‘Golden couple’ tie the knot in style

HAPPY couple Gráinne Howley and Matthew Donnellan had an extra special wedding day at the weekend after the Golden Pages provided €30,000 to cover their nuptials.

Gráinne, from Kilkenny, and Dubliner Matthew, tied the knot at Foulkstown Church in Kilkenny and then celebrated at the city’s Newpark Hotel, four months after they won a competition run by Golden Pages to find a “golden couple”.

The couple first met in college back in 2003 and were originally due to get married in late August 2009, only for Gráinne to discover she was expecting their first child and the due date was early September. They duly postponed the wedding and three months after their daughter Arwen was born they discovered they were expecting their second child, meaning a further delay with the wedding plans.

Just weeks before the birth, they were told the baby had spina bifida. Happily, baby Alex recovered well from surgery and returned home some weeks after birth.

With Gráinne staying at home to raise the children and garda Matthew travelling to and from Dublin to work from their Paulstown home, they entered the competition on goldenpages.ie, and their story captured the €30,000 Gold Wedding prize.

It capped a remarkable few years for the couple, who shared their wedding with family and friends.

Gráinne said: “Matt really is my best friend, my soul mate and my rock. We are over the moon.”