With its elegant 18th-century architecture, Dublin City Hall was the fabulous venue for the wedding of sales & relationship consultant Déarbhla Smith to professional Muay Thai fighter Dean Keary on the 20th of December, 2025. Captured by Anouska Lovestory, their day was stylish and laid-back, the perfect way to spend a Saturday in Dublin!
The couple met almost 9 years ago on the dating app Bumble (when dating apps were still pretty new to the scene). Déarbhla's friend, who she was living with at uni, was actually the one who swiped right on her behalf! After a few days chatting, the couple arranged to meet in Galway the following weekend, but Dean was a no-show! After some grovelling, his future wife forgave him, and a few days later he came to Limerick, and the rest is history.
"For my 30th birthday, Dean surprised me with a trip to the festival Dark Mofo, an art & culture festival in Tasmania. Tasmania is about an hour's flight from Melbourne, but we wanted our dog, Marsellus Wallace, to come along, so we took the overnight ferry. Dean is terrible at surprises, so I had a feeling a ring was coming! We got engaged the second night we were there over a bottle of wine, and Marsellus got to be a part of the occasion! It was perfect."
Déarbhla's beauty journey consisted of regular facials, acupuncture, Botox, and Tatcha skincare. "I knew I wanted my hair up on the day, so I was trying to grow it out as much as possible but keep it as healthy as I could. For about a year before the wedding, I used a lot of K-18 and R&Co products. However, I knew I was in very good hands with Aoife Gaffney doing my hair and Sue Brophy doing my makeup, so I wasn’t too worried!"
Déarbhla went dress shopping with her mum and sister while on a trip home from Australia, eager for them to be part of the experience and to hear their unfiltered honesty! "I got my dress with Sinead Corcoran at her stunning shop The One in Rathmines. Sinead is just such a legend and is so passionate about what she does. I was quite open-minded, but I knew Sinead had more alternative dresses that were more my style. I was right, and I ended up buying the first dress I tried on!"
"Dean knew he didn’t want anything traditional when it came to his suit, but he struggled to find exactly what he wanted in shops and online. He eventually found Oscar Hunt, who is a custom suit tailor in Melbourne. We went together and worked with Marcus, during which Dean picked the fabric and colours and also requested that they stitch our wedding date into the suit lining. They were amazing to work with and created exactly what he wanted."
Déarbhla didn’t have any formal bridesmaids (not loving the traditional formalities of weddings!), but she did have four of her oldest friends, along with her sister, by her side on the morning of the wedding. The same went for Dean; he had a few of his oldest and closest friends.
"All we wanted was for our ceremony to be fun! Ruth Scott was our celebrant, and she was amazing. We had a DJ instead of singers or musicians, and I walked down the aisle to Pink Pony Club, and by the time I got to Dean, everyone was singing along – it was so special! It really set the tone for the day. The ceremony was very relaxed but touched on all the right things we wanted."
The couple knew they didn’t want a very traditional wedding; they wanted something a bit more relaxed with fewer formalities. So, a Dublin City wedding the week before Christmas sounded perfect. "I worked and lived in Dublin before we moved to Melbourne and always thought City Hall would be such a gorgeous place to get married!"
"We had Velvet DJ for our ceremony and then again after our Band finished up. I found our band, Druher, on Instagram, and although we aren’t the most traditional couple, I thought it fit the vibe! You always have a fear that the dance floor will be empty at your wedding, but this was definitely not the case."
"I don’t have any “worst decisions” because we stayed true to what we wanted. We weren’t pulled into having or doing anything we didn’t want to. Our wedding was definitely a true representation of us as a couple. The best decision we made was to have a full house on the morning of our wedding. There were roughly 20 people coming and going all morning, and we all left together for City Hall."
"Dean and I didn’t separate the night before like most do. We had a great morning together with all of our friends, and those are some of my favourite memories. Having Anouska there to capture our day was definitely another great decision. She completely understood what we wanted, and we’re so grateful to her for giving us the best memories."
- Gráinne