Bride: ‘We are told not to hug – and I’m a big hugger!’
It will (hopefully) be a case of third time lucky for Mullingar bride-to-be Aisling Mortell when she walks up the aisle in the Cathedral of Christ the King this Thursday.
Aisling and her fiancé Michael Beglan were originally due to tie the knot on April 16 last in front of 150 of their family and friends and to have a reception in the Annebrook House Hotel.
Once the Covid-19 pandemic reached Ireland, the couple initially rescheduled for May 28. However, as the crisis escalated and lockdown was extended, Aisling and Michael were forced to changed the date once more, to September 24.
Due to restrictions on the number of people that can attend indoor gatherings, Aisling and Michael have whittled down the wedding party from 150 and 30.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Aisling says that while she is looking forward to tying the knot with her partner of nine years, being a Covid bride has taken some of the gloss off the build-up.
“It’s very hard to get excited – which is a big part of being the bride. You are meant to be so excited but it is very hard because you don’t know [if it will go ahead]. Until I am walking up the aisle and Micheál Martin isn’t popping out from behind a pillar, I won’t believe it,” she joked.
“We have been working very closely with Orla in the Annebrook trying to get everything done. We have reduced our numbers massively. It’s a big, big thing but at the end of the day, it is to keep everyone we love safe.”
Although they will be holding a big party next year for all of those who won’t be there, cutting the guest list has been one of the most difficult parts of the whole process, Aisling says.
“It was heartbreaking, it really was. One of the hardest parts was cutting all the friends who had invited us to their weddings, all our family members. I have a little cousin who is only two next year and her parents bought her a special dress she could twirl at the wedding and she won’t be there now. I will miss her very much.
“A lot of extended family won’t get to be there. We know the cathedral has a webcam, which is one thing, people will get to watch it online if they want to. We have had to adapt, but it is very different to what we had planed.”
Aisling says that informing friends and family that they won’t be attending the wedding was made a bit easier by the level of understanding that they displayed in these most unusual of times.
“I have always adored both of our families but the way they took it on the chin – we have had people ringing us, some aunts and uncles saying ‘give our place to someone else, it would be wasted on us’; these are people we absolutely adored and were on top of our list but they rang and volunteered so that other people could go. It has made me realise how wonderful our families are because they have got us through this.”
Aside from the significantly reduced numbers, Covid-19 restrictions dictate that the wedding will be over at 11.30pm. Other parts of the big day will also have to be adapted, things that pre-Covid-19 couples took for granted.
“We assumed that our mothers would bring up the gifts but there won’t be any of that. There is no Sign of Peace, there is no greeting line, when the bride and groom stand at the door and all the guests come past.
“You are advised not to hug and that is a huge difficulty for me, because I am a complete hugger. It was what I was looking forward to most. We will probably do a version of it but it will probably be a fist bump or an elbow tap. All of traditions that you think of at a wedding – they have all been adapted and changed.
“We are hearing a lot of people say that a small wedding is better and we hope that is true for us as well.”