My Wedding Day with Caroline Downey: 'We walked down the aisle to The Sunday Game theme song'

We did a ‘How well do you know the bride and groom’ quiz. That was instead of spending money on party favours — we used the money we would have spent to give a prize for the quiz of an overnight stay in the Kilronan Castle Hotel

Caroline Downey and Barry all smiles on their wedding day.

We got married on Thursday, August 27, 2009. I wanted to get married in a castle, so we were looking at the different castles around the country. We set our sights on Kinnitty Castle, and we loved it. 

We were only inviting around 60 people, because Barry was married before, so we were able to keep the numbers down.

About six months before the wedding, now bear in mind we had everything sorted — the band, the photographer, the DJ, everything. But anyway, six months before the wedding, I got a call from one of my friends who was driving past Kinnitty Castle and the gates were shut with huge padlocks on the door. 

It was placed under receivership.

We had to decide what we’d do, quickly. I was panicking a bit thinking we’d never get somewhere else at such short notice, but Barry is very level-headed, very cool, and he calmed me down.

He had been in Roscommon for a work thing and had stayed in Kilronan Castle there and loved it. I’d never heard of it, but we went down to have a look. It was gorgeous. In fact, I ended up preferring it to Kinnitty.

Caroline Downey and Barry relax on their wedding day. 'After that drama, a kind of calmness stayed with us for the rest of the run-up and to the day of the wedding.'

The only thing was that they didn’t have our original date of August 28 available. We wanted to keep all our other suppliers like the photographer, band and DJ, so we changed the date to the day before, which was a Thursday.

After that drama, a kind of calmness stayed with us for the rest of the run-up and to the day of the wedding. We were thinking, sure, what more could happen?

My dress was what I would call a timeless dress. It wasn’t exactly what I thought I’d go for but I loved it. It was fitted with a satin bodice and then lace all the way down. 

It had a big lace train that looked lovely when I was walking up the aisle. I also had a full cathedral veil.

My sister was my maid of honour and one of my friends was my other bridesmaid. My niece Alicia was a mini bridesmaid, and my stepdaughter Shauna, who was eight at the time, was my flower girl.

Caroline Downey and Barry walk down the aisle. 'My dress was what I would call a timeless dress.'

On Barry’s side, he had his best man and groomsman, who were both friends of his, and his son Tadhgh, who was 10, was his other groomsman.

I wasn’t nervous at all on the morning. I had butterflies, but it was excitement. I couldn’t wait to see Barry’s face when I walked down the aisle. We had the ceremony in the hotel — it was a civil ceremony. My dad walked me down the aisle and when Barry turned around, he was biting his lip and had a tear in his eye. It was lovely.

The ceremony was nice and short, just 25 minutes. We walked down the aisle together to the theme song for The Sunday Game — Barry was a GAA football manager at the time.

We then had our drinks reception, where we had a trad band playing, and that was great. We had the speeches during the meal, and it was funny, my dad had had one too many glasses of wine, so when I handed him the mic, he asked: “Which one do I use?” I said: “There’s only one mic dad!”.

Caroline Downey and Barry during their wedding ceremony.

During his speech, my dad presented Barry with a Galway GAA jersey. We also did a ‘How well do you know the bride and groom’ quiz. That was instead of spending money on party favours — we used the money we would have spent to give a prize for the quiz of an overnight stay in the Kilronan Castle Hotel.

The Conquerers were our band, and our first dance was to Friends in Time. During the break for teas and coffees, we had local Irish dancers come in and they did a brilliant performance. 

Afterwards then we had the DJ, who was a friend of ours. He played until about 2am or 3am and then we all headed down to the Dungeon bar and we were there until about 7am.

Because of Barry’s GAA schedule, we had to wait eight weeks for our honeymoon. We did three days in Las Vegas, 10 days in Hawaii, and three days in LA. 

When we were in Vegas, we actually got married again! We got married in the chapel where Britney Spears got married — The Little White Chapel. Our family were all able to watch the ceremony online from back home.

We knew we were going to get married again in Vegas, so I’d brought my wedding dress with me. We told the airline that we were eloping and we got bumped up to first class. It was great fun, and another memory to add to our wonderful day.

• Alongside her RTÉ Today Show appearances, Caroline runs Carried Away PR & Events, delivering events across Ireland. One especially close to her heart is Racing for Rosabel, now in its eighth year, taking place on Monday, July 27, at the Connacht Hotel in aid of Rosabel’s Rooms, a charity set up by Rosabel’s parents, Gary Monroe and Suzanne McClean.