My Wedding Day with Leon Diop: 'Looking at my wife was the most magical moment of my life'

Katie’s dad had had a nasty fall, and ended up in A&E with a broken collar bone and some broken ribs. Thankfully he was able to make the wedding the next day — so while we were tired, we were feeling so lucky that he could even partake in the wedding day

Tue, 02 Dec, 2025 - 20:00

Deirdre McArdle

We got married on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. We had the ceremony and the reception in Boyne Hill House in Meath. We wanted to keep it easy for ourselves and have everything in the one spot.

Initially we had agreed we would have our wedding in Dublin in City Hall, and we were both happy with that. But then Katie, my wife, came across a Reel on Instagram promoting Boyne Hill House and she said she instantly knew that was where she wanted to get married. So we withdrew our deposit from City Hall, and placed it down immediately on Boyne Hill House.

We had about 130 people at the wedding. All of Katie’s family came up from Tipperary. We had people coming from Bandon in Cork, and of course my family in Dublin. And my brother, who was my best man, flew in from Lisbon, which is where he has immigrated to.

We got engaged in 2023, and we wanted to give ourselves two years to enjoy being engaged before we got married. I think my wife wanted to enjoy her pre-bride era!

With the planning for the wedding, it was Katie’s management skills that got us over the line. She did a project management course in IBAT (Institute of Business and Technology) a couple of years ago, and I think, honestly, without that we would have been snookered.

Katie got her dress in Pronuptia Bridal in Belfast. She would say this herself, but she was dreading the idea of going wedding dress shopping. She doesn’t even really like shopping for regular clothes. She looked absolutely beautiful on the day, and she loved the dress so much.

We kept our bridal party small. I had my brother Adam, and Katie had her sister Aoife.

In the build-up to the wedding day, the weather was awful. We wanted to have the ceremony outdoors, so we were starting to get really worried. On the Monday, when we were dropping in a few bits to the venue, there was an inch of water on the ground. So we were freaked.

But we were very lucky. On the morning of, it was just overcast; it wasn't raining, it wasn't cold, it wasn’t very sunny, it was a perfect day.

We had a humanist ceremony and our celebrant was Ruth Scott. We’d seen her at a friend’s wedding, and we thought she would be the perfect person to marry us. She was so relaxed. There were a few jokes thrown in there, people had a giggle. It was perfect.

"We actually did our speeches during the drinks reception, which was different but we just wanted to have them done and dusted so we could crack on with the dancing after the meal."

On the morning of the wedding, I was feeling a mixture of emotions. I was really happy, really nervous, really excited and actually really tired. We’d had a bit of drama the night before. Katie’s dad had had a nasty fall, and ended up in A&E with a broken collar bone and some broken ribs. Thankfully he was able to make the wedding the next day and the venue couldn’t have looked after him any better, they were great. So while we were tired, we were feeling so lucky that he could even partake in the wedding day.

When we were getting ready that morning for the ceremony. A member of staff came into my room with a letter. I kinda thought it was something from Katie, but it was a letter from the then-President Michael D Higgins wishing us all the best for the day.

I worked with President Higgins over the years through Black and Irish. But that he would write us a letter on our special day, I just couldn’t believe it. It was such a great start to our day.

When I was at the top of the aisle and saw Katie walking down, I was overcome with emotions. I was crying but they were tears of pure joy. I was so happy.

After the ceremony, we had a drinks reception out on the lawn of the venue. We had lined up spicy margaritas, which are Katie’s favourite drinks, and we had an ice cream van.

Leon Diop: "My lasting memory is our first dance; looking around and looking at my wife while we're doing the first dance and thinking 'this is the most magical moment of my life'."

Because we had the ceremony and the reception in the one venue we had loads of time just chilling before the meal. And we actually did our speeches during the drinks reception, which was different but we just wanted to have them done and dusted so we could crack on with the dancing after the meal.

Our first dance was to 'Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You' by Frankie Valli. We were about 40 seconds into our first dance before all my sisters came just diving in. My sisters, they all dance for Ireland so they were like ‘this is our time!’. We didn’t have a band, we just had a DJ — DJ Trevor — with us for the night and he was brilliant. Everyone was up for the craic and there was a lot of friendly rivalry and banter between the Tipperary and Tallaght contingents.

It was a late night, we were up til the death really. We had a sing-song after the reception and all. Looking back on it now, four months on, my lasting memory is our first dance; looking around and looking at my wife while we're doing the first dance and thinking 'this is the most magical moment of my life'.