Overlooking its namesake on the banks of the River Boyne, Trim Castle Hotel boasts a magnificent open-air rooftop garden terrace that acted as the stunning venue for the wedding of Tanya Cunningham and Keith McIvor on the 13th of July 2025. Photographed by Kevin Curry Photography, their romantic, unseasonably sunny ceremony set the tone for a day filled with laughter, music, and heartfelt moments.
The pair met on a night out in Dundalk, but didn't actually catch up for a first date until a few weeks later. After their first date, Keith flew to Scotland to go mountain biking with friends. The next morning at around 5 am, Keith rang Tanya from the top of Ben Nevis, asking if he could take her out on another date. Being a little cheeky, he told him he could take her out again if he sang a love song down the phone. Straight away, Tanya was treated to a rendition of “As long as you love me” by the Backstreet Boys, and the deal was sealed.
"In December of 2019, Keith and I had just received the keys to our new home. To celebrate, we booked a few days away in Amsterdam. While we were there, I think it was the first evening, actually, I noticed Keith was acting a little strange. He was quite agitated and seemed a little nervous, so as we sat down for our first beverage at a lovely little bar along the canal, I asked him what was wrong. He blurted out that he wanted to ask me to marry him, and he simply couldn't keep it in any longer. Luckily, he had already asked my father for permission, so I assured him I would say “yes”. The next morning, we got up early and went to nearly every jewellery store we could find in the city. As evening came, I started to give up hope that we would find a ring I loved, but believe it or not, the very last jewellers we went into had my perfect ring in the window display. So we went in, bought the ring, and Keith officially got down on one knee on a bridge across the canal in front of the jewellery store."
Tanya started prepping her skin three months prior to the wedding. Meticulously sticking to a cleansing, toner and moisturising routine with Image skincare and receiving sessions of micro-needling with exosome serum to reduce fine lines and give a more plump appearance. "My favourite perfume for many years now has been Samsara by Guerlain, so I knew I wanted to wear it on my wedding day. It has a beautiful, fresh smell, and I love that a little spray lasts all day. I only had a small drop left in my own bottle, but luckily, my very attentive bridesmaids gave me a new bottle the night before our wedding as my “something new."
"So the story of picking my wedding dress is a little unorthodox. I actually left it a little late to start looking for a dress, only 5 months before the wedding. I did some searching online beforehand, but didn't really find anything I liked. I googled bridal stores near Drogheda, where we lived, and found a store about half an hour away that had beautiful dresses on its website. As my mum and sister lived in Australia and my other bridesmaids were working, I decided to venture over to have a little look myself, with absolutely no intentions of buying a dress. I had it in my head that I wanted a lace dress, long sleeves and quite fitted. So when I arrived, the very helpful bridal consultant brought out lots of lace dresses for me to try. Just as I was about to leave, the lady decided to bring out one last dress from the “off the rack” section to try on. I absolutely fell in love with it! As luck would have it, the dress was going in the off-the-rack sale the next morning, and there wasn't enough time before the wedding to get it custom-made. So, the decision had to be made there and then….and I said Yes to the dress!"
"Originally, when we were talking about the wedding, we were thinking of going black suits for the groom and groomsmen, and ivory with the bridesmaids, but after looking at some suit and dress options, Keith and I actually preferred the Navy. I've always thought navy is a very rich, classy colour, and when combined with all-white roses, which I wanted for the bouquets and buttonholes, it was just perfect. So we decided on a navy velvet suit jacket, black trousers, white shirt with black buttons, black dickie bow and black patent shoes for Keith."
Tanya's sister Alisha was her maid of honour; her best friend of over 20 years, Kelly, and Keith's sister Lisa stood in as bridesmaids. "I actually had a tough time finding bridesmaid dresses as my sister lives in Australia, and my best friend lived in Athlone at the time, so it was impossible to get them together to try anything on." Knowing the colour and design she was looking for, Tanya found a company online called Dessy that had hundreds of styles and colours of bridesmaid dresses, all made to fit. The only problem was that it's an American company, and in Ireland, you can only order it from Dessy group stockists. Luckily, she found one not too far away at The Starla boutique in Dublin, and six weeks later, they arrived in perfect condition, just as beautiful as they looked online.
"The only words to describe our ceremony are 'pure magic'! Trim Castle Hotel has a stunning rooftop area overlooking the castle itself, so we were keeping fingers and toes crossed that we could have the ceremony up there if it was a nice day. I was checking the weather forecast every day for 3 weeks beforehand, and it was expecting rain. About a week before, the forecast changed, and we had one of the hottest days in Ireland this year. 360 degrees of pure blue skies. We were blessed with the weather. Looking back at our ceremony photos, you’d swear we were in Spain or Greece. My favourite part of our ceremony was our vows. We chose to incorporate personal vows along with traditional ones. To hear your partner speak from the heart in front of all your loved ones was such an emotional experience. As overwhelming as it can be, I would recommend personal vows to everyone!"
After Keith and Tanya got engaged in 2019, they started looking at a few venues, but when Covid hit, everything was put on hold. So 5 years later, the pair decided to start looking again. "I found an online advertisement for a wedding fair at Trim Castle hotel and Keith, and I decided to go over and have a look. To be honest, we thought the venue was really lovely, but seeing the castle view from the rooftop for the ceremony sealed the deal." The two loved the ceremony most; the view of Trim Castle as they exchanged vows was an absolute dream!
"The best advice I received while organising our wedding was that your guests will be happy if they have good food and entertainment. I decided to have continuous entertainment throughout the entire reception so our guests wouldn't get bored. Firstly, while our guests were finding their seats at their tables, a pianist was playing. After he finished, we had a magician doing interactive entertainment at each table. Once the speeches were finished, we had a traditional Irish band with Irish dancers perform. They were amazing, because they involved our guests by bringing them up to learn traditional ceili dancing. The dance floor was full even before the main band started. Our main band, called Arthur, was recommended to us by our friends who had been to a wedding they had played at, and said they were fantastic. We saw some of their music on YouTube as well, and believe me, they were amazing online, but incredible in person."
- Gráinne