Our Wedding Story: my hastily-bought place-holder ring was too big

[ irishtimes.com/weddings ]

Conor McGreevy from Leitrim and Niloo Sarafan from Flensburg in Germany met through friends in London and started going out in 2011. Romance flourished further when Niloo left south London and moved north where Conor was living.

He proposed at the highest point of Val Thorens ski resort and “after what felt like a lifetime she agreed. I pulled out my hastily-bought Argos place-holder ring and slipped it on her hand. It was too big for her.”

Conor, who works for HBSC Bank, and Niloo, head of Cemea B2B content sales for the Financial Times, have both lived in different countries over the years and the nationalities of the 107 guests at their wedding on March 14th at Palmerstown House in Co Kildare reflected that.

They came from Argentina, India, Australia, the US, Germany, Greece, the UK, Colombia and Ireland.

Niloo’s dress was from Mia Sposa in London and Conor’s suit was a Paul Smith. The groomsmen were Ronan, Paul and John McGreevy and the bridesmaids and bridesman were Eddie Register (chief bridesman), Katherine Bain and Claudia Schneidereit.

The groom confessed to initial reservations about getting married in March in Ireland. “But the gods blessed us on the day and although the weather was cold, the light was amazing and really brought the venue to life. To mark the meeting of cultures we had poems and prayers in German, Gaelic, English and Farsi, as Niloo is of Iranian origin.”

A highlight of the day was, according to Conor, “Despite the mix of nationalities and ages, everybody gelled – and with the wine and the music, people who hadn’t known each other prior to the wedding were dancing arm-in-arm on the dancefloor.”

The Camembert Quartet added “that special sparkle to the day” and they credit Paddy Cullivan (aka Clint Velour) for enticing even the shyest guests onto the floor for a dance. “There was the obligatory Irish sing-song at the end of the night,” said the groom, “until finally the staff sent us all off on our merry way.”

Photographs: Wanderley Massafelli of Massafelli Photography, massafelliphotography.com

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