My Wedding Day with Paula MacSweeney: 'Our elopement turned out to be the perfect fairytale of New York'

We just had no interest in the planning of a wedding; we didn't want to do the big circus. We also loved any excuse to hop on a plane. So we thought this was probably the best thing we could do

Mon, 02 Mar, 2026 - 20:00

Deirdre McArdle

We actually eloped to New York to get married. We had a very short engagement, about six months. And people were asking us, “When are you getting married?” So we’d say, “Oh, sure, we haven't started calling it yet” and we'd lie to everyone.

Because we always knew we were going to elope. We just had no interest in the planning of a wedding; we didn't want to do the big circus. We also loved any excuse to hop on a plane. So we thought this was probably the best thing we could do.

And, yeah, no regrets. It remains one of the best decisions we ever made.

Before our wedding, we’d never been to New York, but we both always wanted to. We did a bit of research, and it was actually fairly straightforward to get married in New York. You didn't need to get married here first or register first.

When you get married in New York, that's it, you're married and you come home with your cert and that's that. That suited us perfectly.

Paula MacSweeney and her husband Aidan on their wedding day

We spent a week in New York. We flew over on the Saturday, we registered to get married on the Monday, and we got married during the day on September 12, 2017, in City Hall on Worth Street in downtown Manhattan.

On the day of your wedding, you just go down to City Hall and wait your turn; you can't book an appointment or anything. We were waiting about an hour, which was grand.

We’d hired a photographer, so we used that time to get some photos. Then our photographer was also our witness during the ceremony. The whole thing was over in two minutes flat.

I had spent the summer looking for a dress, and the one that I settled on was less than €100 on ASOS. I loved it. The skirt was a tuille skirt, like a tutu shape — I had Sex and the City in my mind because of the New York angle!

For my hair, it was really long back then, pretty much down to my bum, and I was watching a lot of Game of Thrones at the time, so the hairdresser who came to the hotel on the morning took inspiration from that for my hair.

Paula MacSweeney and her husband Aidan in New York on their wedding day

On the morning, I said to Aidan, “I feel like I need something for my hands when I walk down the aisle”. So when I was getting my hair done, he went to a street vendor and bought six pink roses, six red roses.

I tied them together with a hair bobbin and that was my bouquet!

I know everyone says that New Yorkers are really unfriendly but oh my god, on our wedding day, we could not spend any money. People were buying us drinks everywhere we went.

We felt like celebrities walking down the streets — I did have a white dress on and I was holding a bouquet, so it was obvious that we’d just gotten married. It was so nice, though — all these New Yorkers were stopping and cheering everywhere we went.

After the wedding, I remember being so giddy. We went for lunch and we ordered a glass of champagne. Then we posted on Snapchat, “We got married!” and all the messages just started flowing in.

Later that evening, we had booked a table in the River Cafe. I’d always wanted to go there. So we had a fancy table for a fancy meal.

And after that, we sort of went on a bit of a pub crawl, to be honest. I remember we met people in every pub we went to, like firemen who were just getting off shift, and they were sending drinks down our way.

Paula MacSweeney and Aidan exchange rings on their wedding day

Once everyone knew that we’d gotten married, no one was really too put out. I have a big family, and all my siblings are married and everyone had done the same kind of wedding over and over, so I don't think anybody felt like they missed out.

In Aidan’s family, his brother is the only one who was married before him, and he had also eloped, so I think his parents were quite gracious about it all.

It was exactly the right kind of wedding day for us. It was so romantic; this wasn't an elopement done in a hurry or anything. We mindfully and thoughtfully made the decision, and it was so right for us.

One memory I’ll always have is when the clerk pronounced us man and wife and said you may kiss the bride, Aidan just looked at me and said, “I'm going to love you forever”, and honestly, it just felt perfect.