Winter wonderland for wedded bliss

Despite taking place at the height of our busiest social season, Christmas weddings are growing in popularity. With friends and family all around in the holiday mood, increasing numbers of couples can't wait to tie the knot in the cold mid-winter, writes Catherine Foley.

It was cold and wet the day Daniel O'Donnell married Majella McLennan in Kincasslagh last month. But for the fans, the rain and the cold, if anything, seemed to heighten the sense of drama and romance on that November day.

For couples who want to get married, bare trees and grey skies are in vogue; sunny skies are almost old-fashioned. According to the experts, more and more couples are getting married in winter - the weather is merely a back-drop.

Tara Fay, wedding organiser to the stars, including Westlife's Brian McFadden and Kerry Katona, who had their reception last January at Slane Castle, says Christmas works because "you can be a lot more seasonal than at any other time of the year . . . You can really use the Christmas thing".

Mince pies, mulled wine, carols and turkey and ham are all acceptable at a Christmas wedding, although "flowers are more expensive", she says. Also, she adds, "people are off work, they are in much better moods, they are much more relaxed".

Why is Christmas becoming so popular? Fay says it's possibly because many people prefer wintertime, also because, in the past, "they were supposed to get married in the summer. Maybe people are thinking for themselves". And possibly even rebelling.

"People are going away from the white dress, they are fed up with the same thing," says Claire Garvey, who designed Mary Coughlan's wedding dress this year. "They're going for gold, red, blue, lilac and basically any colour except white."

That includes the slightly outlandish. This year, Garvey designed a dress featuring a bodice made from dried chillies for a woman who met her future husband in Chile!

Wynn Warnock, director of Brides' Fair, which will open at Dublin's Point Theatre on St Valentine's Day next year, says Christmas is fashionable because of the increasing number of honeymoons that involve long-haul holidays to places like Thailand and the Caribbean.

Michael Drumm and Aisling White "didn't want to be depending on a sunny day". And, says Drumm, getting married after Christmas "is a way of catching family and friends who tend to come back at Christmas".

Although the couple were aware there could be some difficulty organising a wedding at this time of year, "it hasn't proved too bad", says Drumm. The post-Christmas period seemed like a good time to get married because, says White, "we wanted to capture the festive mood of the season and combine it with the wedding mood and celebrate with people who are home and people who are off work".

Although she will "not be wearing a red robe", she says the wedding will be traditional with "dinner, speeches and dancing until dawn, hopefully, with family and friends".

Drumm proposed while sitting on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher last Easter. The couple had known each other just over three years at the time. Both clinical psychologists, they will get married on December 27th in the Church of the Assumption in Booterstown. They say the church is heavily booked over this weekend with a wedding after theirs at 3 p.m., two more on Saturday and two on Monday.

A church wedding was the choice for both of them because "it's important for us to mark it in some way", says Drumm. "The idea of getting married and having a reception as well as having a celebration to share with our friends and family was important."

"We felt committed to each other already," says White. Marriage "was a way of formalising that commitment". After the church ceremony, it's off to Johnstown House Hotel in Enfield for the reception.

As for the worry of`Christmas weather hazards, such as flooding, blizzards and fog, White is not concerned at all. "Good weather will only be a bonus. We just hope that driving conditions are not too treacherous," she says. On New Year's Day, the couple head to South America to begin an eight-month trip.

Kilts will feature large at the wedding of Emma Filgas to her Scottish fiancé, Innes Chalmers. The two are getting married on December 30th in Monkstown, Co Dublin.

They have chosen this wintry period because it's a holiday time when friends from San Francisco will be home, and also "because we wanted to seize the day. We didn't want to be engaged for a long period of time".

The proposal "did surprise me", says Filgas, although the two "had been joking about" getting married. The pair were on holidays in Canada on their way to San Francisco when Chalmers took out "the beautiful ring" which he had carefully hidden away with his passport, warning her to take care of the bag on several occasions, she recalls. She immediately said yes. "It's the ultimate sign of commitment. I was ready to do that with him," she says.

Writing the vows and typing up the service sheets for the Church of Ireland ceremony in Monkstown has deepened her sense of certainty about the wedding. "Saying I want to be with him forever, I want to say the vows with visitors there," she says. And she hasn't let planning the wedding become a big production.

"Friends have all helped me . . . I didn't want to let it become too difficult. We're not having a traditional cake, we're having a profiterole tower and karaoke instead of a band. We thought it would be fun."

Chalmers agrees. "We both wanted something quite straightforward but with some personal touches, where all the peripheral things didn't detract from the key part of the day."

Even though the couple only met in September 2001, Chalmers believes marriage "is a public statement both to ourselves and to friends that we are united as man and wife. For us it was always what I planned." Having lived together, he believes that being married "will feel different and feel like something more".

"I grew up in a traditional Scottish family," he explains. "That's what you do if you are going to make a commitment to someone - you get married. It was something I pictured for myself. There was always a church, without question, and it's the church that we attend."

Looking back on the months before they got engaged, Chalmers says he knew he wanted to be with Filgas "from an early stage. I suppose it was a matter of making sure that my heart and my head were going in the same direction".

Denise Tanham and Niall Kelly first met when they were 16. They met again in their 20s and went out together for a year before breaking up when Niall went to Australia. They met again in their 30s and, after one or two false starts, earlier this year they discovered they were "ready to make the ultimate commitment". The pair raised a smile with family and friends when the wedding invitation cards arrived, mischievously featuring Liz Taylor and Richard Burton.

Now, the church is booked, the cake is ordered, the guests are invited, the music has been chosen and the pair are getting married this New Year's Eve at Glenart Castle in Arklow, Co Wicklow.

"It's a life commitment to make that statement. You can jump around it as long as you want and avoid it, but unless you are ready to make that commitment, everything else takes second place," says Kelly.

The week after Christmas had an appeal all its own for the couple. "It's kind of like a night wedding. It will be dark . . . It was the natural thing to do. We were madly in love with each other," Niall says. The pair decided not to wait. It was a question of "let's get it done and stop messing around", explains Kelly.

For Tanham, "it's a time of celebration, and it's nice to have people close around you. The time of year has a nice festive feeling, it's a nice start to the year".

It wasn't the romanceof a church wedding that was uppermost in her mind when they decided to get married. Marriage, she says, "is a belief, it's a worldwide recognition of commitment to each other". But, she adds, as the date gets nearer, the wedding "is becoming more and more traditional, and you get caught up in it".

The couple will get married in St Mary and St Patrick's Church in Avoca - "at the meeting of the waters", Kelly points out. The church part of the day is "the most important part", he adds.

"I like the idea of getting married in a church. I wouldn't be a big fan of the church, but I do believe in a God," Kelly admits. "We've been to a few registry weddings, and while they can be special, they can also be too fast."

Tanham is "really looking forward" to seeing all her friends and family. "I'm hoping to relax all the way through. It will be our wedding day, but I'm hoping everybody will be in festive spirit and have happy faces."