{"id":205049,"date":"2025-11-28T16:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/205049\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:21:12","slug":"couple-who-met-while-studying-at-cit-tie-the-knot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/205049\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple who met while studying at CIT tie the knot\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan Buckley, from Ballincollig, and Carole Kelly, from Letterkenny in Donegal, first met while studying at the then Cork Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

At the time, Alan was pursuing a course in biomedical engineering while Carole was studying sustainable energy engineering.<\/p>\n

The couple clicked after being set up on a double date by two of their friends that were dating. \u201cFrom then on, Alan tried to prove to me that Cork is as good as Donegal so every date tried to outdo the last one,\u201d said Carole.<\/p>\n

\"AlanAlan and Carole were married at the Church of the Assumption in Collooney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The couple moved to Basel in Switzerland four years ago, with Alan proposing at Oeschinensee, a glacier lake in the Swiss mountains, in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were going on another summer hike with our friends, Luke and Sara, but there was a big plan in place,\u201d said Carole.<\/p>\n

The couple returned to Ireland earlier this month where they were married at the Church of the Assumption in Collooney in Sligo by Father Martin.<\/p>\n

The bride\u2019s gown was sourced in a boutique in Barcelona. \u201cMy something blue was a sapphire on the arch of my heels, something new were my earrings, something borrowed was my aunt\u2019s tennis bracelet, and something old was my gran\u2019s old kilt pin to hold up my train,\u201d said Carole.<\/p>\n

Alan wore a black tux with a velvet tuxedo jacket and his late grandfather\u2019s cufflinks. He also wore a thistle to remember his late Nan who was from Scotland.<\/p>\n

The couple were joined on the day by their parents Margaret Kelly, and Cormac and Debbie Buckley, as well as Carole\u2019s grandmother Mary, who is 94 years old.<\/p>\n

\"CormacCormac and Debbie Buckley, the bride and groom, Margaret Kelly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Friends and family from Cork and Donegal as well as London, Edinburgh, Denmark, Switzerland, Dubai, and Australia, traveled to Sligo for the occasion.<\/p>\n

Alan and Carole\u2019s best friends Jenna and Steve were the maid of honour and the best man. Bridesmaids and groomsmen were Laura and Gavin, Lauren and Martin, Luke and Sara, and Isla and Shane. The flower girls were Aoife and Lia, and the page boy was Tadhg.<\/p>\n

After the ceremony, the couple held a reception for their guests at Markree Castle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our friends and families mixed from Cork and Donegal, we tried to make this a memorable wedding because there probably wouldn\u2019t be a time when everyone was all together again,\u201d the couple said.<\/p>\n

\"AlanAlan and Carole with their bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls Aoife and Lia and page boy Tadhg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A highlight of the day for the couple were the speeches by their parents and bridal party which \u201csurpassed anything we expected\u201d.<\/p>\n

Music at the reception was by the Late Night Radio Band while the couple\u2019s first dance was to Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.<\/p>\n

Planning a wedding in Ireland from Switzerland is no easy feat and two months before the wedding, the couple engaged the services of Olivia O\u2019Donnell from Ireland West Weddings to assist with the planning. \u201cShe was our hands and ears on the ground and crossed every \u2018t\u2019 and dotted every \u2018i\u2019 that she could,\u201d the couple said.<\/p>\n

\"AlanAlan and Carole Buckley outside Markree Castle in Sligo. The couple first met while at college in Cork.\tPictures: Gemma Dunne<\/p>\n

Park Lane Cakes Sligo made \u201cthe most amazing gluten-free cake and cupcakes we have ever tasted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Photos were by Gemma Dunne @yourwildthing, the videographers were Tom and Abby Halpin @whitepheonixweddingfilms, and the content creator was Kellie @evergreen_by_kellie. \u201cThey were the dream team to capture our whole wedding. They were so calm and positive I couldn\u2019t recommend them enough,\u201d the couple said.<\/p>\n

The wedding celebrations continued into the following day with guests enjoying a host of games and activities in the castle..<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter dinner, we had magnificent trad music, and the DJ took the dance floor again,\u201d the couple said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alan Buckley, from Ballincollig, and Carole Kelly, from Letterkenny in Donegal, first met while studying at the then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,24593,24594],"class_list":{"0":"post-205049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-wedding","13":"tag-wedding-of-the-week"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115628244362049762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}