Our Wedding Story: Biker rally romance

Noelle Hyland and Tony Burke Noelle, from Athy in Co Kildare, met farmer Tony in 2012 after a biker rally in his native Co Laois.

“Tony fastened my helmet as I was struggling with it. I’d lost my phone and asked him to keep an eye out for it. That evening he called my friend to say he found it and I travelled to his house that night – where he saw my face for the first time.”

Three months before their wedding, the couple were going through Tony’s old photos and discovered Noelle in a picture he had taken 27 years ago. “He had been dating a girl from my area and I was friends with her sister, so in reality we met many, many moons ago and we were destined to be together, I believe . . . ”

On September 26th, 2015, Noelle and Tony were married in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Rath, Ballybrittas, Co Laois.

Their parents are Tom and Anne Burke and Julia Hyland. Noelle's sisters, Mary, Julie and Elizabeth, and her niece Amanda were maid of honour and bridesmaids. Niece Lilly Akins was flower-girl and Tony's nephew Alex Burke was pageboy. Groomsmen were Darren Burke, Aaron Burke, John Doonan and John Hanlon.

Photograph: Joe Conroy Photography, joeconroy.ie