Couple who said ‘I do’ find out by chance they didn’t

A Dublin couple who spent thousands on a dream wedding in a romantic village in northern Italy discovered two years later that they were not married at all, a court has heard.

Secretary Eimear Byrne told a judge in the Circuit Civil Court of her horror when she realised if “God forbid” anything had happened to either of them, they would not have been considered next of kin.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane, awarding Eimear and her husband Glenn Richardson €36,000 damages, said the couple were very fortunate to discover by chance that they were not married.

Eimear and her carpenter husband, Glenn, told their barrister Peter Shanley they only discovered they were not married when two years after their Italian wedding they went to their solicitor Patrick O’Neill to re-mortgage their house at Greenwood Avenue, Blunden Drive, Dublin 13.

Mr O’Neill told them they needed a marriage certificate. When they looked for one through the Italian authorities they were told they had no record of their marriage.

They were never married because they failed to notify their intentions of holy matrimony to the marriage registry office in Riva del Garda, Italy.

“We had paid €16,000 for our wedding and reception for 36 guests who had flown out to share our very special day,” Eimear told the court.

“Since I was a little girl I had dreamed of my wedding day which should have been Jul 7, 2005, before a priest in that little church in Riva del Garda.

“Instead my wedding anniversary now is Aug 13, 2007 following an accelerated marriage appointment before the registrar of civil marriages in Dublin.”

As a result of attending a wedding fair at the RDS the couple had hired Vernon Travel Limited, trading as The Travel Broker, Vernon Avenue, Contarf, and Tony Collins Travel Agency Limited, trading as Topflight, to handle the travel and wedding plans.

They said they had never been informed they had to register their marriage.

Judge Linnane refused a stay on her order sought by The Travel Broker to facilitate consideration of appeal to the High Court.

Mr Shanley opposing the application said Ms Byrne, who had already suffered a lot of stress, was currently 28 weeks pregnant.