My Wedding Day with Catherine Mahon-Buckley: I was into women’s rights so we took each other's surnames

Catherine Mahon Buckley: "We had around 350 guests at the wedding. Among them were several nuns from the Bons Secours Hospital. When I was 19. I had a cyst at the back of my head, sitting close to my brain. I had to have it removed and during that time the nuns really looked after me and cared for me."

We got married on September 15, 1986. We had the ceremony in Christ the King church in Turner’s Cross and the reception was in The Metropole in Cork City.

I was a teacher at the time, out in Ballyphehane Secondary School, and they had a fabulous choir there. I decided I’d love the choir to sing at the church. But I didn’t want them up in the choir area; I wanted them on the altar with us. So we had 40 children standing on the altar during the ceremony, and they were delighted with themselves.

I was very much into women’s rights, and I wanted Ted to take my maiden name and I would take his. The only way you could do that at the time was by deed poll, so we would have had to go to a solicitor’s office and sign the documents there.

I really wanted it to be part of the wedding ceremony, so thankfully my solicitor agreed to let us sign the documents during the ceremony. We had the solicitor and the priest on the altar with us where we signed the documents and once the marriage part of the ceremony took place, it was announced that from now on we both would be known as Mahon-Buckley.

We had around 350 guests at the wedding. Among them were several nuns from the Bons Secours Hospital. When I was 19. I had a cyst at the back of my head, sitting close to my brain. I had to have it removed and during that time the nuns really looked after me and cared for me. Nuns weren’t allowed to attend weddings at that time, but I made a case to the Reverend Mother that I really wanted them there, and they were allowed to go.

Catherine Mahon-Buckley: 'The wedding was a black-tie affair, and my mother Patricia Mahon designed my dress, all the bridesmaids’ dresses, her own outfit and outfits for the children taking part in the ceremony.'

The wedding was a black-tie affair, and my mother Patricia Mahon designed my dress, the bridesmaids’ dresses, her own outfit, and outfits for the children taking part in the ceremony. She also made me a beautiful headpiece with a heart-shaped mother of pearl type of crown that went on the back of that headpiece.

We were lucky with the weather; it was a beautiful sunny day, and I remember someone saying, “God was very pleased with the union!”.

On the morning of the wedding, I was excited but also worried about everything going to plan. I remember at the church door saying to my dad: “I don’t think I can go through with it”. He said to me, “Hold on to my arm – you’ll be fine”.

At the reception I didn’t make a speech, but I was very much involved in what Ted said! During his speech, we decided to present flowers to our mothers and Ted knocked my mum’s hat off her head.

Catherine Mahon-Buckley on her wedding day.

For the party in the hotel, we had an eight-piece band called The Crystals, and then we had a DJ after. Do you know, having a DJ at your wedding wasn’t very common at all in those days. And actually, inviting people to the afters wasn’t either. But we did. I know we had a big wedding, but we had nearly double the size again coming to the afters. We had to use two rooms in The Metropole!

We had lots of people there from the world of theatre. I would have been involved in The Everyman at the time. So there was John O’Shea, Dan Donovan, Dan McMullen, and Don Kelly. Actually, Don Kelly gave us our wedding present six months after the wedding – a red setter dog called Goldie and we had him for 18 years!

The party was great, and we had another party the day after on the Saturday. Ted and I headed off on our honeymoon that night. But they were still partying at home on the Sunday – I must say I had a bit of FOMO when I heard that.

A day before the wedding, we’d handed in our “going-away clothes”, as back then the couple left the party before everyone else. But when we went to change, they couldn’t find our clothes or, in fact, the room we were supposed to stay in.

We were late then trying to get all organised and the band thought we weren’t coming down to do the finale of the wedding. By the time we made it down, they’d taken all their gear and most of them had already left, but the drummer and the guitarist saved the day and stuck around to play us off.

We never did get a room in the hotel for our wedding night, so The Metropole booked us into the bridal suite in Silver Springs Hotel instead – it’s known as the Clayton today. We stayed up quite late watching an international boxing match.

• Catherine Mahon-Buckley is the director of The Everyman Christmas pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, which opens on December 3 and continues until January 10. Visit www.everymancork.com.