The first time Patrick Dunne saw his bride's face was when he lifted her wedding veil, shortly before the vows. Dunne wed accountant Bernadette Coleman from Dublin minutes after they were introduced by radio station 98 fm, which aired Ireland's first blind date-style wedding live.
"I was looking for Shrek, when I was walking down the aisle, the green man. But ... he is more than what I thought." said the bride, who is 30.
"She is beautiful," said the 34-year-old groom.
Wedding celebrant Michael Peter Ross performed the 20-minute civil ceremony in front of 180 people at the Clontarf Castle Hotel.
As the groom lifted his wife's veil before the vows, she immediately leaned forward and kissed him.
"I was going to write down a few words to say and I was trying to imagine what you looked like and you are more beautiful then I ever thought you could be," Dunne told Coleman.
The bride said she and Dunne had unwittingly met earlier in the week at the Dublin radio station when Dunne held a door open for her.
"For the honeymoon we are off to Austria so it should be fun and we get to spend time together as well which is all part of it," she said.
Asked how the couple will make a marriage work, she replied, "Come back to us in three months and you'll see. We are in it for the long haul.
"It is a very unusual way for two people to meet and although it is early days, the initial signs between us are very promising and we can now spend some real time getting to know each other, after all, we have the rest of our lives."
Coleman and Dunne beat hundreds of other applicants to win the chance to marry in 98 fm's "Two Strangers and a Wedding" competition.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-12-03-blind-marriage_x.htm
"I was looking for Shrek, when I was walking down the aisle, the green man. But ... he is more than what I thought." said the bride, who is 30.
"She is beautiful," said the 34-year-old groom.
Wedding celebrant Michael Peter Ross performed the 20-minute civil ceremony in front of 180 people at the Clontarf Castle Hotel.
As the groom lifted his wife's veil before the vows, she immediately leaned forward and kissed him.
"I was going to write down a few words to say and I was trying to imagine what you looked like and you are more beautiful then I ever thought you could be," Dunne told Coleman.
The bride said she and Dunne had unwittingly met earlier in the week at the Dublin radio station when Dunne held a door open for her.
"For the honeymoon we are off to Austria so it should be fun and we get to spend time together as well which is all part of it," she said.
Asked how the couple will make a marriage work, she replied, "Come back to us in three months and you'll see. We are in it for the long haul.
"It is a very unusual way for two people to meet and although it is early days, the initial signs between us are very promising and we can now spend some real time getting to know each other, after all, we have the rest of our lives."
Coleman and Dunne beat hundreds of other applicants to win the chance to marry in 98 fm's "Two Strangers and a Wedding" competition.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-12-03-blind-marriage_x.htm