My Wedding Day with Kieran McGuinness: The priest shouted at me in Italian because we were late 

Emily was 40 minutes late because she had to walk through the cobbled streets of Positano in heels — the priest was having a fit

Kieran McGuinness and Emily Aylmer on their wedding day in Italy

We got married on June 20, 2012. We met in New York, we got engaged in Barcelona, and then we got married in Positano Italy. After we got engaged, we were thinking “where would the dream location be to get married?” We didn’t want to have the typical Irish wedding, so we decided on Positano – we invited a group of about 20 friends and their plus ones, and both sets of parents, that was it. We said to everyone "don't get us a present, just come to Italy”.

When we were planning the wedding, we weren’t particularly religious, so we were looking for a non-religious option. I did have to sit my parents down and tell them we weren’t planning on a church wedding. They were a little bit upset about that, but my mother asked if we would have a blessing from our local priest, and we agreed.

But as it turned out, when we were in Positano looking at the local town hall, the guy there said it would cost €1,000 and we had to be in and out in half an hour. We were having a think, and we wandered over to the beautiful old church in the town square. We went inside to have a look, and the priest told us it was free to get married there and we would have a three-hour window on the day. So, we ended up having a church wedding after all!

We’d flown over to Italy on the Saturday, the wedding was on the Wednesday, and a lot of our guests arrived then too, so we had a lovely few days before the wedding around Positano, enjoying the sights. We were a tight little gang by the time the wedding came around.

Emily’s dress was a beautiful vintage wedding dress that she had found in a charity shop. It was so beautiful. And then myself and the groomsmen wore suits. When we put the suits on on the morning of the wedding, which just happened to be the hottest day in recorded history in Positano, the legs of the trousers were all about four inches too long! We looked like we were all in a 1990s boy band with huge baggy trousers!

Kieran McGuinness and Emily Aylmer on their wedding day in Italy

The thing about Positano is it’s built into this steep hill. The church is right at the bottom and then all the streets and buildings rise up and up. There are no roads in Positano, just narrow cobbled streets and hundreds of steps. To get to the church, Emily had to walk down all the steps and then through the cobbled streets in heels. She ended up being 40 minutes late.

The priest was having a fit because she was so late. He got quite angry with me and was shouting at me in Italian. My mother came over to calm the situation, and he shouted at her too. He was furious. Eventually Emily arrived but the priest was still obviously angry, stomping around and being very short and curt. So much so I thought I’d have to have a chat with him as I thought he was going to ruin the wedding.

But then, Emily, who is an exceptional singer, was opening the ceremony by singing Ava Maria. When she started singing, the priest absolutely brightened up, to the point where it completely changed his mood and he was then almost overly friendly!

The ceremony went smoothly after that, aside from my friend having to come up a couple of times to physically wipe the sweat from my brow!

After the ceremony we had to walk all the way back up the steps to the top of the town where the hotel was. We had a drinks reception followed by the meal and the speeches; my mother and father did a little song with one of the lads from our band during the speeches, that was great.

We had a traditional Italian band for the music and a typical Italian instrumental song as our first dance. The whole evening was so chilled and relaxed. The owner of the hotel, who had originally told us we would have to end the party at 11pm, ended up being our DJ, and he was on the decks until about 3am!

It was just such a wonderful day, well, it was a week of all of us together really. But it was full of life and full of music. It was full of fun stories, fun things happening, and you know, we laughed a lot about the state of the trousers, and we laughed afterwards a lot about the priest and his absolute fury, and we all laughed at how unbelievably hot we looked in all the pictures.

Emily, my wife, is an amazingly strong-willed, funny, and beautiful person. And so the wedding was a reflection of her, and a reflection of our determination and our independence to have the wedding we wanted.

• Kieran McGuinness and Emily Aylmer make up the indie-pop duo Driven Snow. They will release their second album, Mother of Christ, on Friday, September 11. To mark the release, the band will embark on an Irish tour this autumn. For tickets, tour dates and more information, follow @drivensnowmusic on Instagram.