Our wedding story: Instead of a wedding cake a “dessert room was filled with cakes"

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Journalist Tom Lyons (36) and advertising executive Lynne Andrews (30) first met in 2004. Lynne was heading off to volunteer in Kenya with the charity Suas, of which Tom was chairman.

Four years later, after a Suas event in Dublin and a drink in the Turk’s Head in Temple Bar (which Tom’s great-uncle Tommy Dunne ran in the 1970s), something blossomed.

First, however, Lynne took off for a year on a round-the-world trip with one of her four bridesmaids, Clare Keaveny. Much to Tom’s relief, she came home and they “started going out properly”.

They got engaged on a beach in Mozambique in August 2013. On January 4th, 2015, they were married in Booterstown Church in Dublin by family friend Fr Ned Quinn. (Fun fact: Fr Quinn also married Wayne and Coleen Rooney. )

Music was by singer Ingrid Madsen; Brendan Weakliam, a schoolfriend of Tom's from Terenure College, who sang Let It Be; and the bride's dad, Billy Andrews, who sang The Prayer.

The couple almost broke into a skip as Rebecca Collins, Tom's first editor at Trinity News, sang them down to the aisle to Feist's I Feel it All.

The reception was at Lyons Estate (no relations) in Celbridge, Co Kildare, where the brother of the groom, Eoin Lyons, of LyonsKelly design, had overseen the decor. Instead of a wedding cake, a “dessert room” was filled with meringues, peanut bars, cupcakes, lemon drizzle cake and Camembert cheese provided by family and friends.

The bride’s dress was from Sharon Hoey, along with a custom-made headpiece from Anabel Rose Bridal Wear. Her “something old and borrowed” was a faux-fur wrap from her mum Denise’s aunt, which had been given to Denise. Tom’s ring was melted-down gold from his late grandfather, Tommy Lyons.

With their shared love of adventure, the couple chose to travel 2500km through Sri Lanka for their honeymoon.

We’d love to hear your wedding story. If you’d like to share iT with our readers email weddings@irishtimes.com with a photograph and a little information about your big day

Photographs:

Fionn McCann -

[ studio33weddings.com ]