Wedding of the Week: Westlife congratulations had Aoife and Martin flying without wings

Love spun full circle for Aoife Ivers and Martin McAteer who returned to where it all started on their wedding day.

The couple, based in Midleton, Co Cork, were wed in the Honan Chapel at University College Cork and made an important stop-off at Reardens Bar, Cork, en route to their reception at Kinsale Hotel & Spa.

Because the Washington Street venue is there their paths first crossed, nine years before. “We first met when Aoife was out celebrating finishing her first-year college exams and I was on a Musgrave work night out,” says Martin, from Portarlington, Co Offaly.

Aoife, from Tower, Co Cork, adds: “Martin came up to me with his best chat-up line, and then we exchanged numbers and the rest is history!”

Another historic location set the scene for their engagement, six years later, while they strolled at sunset at Gougane Barra, County Cork, on December 19, 2021. “As I was taking a picture, I turned around to find Martin on one knee behind me,” says Aoife.

Photographer Dermot Sullivan and Greg Mulcahy were behind the lens when the couple exchanged vows in June this year.

Both sets of parents, Ethel and Michael Ivers and Louise and Joseph McAteer, helped them plan their big day, as did the bride’s sisters Aisling Ivers, maid of honour, and Claire Ivers, bridesmaid, and the couple’s wedding coordinator at Kinsale Hotel & Spa, Karolina Pastuszko.

The bride travelled to the church in style with her mother, Ethel, in a wedding car supplied by Kerry company Horans. “This was an amazing start to the best day. It was wonderful to have time with just the two of us, as my mother is my best friend,” says Aoife. “She is one person who made the lead-up and the day very special. My mother helped with every detail, from choosing a venue to being there for every dress fitting. She really is one in a million.”