The real wedding we're sharing today is so cool and colourful, it's easily forgotten that it took place during a Covid-19 lockdown! Cíara and Will had to downsize their guest list to comply with restrictions, but they ended up having such a great day, they now encourage every engaged couple they meet to have a small wedding! They kicked off their day with an electric City Hall ceremony, followed by takeaway pints at their very favourite pub, The Dame Tavern, and a sit-down meal with speeches at The Devlin. The marvellous John Gillooley was on hand to document their Dublin city wedding, and did such a brilliant job of the pair's portraits, we honestly can't wait any longer to share them with you!

Cíara tells us that she met Will at a gig she was playing in The Mercantile in Dublin. "My brother had asked his friends from college to come and they brought their friends, including Will," she says. "I was very hungover and not in the mood for chatting but he put the moves on me after the gig and we hit it off. He told his friend during a song I was playing that he was going to ask me out. He did, and the rest is history!"

Years later, Will picked a gorgeous spot in which to pop the question. "We went for a drive up to Ticknock to walk the dog," Cíara remembers. "We stopped to take photographs of the view of Dublin, as we had never been before. I turned around after a few minutes and Will was down on one knee. I asked him what he was doing down there, it took me a few seconds to clock what was going on!"

Cíara and Will tell us that the number one priority for their wedding was to have "a chilled, relaxed day. We wanted to spend time with the people we love and have the craic with them, have loads of drinks and make it a day to remember, which we did."

The post-ceremony bar was one of the couple's favourite touches. "Will works in the drinks industry and a close friend set up a bar for us," Cíara says. "He handed a pint of Guinness to my Dad as soon as the ceremony was over, which charmed him. We had bubbles and G&Ts. Amazing. Another of his friends organised fabulous canapés too."

It took this pair no time at all to settle on Dublin city as the location for their wedding. "We spend a lot of time in town going for pints with our friends and our dog, so a city wedding was a no brainer," Cíara says. "And City Hall is a ready-made gorgeous setting. We went for dinner in The Devlin and loved it, the venue itself is so chilled, with very cool decor, so it was right up our street. The staff are so sound and went above and beyond for us."

Hoe gorgeous does Cíara look!? She paired her Folkster wedding dress with a handmade bridal crown by Emma Larkin Design.

The couple adored having their drinks reception on the streets of Dublin city! Cíara explains, "The Dame Tavern (The Damer, our favourite pub) brought tables and chairs out into the sunshine for us so we had inside outside, our whole wedding party had its own little part of The Damer to ourselves. We had pints, and toasties were delivered from Griolladh (set up in The Globe kitchen at the time) to keep everyone going between ceremony and dinner in The Devlin. The staff in The Damer couldn’t have done any more for us. That was pretty special."

I love that Will plumbed for a colourful groomswear look, and that his groomsmen followed suit (excuse the pun)! They all sourced their wedding-day looks on ASOS.

How cool is this table plan!?

This couple really leaned in to the advantages of having a small wedding. "As the numbers at the time were at 25, we knew we could get away with things that we wouldn’t have if we had bigger numbers, like a bar for our guests in City Hall and toasties outside the Dame Tavern," Cíara tells us. "Everyone got on like a house on fire, we had friends there who had to leave their other halves at home and the whole group gelled so well. It was a great buzz all day and night."

Cíara and Will's advice to engaged couples is to, "have a small wedding, restrictions or no restrictions! It was intimate and we got to enjoy our guests’ company."

Thanks so much to Cíara and Will for sharing their gorgeous Dublin city wedding with us, and to John Gillooley for providing the beautiful imagery! There are more in the gallery below, so be sure to take a look through!