Town saves the big day for couple after wedding party takes the plunge

A NEWLYWED couple who took a sudden plunge after tying the knot were enjoying their honeymoon last night after a town came to their rescue.

Sweethearts Mike Hickey and Yvonne O’Leary married in Cork last Saturday.

The whole bridal party were posing for photographs on a footbridge at the Jameson Heritage Centre in Midleton when disaster struck at about 5pm.

“We just went on to the footbridge, the 10 of us in the bridal party,” the bride’s sister, Jackie said.

“The photographer was posing us for the final shots, putting us into the correct position, and we just heard a crack and the bridge literally just collapsed.

“It went from under us, resulting in us falling back into the water.”

The newlyweds, three bridesmaids, three groomsmen, the photographer, Ger McCarthy, and videographer, John Mollaghan from Moments, all ended up to their knees in mucky water.

A bridesmaid and a groomsman managed to jump to safety.

Jackie said her sister’s dream wedding dress was completely destroyed with algae, silt and muck.

“She got the worst of it, along with the groom and photographer,” Jackie said.

“Nobody was injured but you can imagine the complete devastation and shock.

“So we got out and the panic just set in — what are we going to do know?” Jackie said.

“She put her heart and soul into this and every bride knows that the dress is everything on the day.”

But she said people just went into overdrive to salvage the day.

They contacted nearby bridal boutique, Say I Do on Midleton’s Main Street, where owner, Ria Burgoyne and her staff, Kirstie Harrison and Lorraine O’Connor, fitted Yvonne with a new dress — free of charge. “We could never give her back the dream dress but we were just glad to have been able to help,” Kirstie said.

“We just did what any other human being with any bit of compassion would do.”

Staff at the Jameson Distillery provided showers for the party. Coakley’s Menswear provided the groomsmen with new suits and Bohane’s Dry Cleaners cleaned the groom’s suit within an hour.

Jackie’s mother rushed home to Whitegate where she had three bridesmaid dresses from a previous wedding.

And Regina Connelly rushed to the bridal shop to redo the bride and bridemaids’ make-up.

“We were just overwhelmed, I don’t know what we would have done without them,” Jackie said.

By 7pm, the bride and groom were at the Fitzgerald’s Vienna Woods Hotel where owner-manager Mike Magnier had arranged for guests to welcome them at the front door.