Читать книгу The Personals - Brian O’Connell - Страница 11

For sale: beautiful medieval-style wedding dress. Never worn. Evening Echo, 2014

Jane lives in a small two-up, two-down in Cork city with her husband and two cats. She studied history at university but a series of illnesses meant that she had to give up her work as a part-time tutor. Two days a week she now works from home – a job, coincidentally, that she found through the classifieds. Jane always wanted a traditional church wedding, but her fiancé wanted something less conventional and more ‘out there’. They compromised and decided on a medieval-themed wedding in a church. Jane ordered her dress, a medieval satin designer gown, from a designer in the United States.

So far so good, but as the day of the wedding grew nearer, the pressure of getting married got to the couple. Ireland was still clawing its way out of recession and the lack of credit on offer from their bank meant they were worried about getting into more debt. Her fiancé had to travel long distances for work so they spent more and more time apart. After weeks of discussion the wedding was postponed.

As you can imagine, the couple and both their families were devastated. ‘My dress was made of cream velvet with large bell sleeves and a criss-cross design in the front and back,’ Jane explains. ‘We had it all planned and everything and for one reason and another it didn’t take place and we put off the wedding for a while.’

Thankfully, this story does have a happy ending and the couple ended up having a medieval blessing on Cape Clear Island in summer 2013. Jane wore a more casual medieval dress for the occasion and her husband dressed as a knight. He wore four patches of colours and a long gown and both arrived at the ceremony carrying large swords. The blessing came from an old Viking text and two ‘druids’ performed the ceremony using ancient stones. ‘We even have an official medieval certificate,’ says Jane. And even though they are both medieval enthusiasts, and her original wedding dress is now up for sale, she says she hasn’t given up hope of a more traditional church wedding at some point in the future. Maybe without the swords.