My Wedding Day with Johnny Ward: 'I felt my late father and best friend were with us on the day'

Johnny Ward: "When Brenda was walking down the aisle, I’ll never, ever forget it. It’s such a long aisle to walk down, and she just looked absolutely beautiful. And naturally, so many people, including myself, started crying."

We got married on July 8, 2023. Myself and Brenda met during lockdown in 2021. We were both out walking in The Curragh and we got talking, and that turned into another walk, and another walk. Ten months later, on Christmas Day, I proposed to her!

We weren’t too stressed about wedding plans. One day, on the off chance, we went into the Westgrove Hotel in Naas, Co Kildare, and they say don’t book the first place you see, but that’s exactly what we did.

We fell in love with the place and the food, and then Lorna McKeown, who’s the wedding co-ordinator there, she’s amazing — she wins awards every year. What I loved about the hotel was I kept asking, “Can we do this?” and “Could we have that?” and the answer was always yes.

My best man was Darren Molloy, my childhood friend and then I had three groomsmen, including Steven O’Leary, who worked with me on the Copperface Jacks: The Musical, and he also plays Zach Dillon on Fair City. We went into Dublin Formal Wear for our suits, and because it was summer, I went with a navy colour.

Brenda wore a dress by Justin Alexander, and her bridesmaids wore sage green dresses. We kept the looks classic and elegant, and the flowers linked all the colours together, mainly white with greenery in there too.

Johnny Ward and Brenda Murphy with their bridal party.

Myself and the lads stayed over the night before in the hotel, and on the morning of the wedding, when I was collecting the flowers, it hit me. In a few hours time, I’m going to be in the church in Kilcullen getting married.

Of course, when Brenda was walking down the aisle, I’ll never, ever forget it. It’s such a long aisle to walk down, and she just looked absolutely beautiful. And naturally, so many people, including myself, started crying.

At the end of the ceremony, we were so excited to get to the hotel and celebrate. We had lined up entertainment for that couple of hours before the meal — we had a pianist inside the hotel and a magician called Steve Spade, and then outside on the rooftop terrace, we had a saxophonist called Daddy Sax, and he got everyone going. 

It was a scorching day, so it felt like we were in Ibiza or something. It was non-stop entertainment really, and something for everyone.

Johnny Ward and Brenda Murphy on their wedding day.

The meal was amazing, and we had the speeches then. My mam stole the show with her speech. My father had passed away in 2019 so she had to fill the gap for me on my wedding day; she did an amazing job, and she looked beautiful on the day too.

For our band afterwards, we had Cliona Hagan. I’d met her when we were on Dancing with the Stars together in 2019. She did an incredible job. She’s obviously a country singer, and that went down well with all the country fans at the wedding, but she does commercial stuff too, from Lady Gaga to Aslan. She covered it all, she was amazing.

We had Justin Bieber as our first dance song. It’s not something I thought we would pick, but he has a lovely song called Anyone that is very reminiscent of myself and Brenda. 

Then we had DJ Paddy Fagan for the party afterwards and that went on til about 3am. Everyone was up for the craic and we were up on the floor all night.

A memory I have from the day, aside from seeing Brenda in the church, was a lovely gesture by my best man. My best friend David Campbell passed away in 2012, and of course, my father died in 2019; both of them would have been very much a part of the wedding.

My best man Darren said to me: “I really think your father and David were with you every step of the way here today.” 

Turns out that earlier in the day, when I was getting ready, he had slipped a picture of my father and David into my shoes — one into the left, one in the right. I thought that was a really, really lovely touch, and it made me so emotional on the day thinking about it.

Johnny Ward and Brenda Murphy with their wedding guests.

We had a fabulous day two, also in the Westgrove. There was a few things going on: I’m a massive Celtic fan, so I’d bought a replica of the 1967 European Cup and we had that on the day.

We also had a table quiz, and all the questions were about the wedding the day before. It was great craic. To top it off we had a band from Limerick called Clover — they specialise in rebel songs, followed by karaoke until 2am again I’d say. It was an amazing weekend.

• Johnny Ward is currently starring in Suga: Ride or Die, a Dutch crime thriller, where he plays an Irish ganglord. The series is available on Amazon Prime.