Couple’s dream come true for white wedding
While snow and ice may be causing chaos across the country, it provided the perfect fairytale backdrop for a newlywed Cork couple yesterday.
The magical winter wonderland at Bishop Lucey Park on the Grand Parade was opened early for Karen O’Shea, 30, and Barry Davis, 32, from Midleton, in Co Cork. The couple kept a tight grip on each other as they braved bitter conditions to capture their dream wedding pictures.
Office manager Karen had her heart set on a winter wedding from the moment Barry, who works at EMC in Ballincollig, proposed on her 30th birthday in Paris last February.
The park had provided a rendezvous point for the couple since the early days of their courtship — they used to meet there during work lunch breaks when they first started dating 11 years ago.
“When Barry proposed, I knew we would have a winter wedding and early on I set about seeing if we could take our wedding pictures in the park, it was kind of a dream back then,” Karen said.
Under city council ownership, the park is transformed into a winter wonderland annually for the festive season, complete with Christmas lights, snowmen, reindeer and snow machines blowing flurries of powdery flakes.
The council facilitated the couple’s wedding dream by opening the park early to fit their time schedule.
More than 100,000 people have visited the Rockin’ Robin-themed park over the past three weeks.
“I love the buzz of Christmas, the atmosphere is so special and we both love what they do with the park every year, it’s always so gorgeous. So when Barry proposed I knew I wanted my pictures in there,” Karen said.
Her idea was met with mixed reactions, but the determined bride said her dream came true when she was contacted by the council two weeks ago.
“People said to me, you are mental wanting the pictures taken in there but when I got the call to confirm it, I was over the moon,” she said.
Barry, who happily recalls meeting Karen for dates in the park before visiting the old cinema across the road, said the entire wedding is based on a festive theme, from the classic white Daimler to table names such as Santa.
Incredibly, only two of the 120 guests were prevented from travelling due to the weather — an aunt and uncle of Barry’s unable to fly out of London.
For the others, the fairytale began as they walked under a frosted white arch upon entering St Joseph’s Church in Mayfield, Cork, where silver decorative branches lined the aisle.
After pictures at the park, the wedding party retired to the Imperial Hotel for a night of festive celebrations.
