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

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

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!