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Irish Examiner

My Wedding Day with Alison Curtis: 'My uncle walked me down the aisle and my aunt made a speech'

We got married on September 9, 2007, in Canada, in a place called The Old Mill, which is just outside of Toronto. We decided to do it in Canada because my family is really big and Anton's family is really small, so it made sense to do it that way. We had the ceremony in a chapel in the Old Mill, but it wasn't religious ceremony. The celebrant was a minister, but it was a civil wedding. My family scenario was that my parents had passed when I was a teenager, so I have a lot of aunts and uncles that had significant roles in my life, so I was trying to get them involved — my uncle walked me down the aisle and my aunt made a speech. There were around 50 at the actual wedding, and that was cousins, aunts, and uncles. My husband had a friend who flew over for his best man role, and my twin sister was my best woman. I also had two friends stand up with me at the main table but they just wore whatever they wanted to wear. I did wear a wedding dress, which I had made. I saw a dress that was very 1950s in Rathfarnham and this woman had the material for the dress in the shop and said, I'll make it for you, and it was perfect, and cost maybe €100. My sister had a light blue bridesmaid dress. Alison Curtis on her wedding day. I had flown into Toronto earlier that week, and then my husband and his family flew in two days beforehand. My sister organised a really nice event the night before we got married. It was in a lovely place in downtown Toronto called the Bedford Inn. Afterwards myself, my sister, and my two friends went back to The Old Mill, and we stayed there overnight. I remember getting up the next morning and having breakfast, and then the makeup artist arrived, and it was just really quite relaxed. But I'd been so relaxed about the whole wedding anyway. You see our engagement was really short — I asked Anton to marry me in February of 2007 and then I said let's set the date for September. We'd been together for almost five years and had a house together so I just wanted to get married. So, as you can imagine the lead up was short, and there wasn't enough time really to get stressed. Alison Curtis getting ready to walk down the aisle with her uncle. So the ceremony flew by, I don't really remember much of it. For the reception myself and my husband had put together a playlist. We spent a long time on the playlist — it was about four hours long — and we had all our favourite songs on there but also some dance songs for the older generation, a bit of Elvis thrown in. That's maybe my one regret though, is not getting a DJ for the reception. Like people were up dancing for sure, and the music was great but I think a DJ would have added to it. Our first dance was Tougher Than The Rest by Bruce Springsteen. My husband is in a band, and he was in bands when I met him, and I was a DJ as well at the time so music was a big connection; we met at a gig in Whelan's. Whenever I was talking to friends, I talked about my love of Bruce. I fell in love with him in my teenage years. At the time, I was probably 20 years younger than the average Bruce fan, and a woman. I'm obsessed with him. But that was one of the things with my husband — he loved Bruce as much as me. We had music throughout the day — I walked down the aisle to a Ben Folds Five song and then we both walked back down the aisle to some Arcade Fire. We had a pianist in the chapel and they played those songs for us on the piano. Alison Curtis and her husband Anton on their wedding day. When I look back on the day, nearly 18 years ago, I have a really strong memory of my uncle, who walked me down the aisle. He was 93 when he passed away last year. He had two sons, so he was very, very touched when I asked him to walk me down the aisle. I have a lovely memory of myself, my sister and him in the room — just the quiet, calm before the storm. She went down the aisle first, and then we followed. It's just a lovely moment that I'll always remember. I can't remember what time we vacated the reception hall that we were in, but we brought the party back to one of my aunt's rooms (she was staying at the venue as well). So that went on for a while. But then I do remember, maybe around one or 1.30 saying to Anton, 'let's go back to our room'. We had a really nice suite, and it was nice just to have time for the two of us. And then the next night, we were at my aunt's place. I loved that day because it was so relaxed, and we still had nice outfits on. And my cousins, I have the two cousins that are like my brothers, Curtis and Trevor, and they organised it with her, and it was like a really lovely wedding gift from them. Alison Curtis presents the Weekend Breakfast on Today FM, Saturday and Sundays between 9am and 12pm.