hughes and Karl Broderick on their wedding day.

We did the afters in three parts. We had a dinner with family and close friends in Fire Restaurant in the Mansion House. We had the speeches there, and I had everyone locked in to five minutes, max, per speech. My brother tried to go over the five minutes, but I started banging on my plate!

Then, about seven o’clock, we opened up the Round Room to a buffet, and put out all the big round tables; the room was beautifully done with gorgeous lights and drapes, and it looked beautiful when you walked in. So there were about 180 people at that, and then from 9:30pm more guests came and joined in.

My thing is that I don’t particularly like weddings. I hate all the waiting around, so I wanted everything moving all the time and entertainment, or something, happening. So when we came into Fire for dinner, for example, we had violinists playing.

Alan Hughes and Karl Broderick on their wedding day.

During the buffet, we had The Singing Waiters doing their operatic singing and dropping plates, then bursting in to song. After the meal, then, we had Mary Byrne singing, we had a drag queens show and then we had Brian Kennedy, singing again.

Look, we put on shows, that’s what we do, and we literally put on one big show for our wedding day. We sort of went a bit overboard, but people just rowed in with us. There was a big stage with lighting and sound; the guys who do our lighting and sound for our shows did it as a wedding gift for us. 

Then, Paul Ryder did all the choreography for the drag queens. And Conor Cleere, who used to work in Virgin Media, was the MC for the evening. It was a big production.

We didn’t have a first dance, but Karl had written a song for me, and during the night, Shane Morgan, who used to work in the panto with us, sang Karl’s song on stage and everybody was in tears. It was lovely.

The Mansion House closed at 2 am, I think, so it wasn’t a very late night. As people were leaving, they were saying, ‘Will we go on to a nightclub?’, but I said, ‘I’m going straight back to the hotel.’

We knew we had another day of celebrations planned for the next day.

When I look back on it now, I just remember the fun of it. The actual fun and the total enjoyment of it. I don’t think there was stress at all. It was just pure fun. We’d had it all arranged, and other people were taking responsibilities for stuff, you know. So it was just a fun, fun day.

• Alan Hughes will star in ‘The Stadium Panto’ this December and January at the National Stadium. This year’s panto is ‘Cinderella’ and will also feature Twink as Queen of the Fairies. You can book tickets here.