My Wedding Day with Laura Drury: ‘We met in Hollywood, so we had nods to America on the day’

We wanted to bring in notes of America into our wedding, because we met in the US

Tue, 28 Oct, 2025 - 20:00

Deirdre McArdle

We got married on August 27, 2016. We picked that date because it was the anniversary of when we first got together. We had the ceremony in Avoca church. I grew up in Arklow and Avoca church was always part of the parish. I’ve always loved Avoca village, and it felt like a really lovely church to get married in.

Loads of James' family watched Ballykissangel growing up, so they were beside themselves at being in the Bally K church. Our afters was in BrookLodge & Macreddin Village, which wasn’t far from the church.

I would say the wedding wasn’t big by Irish standards. I think there were about 90 for the ceremony and about 130 for the evening. We planned the wedding ourselves. We wanted to bring in notes of America into our wedding, because we met in the US. Our canapés were little sliders; we had cookies and milk, and stuff like that. We had little nods to America throughout the day, because we met in Hollywood in LA, our tables were all named after famous movie couples.

When we got engaged, my grandmother, who was Australian, said to me, “I’ll buy your wedding dress”. Her health was declining at that time, and she knew she might not make it to the wedding, but she said if she bought the dress, she’d feel like she was there with me.

Laura and her husband Jamie on their wedding day.

She passed away not long after that. When I was shopping for my dress, I ended up going to a shop in Henley in Arden, which isn't far from where I live, here in Warwickshire. I tried on this dress, and I'd probably tried on about 20 dresses at this stage; they all looked lovely, but none of them felt like the right one.

But this one did. I told the lady in the shop, “This is it”. She said, “Ok, I'll put you down for the Essence of Australia dress. I thought, my God, my granny was Australian, this is absolutely meant to be.

The day before the wedding, the weather was a bit iffy. It was grey, lashing rain, and the long-range forecast said it was going to rain on the day of the wedding. So I thought I'm just gonna have to get on with it. But then the morning the wedding, we get up, and it's blue skies, sunshine and 21 degrees. Perfect weather.

I wasn't particularly nervous on the morning, but I took myself off and I did my own makeup; doing my makeup is like meditation for me. I put some headphones on and was listening to music, and I got in the zone for 45 minutes and just put my face on. By the time I'd done that, I was mentally and physically ready.

Laura and her husband Jamie with their wedding party on their wedding day.

I wanted James to be the one who saw me in my dress first. He was a bit more nervous about the day than me. And I thought doing a first look would be really good. I had heard so many people say that the day can kind of run away from you as a couple. So we thought, let's just take this moment for us, to just settle us a bit. And it did.

Niamh Penston, who was my music teacher when I was in primary school, was doing the music in the church for us. She's an amazing singer and she was also playing the piano. When I was walking down the aisle, she played music from Love Actually, it’s one of our favourite films. You know the music where the little boy is running across the airport, that’s what I walked down the aisle to. And it's funny, because in the wedding video, you can see when the penny dropped for people where the music was from. It's a lovely piece of music. It's really emotive.

After the church, we got our photos taken. We went down to the beach in Arklow for some photos. Then we went and met up with everybody back at McReddin, we had drinks on the lawn, and it was lovely and chilled.

Then, around 5pm we had the call for dinner. We had quick speeches before the dinner. After the meal was over then we were able to relax a little more then, all the formalities were over.

We had a band and a DJ, and our first dance was to Collide by Howie Day. It's in a few movies, of course, true to our theme. James actually picked the first dance song; I kind of threw about three or four his way, and I said, any one of these I'd be happy with, so you can surprise me on the day. He must have submitted it to the band then, and they went ahead and learned it and did it, and it was lovely.

Everyone was up for the craic, and the dancefloor was packed all night. It was a late one. I think it was probably the latest wedding I've ever been to. We didn't get to bed till quarter to five in the morning. So it was a really long one. James and myself said we are going to be the last going to bed, we're putting everyone to bed, and we're outlasting everyone, and we did.