We got married on August 1, 1975, so 50 years ago this year. My wife, Mary, is from Waterford so we had our wedding in a small village outside Tramore called Corbally.
The ceremony was held in Our Lady’s Church in Corbally and afterwards the reception was in Corballymore House, which was a hotel and wedding venue at the time.
The weather was good on the day, which it often is that time of year, so we were lucky. The wedding date was on a bank holiday weekend.
We chose that day because my shop would be closed on the bank holiday and we could relax a bit more and enjoy the weekend and the time away afterwards.
It was a black-tie wedding, and obviously, we got all the suits from my shop. We wore a classic tuxedo dress suit with a black bow tie and crisp, white dress shirt.
At the time, 50 years ago, black tie would have been common enough, and nowadays, we’re starting to see a lot more grooms choosing black tie, too. It’s not the norm, but it’s becoming more popular because men feel like they’re more dressed up in a tuxedo.
My wife looked lovely in her wedding dress, but back then, there wasn’t as much emphasis on the bride’s dress as there is now. So it would have been simple but elegant. She had two bridesmaids — her sister Pauline and my sister Jackie.
We had around 150 or 160 guests at the wedding. It was a country wedding, but it was a typical enough size for a country wedding at the time. The style was pretty typical with a lot of hats on the women, which would have very much been the custom at the time.
We got engaged about a year before the wedding, and we were together about six months before we got engaged. In those days, things happened a bit quicker, and it was very much like if you knew it was right, you got married.
In 1975, weddings weren’t the big production they are now so I don’t remember doing any planning or worrying about what kind of napkins or what our colour theme was. You just turned up on the day really!
I wasn’t nervous at all on the morning. I suppose, I was looking forward to the day itself and being with our families. And we weren’t focused on the details. The church itself was a lovely small church just outside Waterford city, and the ceremony, I can’t remember the priest’s name, but he did a lovely ceremony.
It was a big social event really with all our close and extended families, aunts, uncles, cousins, and then friends too. We wouldn’t see them day to day really so it was a nice event having everyone together.
The photographs were taken outside the church after the ceremony. The photos were a bit simpler then and more focused on the family and the different family units, rather than an exhaustive photo session.
At the reception then in Corballymore House we had the usual things like the speeches; I made a short speech on the day. And we had a band then after the meal. We had a first dance alright but I can’t remember the tune!
My mother would have been a good singer so she got up and sang a song or two. That was very much something we did at the time, people would have been up for a sing song, and getting up to sing on the stage.
Of course, back then, you used to go straight from the wedding on your honeymoon. So late that night after the dancing and everything we set off for Kelly’s in Rosslare for our honeymoon. All our guests came outside to cheer us on and wave us off.
I remember too there were all the tin cans attached to the car and shaving cream all over the car. Everyone who saw you knew exactly where you were off to!
I was driving the car myself so we made our way to Rosslare. On the way we were chatting about the day. It had been a good day and everyone was happy and had a good time so we were delighted.
We spent two nights in Rosslare, and later then, on August 29, we went on a longer honeymoon to Majorca. I remember that day well because it was the day that Éamon de Valera died, so the date stuck in my head. We were in Majorca then for about 10 days, and that was lovely.
- Louis Copeland & Sons was founded in 1933 and is a fourth generation family-run business. Along with its flagship store on Capel Street in Dubin, it has three other stores in Dublin, a store in Galway and one in Cork.
