Mayos maeve says i do in new tv series

A WEEK To My Wedding is a brand new six-part RTÉ One series, starting on Thursday, September 3.

The first episode features Maeve O’Hara from Tiernaur and Brendan Kenny from Tipperary who come back from London to get married in Westport.

In each episode, cameras follow one Irish couple in the week before their big day capturing the couple’s family reunions, final DIY efforts, hair appointments, etc. The cameras are embedded with the family and the programme is a private insight into what it is like for a couple preparing for one of the biggest milestones in their lives.

Maeve and Brendan had a London Underground themed wedding because they are living in London.

The couple met in Galway in 2011 when Maeve was on a girls night out and Brendan was on a stag. Having graduated from NUI Galway, Maeve was looking for work in the field of health and safety. With jobs thin on the ground in Ireland, she was forced to look further a field. Six months after they met, Maeve made the move to London having secured a position with London Underground. 

For two years, the young couple lived for weekends - the airport, bus and train stations became their second home. It wasn’t easy. Brendan, a primary school teacher, moved over in July 2013 having secured a full-time teaching job. Now both settled and loving their lives in London, there was never a doubt that they wouldn’t come home to Ireland to get married.

Many brides would be envious of Brendan! With Brendan on his summer holidays from school, and Maeve choosing to use her holidays for their honeymoon in Thailand, he starts the week to the wedding in Ireland on his own – but he has a long ‘to do’ list, with final hotel preparations, printing of Mass booklets, collecting the right coloured ribbons and checking the cake. 

The theme of their wedding is based around the Jubilee and Metropolitan tube line. They both use these tube lines to get to work and the colours worked well together.

Maeve loved her wedding dress and her antique brooch bouquet so much so that she didn’t want to fly home with them. Instead she decided to make a 12-hour journey from London home to Mayo – by train, boat and car.   

Their wedding ceremony has an extra important element that means a great deal to the couple. Brendan’s oldest friend, Fr. Vincent Stapleton, recently ordained, is their second celebrant. 

With 225 family and friends gathering to celebrate their marriage, Maeve, a grade eight pianist, has a surprise up her sleeve for Brendan.