My Wedding Day with John Brennan: 'The priest ran off with the shopkeeper's wife before the wedding'

John Brennan and his wife Gwen on their wedding day.

We got married on October 26, 1992. It was the bank holiday weekend. I've always been in the hotel and wedding business. Back then, I was in the Sligo Park Hotel, and we were doing four weddings a week, so October would have been a quieter time of year for me. Ideal for our own wedding.

We had our wedding in the Sligo Park Hotel, where I was the assistant manager at the time. The hotel didn’t know it was my wedding; I booked it under a different name. I looked after the wedding bookings at the time, so no one passed a bit of heed. It was only about six weeks beforehand when the manager and the people I worked closely with at the hotel were invited to the wedding that they realised!

For hoteliers, we’re looking after weddings two to three days every week all our lives, but the person we’re marrying generally isn’t and they may want a big wedding. I can’t say it’s the last thing in the world we want, but because it’s our business, it’s kind of like a busman’s holiday. But Gwen deserved a proper wedding, so we went all out.

Now there was a bit of drama before the wedding. We had invited 110 people to the wedding, so it wasn't a big wedding. Two of the people attending the wedding were our local shopkeeper and his wife, whom we knew very well. On the Saturday before our wedding, didn’t our lovely priest, who was set to marry us on the bank holiday Monday, run off with the shopkeeper's wife! So we were down a few guests and a priest.

A guest priest had to stand in to marry us. And that was all fine. But then, three months after the wedding, didn’t he leave the priesthood. So we were thinking, are we married at all?

We kept things simple with our bridal party. My brother Damien was my best man and Gwen’s sister was her bridesmaid. My dad had passed away by then, so Damien would have said a few words on behalf of the family.

John Brennan and his wife Gwen on their wedding day.

I believe that entertainment and food are the two most important things the day of the wedding. If you give people proper food and you give them good entertainment, you have a wedding. We had seven pieces of entertainment throughout our day. 

It started with a string quartet in the church, then we had a jazz band at the drinks reception and a guy doing magic tricks. During dinner, we had what’s called “a drunken guest” sitting at the table. He’s a comedian, really, pretending to be drunk and carrying on. I had told him a few things about a couple of people before he got started, so he was interacting with them. The whole place erupted. Everyone understood the joke, and it just worked very well.

At the end of the meal, before the band, we had a very good musician playing the saxophone. And then we had the band, and the disco. In fairness, it was easy to sort all these out because I had all the connections from my work.

Because of the nature of my job, I wouldn’t say I was able to switch off on the day. I was hugely conscious of everyone having a good time. Just recently, we were out for dinner with friends, and Gwen told me to stop fussing because I was arranging the chairs at the table. Now I wasn’t fussing with chairs on our wedding day, but I was conscious of the food coming out from the kitchen — I wanted everyone at each table to get their food at the same time, and it piping hot, which of course they did.

John Brennan and his wife Gwen on their wedding day.

And then we had the band and the disco. But you see, back then, sure, it was over 30 years ago, the bride and groom left the party before the guests. And the bride would have a going-away outfit and all. So that night, during the disco, Gwen went up and got changed, then came down, and we had this arch and everyone was saying “goodbye, goodbye”.

You’d have the uncles and the aunts who would normally leave a wedding early, but they wouldn’t leave until you left, right? So we were under pressure to go — to leave our own wedding — it was totally daft, but it’s what you did at the time.

Then we went out, and friends of mine had ruined my car with flour. And when we got into the car, because it was October and it was cold, I turned on the heat, and sure didn’t the flour come in through the vents and covered us inside! We were staying in Cromleach Lodge, which was a 25-mile drive away, and us covered in flour. The whole thing was for the birds.

The next day then we headed off on our honeymoon to St Lucia. We stayed in a hotel there that did destination weddings, and didn’t we see about 40 weddings during our stay there. I couldn’t get away from them!

• John Brennan and his wife Gwen run Dromquinna Manor in Kenmare.