{"id":668846,"date":"2026-09-02T14:16:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/668846\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T14:16:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T14:16:29","slug":"from-devastation-to-pure-love-couple-finds-venue-after-hotel-closes-two-days-before-wedding-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/668846\/","title":{"rendered":"From devastation to pure love: Couple finds venue after hotel closes two days before wedding \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aimee Palmer and Cathal Nolan had spent two years planning their wedding<\/a> but \u2013 after an unexpected phone call last week \u2013 had less than two days to find a new venue.<\/p>\n

Their original location, the Glasson Lakehouse in Co Westmeath<\/a>, had to temporarily close last Wednesday after a norovirus outbreak<\/a>. The couple was due to get married there on Friday. <\/p>\n

Nolan\u2019s phone rang at about 3.30pm on Wednesday. It was a staff member from the hotel, confirming the venue was closed with immediate effect. <\/p>\n

The couple, both 30, are originally from Galway<\/a> but live in Dublin. They had chosen Athlone as a midway point. About 150 people were expected to attend the wedding, including loved ones who had flown in from Australia. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a joke, then I ran downstairs to tell Aimee,\u201d Nolan says of the phone call. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat hour and a half was horrific \u2013 just trying to cope with it and then figure out the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmer says the couple felt \u201cpure devastation\u201d and thought the wedding might not happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cAre we still getting married? Realistically, it could be next year. It could be another two years before we get married.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the initial shock wore off, Palmer says, the couple knew they wanted \u201cto get married on Friday no matter what, even if it\u2019s just the church and a meal, or we all come back to our house in Dublin\u201d.<\/p>\n

They told the bridal party what had happened and \u2013 once everyone realised it wasn\u2019t a joke \u2013 people started calling venues in different counties to see if anywhere was available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually got engaged on April Fool\u2019s Day, so we said it all feels quite fitting,\u201d Palmer laughs.<\/p>\n

\"AimeeAimee Palmer and her husband, Cathal Nolan, got married in Galway. Photograph: Syona Photography <\/p>\n

Her cousin contacted the Salthill Hotel in Galway and, before long, the venue called her back to say they could host the wedding on Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt actually felt like a knight in shining armour coming to save us, my shoulders completely dropped,\u201d Palmer says.<\/p>\n

A church was sorted within five minutes. Nolan\u2019s grandmother Maureen just had to make one phone call.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the easiest part. My granny reads Mass every weekend and does a lot of work in [St Ignatius Church] in Galway,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"GlassonGlasson Lakehouse, Co Westmeath. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Alternative venues found for couples due to have weddings at norovirus-hit Westmeath venueOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Salthill Hotel has a special significance for Palmer\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents got married there in 1988, and then my sister got married there in 2022,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we were kind of laughing, saying, \u2018Look, Aimee, you could have just booked it in the first place if you wanted to end up here, avoiding all this drama.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Within a few hours last Wednesday, everything came together.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, we got the call at 3.30pm and by maybe 6.30pm nearly everything was in place,\u201d Palmer says. <\/p>\n

The couple was also able to secure Blackrock Cottage for a day-two celebration and O\u2019Gradys on the Pier for a dinner the night before the wedding, as well as accommodation for their guests. <\/p>\n

\"AimeeAimee Palmer and Cathal Nolan celebrate their wedding in Galway. Photograph: Syona Photography <\/p>\n

All 153 guests were able to attend as planned. Priests, musicians, and the hair and make-up team all changed plans to make sure they could be there. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single one of them came to Galway, and it was no questions asked,\u201d Palmer says.<\/p>\n

The fact that everything worked out so quickly \u201creally felt like\u201d the couple was always supposed to get married in Galway, she adds. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything just felt very serendipitous that the universe just wanted us to get married in Salthill, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the weather played ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had our Child of Prague in training, thinking he\u2019d be in the midlands, but we woke up on Friday morning and the sun was shining over Blackrock. We heard it was raining pretty much everywhere else in the country,\u201d Palmer says.<\/p>\n

Speaking from their honeymoon in Sorrento, she says the couple was \u201cblown away\u201d by the hospitality shown by the people who stepped up in their \u201chour of need\u201d. She says Salthill Hotel, in particular, \u201ccouldn\u2019t have done enough for us, they went above and beyond\u201d.<\/p>\n

Palmer says it felt like \u201cthe whole of Galway\u201d, as well as their families and friends, rallied behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have ever or will ever feel love like we did those past few days. The energy across the whole weekend was something I\u2019d never felt before …<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were dealt a very unlucky hand but we feel, coming out of that weekend, that we are the luckiest people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second wedding was due to take place at Glasson Lakehouse last weekend; this couple also found a new venue. It is understood that the luxury hotel will reopen in the coming days.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tenerife wedding planner that closed suddenly says those chasing money are \u2018wasting\u2019 their timeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aimee Palmer and Cathal Nolan had spent two years planning their wedding but \u2013 after an unexpected phone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[18,1878,135,19,17,7263,19871],"class_list":["post-668846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-eire","tag-galway","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-weddings","tag-westmeath"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117201875581215617","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668846","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=668846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}