A Musical Wedding: Claire and BrendanS Limerick Party

Limerick-based couple Claire Heffernan and Brendan Long met while singing in the same choir, so music played a central role in their wedding day.

The groom confesses he awoke that morning “hoping that Lidl had enough pastries to feed the choir.” “There were no nerves, and marrying Claire felt like the most natural thing in the world,” he says.

The bride adds: “We dreamed of a ceremony that felt like a reunion concert of our music friends from diffrent parts of our lives, with singers from choirs we were in and are in, musicians from when Brendan used to be in the army band in Cork, and from when I was in Cork School of music.”

Claire, from Limerick, and Brendan, from Waterford, were wed in st John’s Cathedral, Limerick, by Fr Niall Mackey, the bride’s grand-uncle, in a Mass co-celebrated by Fr Sean Harmon.

“Our biggest memory is sitting in the church, surrounded by 50 of our friends making music for us – it felt like magic,” says Claire. “All of our ceremony music was important – so much so that we added our personal ‘program notes’ to our mass booklets, telling the stories of how we chose each song and its meaning to us and our story! For the entrance music (‘The Ground’ by Ola Gjeilo) we had choir and orchestra, conducted by our friend, Daniel. It felt absolutely regal walking down the aisle.”

Claire, a singer/musician primarily in the wedding industry, and Brendan, who works in the tech industry, first met in Cork in 2012.

“I joined a choir called Voci Nuove and Brendan was already a member of it. We were friends first and became an item in May 2014,” says Claire. “We got engaged in August 2023 in Magic Kingdom, Disney World, Orlando.”

The reception was in Ashley Park House,Limerick.

Pictures: Black Diamond Photography