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When Aine McGarrigle walked up the aisle to marry a Fitzpatrick she was following in her sister’s footsteps.
Aine tied the knot with Colm Fitzpatrick in May — nearly a year after her older sister wed his older brother.
The two brides met the two brothers more than five years ago.
Aine and her sister, Niamh, from Four Winds in Belfast, worked at the Bank of Ireland with Colm’s brother, Paul.
Banks are not the most popular institution at the moment but this one has certainly promoted the institution of marriage.
On social occasions with the bank staff, Aine began checking out Paul’s brother.
“We went out for about five years,” Aine said.
“I got to know him through his brother who worked at the Bank of Ireland and then he started to go out with my sister.”
Keeping it in the family, the romance was declared official at the christening of Aine’s nephew, Tiernan, who was pageboy at their wedding.
“We got engaged in New York in December 2008 which was a big surprise,” she said.
“I thought we were going to London to see Mamma Mia in the West End but when we got to the airport I saw he typed in New York in the boarding pass machine.”
Colm knew Aine was a big fan of New York city after she had visited one Christmas time with friends.
“It was a very romantic long weekend break,” she said. “I was just delighted to go to New York but then he proposed to me at the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Centre.
“It is meant to be the biggest Christmas tree in the city.
“He started being very sentimental and then I realised he was going to propose.”
A delighted Aine said ‘yes’ and the wedding was booked for the bank holiday weekend in May 2011.
Northern Ireland’s weather can shake even the best laid plans as Aine was horrified when the heavens opened and hailstones fell |on the morning of the wedding.
“We were in the hairdressers and I was freaking out because I thought we were going to get drenched,” she said.
In the end the weather stayed dry apart from the wind playing havoc with Aine’s veil.
The couple got married in the Good Shepherd Church on the Ormeau Road, with Aine’s sister the Maid of Honour, and the reception was held afterwards in the Stormont Hotel.
“We got our photos taken during a dry spell in Stormont Park,” she said. “There were busloads of Japanese tourists waving and cheering at us which was a bit embarrassing.”
Aine praised the reception and the “gorgeous” food at the Stormont Hotel.
She also had special praise for the wedding band The Untouchables who went to the lengths of learning a song they requested for the wedding.
“We’re not a really ‘lovey, dovey’ couple, so we requested a bit of a joke song from the film The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler, I Wanna Grow Old With You – it was a really great day,” she said.
After the honeymoon in Jamaica and Florida, it was back to earth with a bang as Aine had to start a new job – guess where? – still in the bank.
