Fair City's George McMahon: Keith Duffy was our wedding celebrant — he took the job seriously

Actor George McMahon and his wife Rachel Smyth on their wedding day in Spain. Picture: Dougie Farrelly.

We got married on August 15, 2019. It was a crazy time because we had a one-year-old daughter, we were saving for a house, and trying to get married all at the same time.

It was hectic going, but that’s part of how and why we got married the way we did. We got married in Nerja on the Costa del Sol in Spain. It’s a place we knew quite well because my mam was living out there at the time. We were familiar with the area, and we knew all the suppliers.

One of my mam’s friends did the hair and my mam’s friends’ restaurant did the catering.

With the tight budget, we were always looking at the best ways of spending money. We didn’t have a wedding cake. Neither of us really like cake and it would have just been for a picture, so instead we put that money behind the bar to extend the free bar for a little longer. We just wanted to put the money into making the day more fun, rather than having themes and stuff to look at on Instagram.

Actor George McMahon and his wife Rachel Smyth on their wedding day in Spain. Picture: Dougie Farrelly.

We had the wedding in a place called Cortijo Maria Luisa, which was a beautiful farmhouse up on a hill in the Campo, with stunning views of the mountain and the sea.

We had the place to ourselves for the day. It had a lovely area at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, where the ceremony was.

We arrived in Nerja two weeks before the wedding, because Rachel had shopped locally in Malaga for her wedding dress. She tried it on maybe a year and a half beforehand and then was told that dress wouldn’t be back in stock until the following June, so she kind of took a risk. But it all worked out.

Actor George McMahon and his wife Rachel Smyth on their wedding day in Spain. Picture: Dougie Farrelly.

It was good being there that far in advance though as it gave us time to sort everything out, which meant we were very relaxed about the whole thing. It was a small wedding — there were 80 of us — and most people made it their holiday, so they arrived a week before the day. There was a real party vibe. We even had a ‘sten’ — a stag/hen party — where we hired a boat for about 40 of us a few days before the wedding.

Rachel and I had hired a house for ourselves to stay in before the wedding. It was kind of like our own bridal suite. But on the night before the wedding, Rachel and her gang stayed in the venue while I stayed in my mammy’s apartment!

Everything just felt right on the morning of the wedding. Waking up in my mam’s place, and we had champagne for breakfast. It was all very chilled.

George McMahon and Rachel Smyth's daughter, Frankie, walks up the aisle with her godmother Eve. Picture: Dougie Farrelly.

Our little girl was a flower girl at the wedding. She walked up the aisle with her godmother Eve, and we all got a big dose of cuteness.

We had a secular ceremony and our celebrant was Keith Duffy. We’d all been friends for a while, and Keith had actually pointed out one day that he thought myself and Rachel would end up getting married. We laughed at the idea, but then about a year and a half later I proposed. We said he had to be our celebrant at that rate, and he took the job very seriously. He studied up on the role of a celebrant and he wrote the ceremony as well with some nice personal stories in there.

George McMahon and his wife Rachel's wedding reception in Spain. Picture: Dougie Farrelly.

We had a sand ceremony as part of the wedding, where we both had a different colour sand which we each poured into a vessel, making a new unique coloured sand. We also had lovely music during the ceremony. Showband singer Tony Kenny sang a beautiful song during the sand ceremony, and his daughter, who is a good friend of Rachel, sang her down the aisle.

During the meal we had music going on too. We played Maniac 2000 as they were serving the starters and that really got the party going! Everyone was up on their feet swinging their napkins around their heads.

Actor George McMahon and his wife Rachel Smyth on their wedding day in Spain. Picture: Dougie Farrelly.

Most of our friends are from the musical theatre space, so there was a lot of singing and dancing during the day and night, including an impromptu Riverdance routine. Our first dance was to an acoustic version of Dreams by the Cranberries.

The party was hopping all night. And at 3.30am we all got a bus down to the town to a nightclub called Rockafellas. The party went on then until around 7am, although myself and Rachel didn’t last quite that long.

At the end of the night, we were laughing at the train on Rachel’s wedding dress which was absolutely filthy from being trampled on all night. We always say it was a sign of a good night.

• George McMahon is an actor on RTÉ’s Fair City. He will be starring in Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf at the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin in October. Visit mcd.ie/artists/little-red-the-big-bad-wolf.