Wedding Life

The couple will marry in the Guildhall then soak up the city's jazz

String quartets, bagpipes, a ceili band or a DJ - those are the types of music most of us would consider for a wedding reception.

But what if you loved a style of music so much you decided to design your wedding around a festival?

Well that's what one couple from County Meath have done.

Next Friday, Dave Donnery and his fiancée will marry in Londonderry's Guildhall.

Their reception will be the City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival.

"We love jazz so much, we've decided to get married at the Jazz Festival," he said.

Together 10 years, the couple have been coming to the Derry festival for seven years.

"We just love it, the atmosphere, the music, the top class bands coming to there.

"I have to say it was my idea, but she soon came on board and then grew to love the idea."

'Pure luck'

And to help them celebrate they are bringing 30 of their nearest and dearest.

"We get married in the Guildhall at four o'clock, we leave there at about five o'clock and head straight for out first gig at the City Hotel.

"We'll all hop from pub to pub, from venue to venue. We can't get enough and come home on quite a high actually.

"When we left Derry last year, we couldn't stop talking about it all the way home. We just loved every single minute of it."

And lady luck is also smiling on the happy couple, following an afternoon of jazz-hoping they will eventually return to Da Vinci's Hotel, their base for the weekend.

And the band playing there that night is their "favourite band".

"Oo-Bop-Sh'bam are about an eight-piece band and they are absolutely fantastic and they are actually playing at our reception and that's just pure luck."

The Derry City Jazz and Big Band Festival kicks-off on Wednesday 28 April and runs over six days.