My Wedding Day with Jenny McCarthy: ‘I had brain surgery and I got married in the same year'

So he did, and I said, ‘Yes’, and Martin said, ‘I’d like to be married before this time next year. So when are you free?’

I had to actually look at the diary. As a wedding photographer, I’m always busy shooting someone else’s wedding! And as I was going to have the surgery in February, we didn’t want to have it too soon after that, because we didn’t know how I would be. 

So November 7 was the only time that fit and I had free — he had to book an appointment with me to get married!

We did the whole thing in the Killashee House Hotel. We got married on a Monday, which was very odd. Martin asked a lot of colleagues from TV3 at the time, thinking they probably wouldn’t go, but every single one of them said, ‘Yes’. We had about 140 at the wedding.

It was a blissfully sunny day. Not that we had any sway, even with Martin presenting the weather at the time! We weren’t expecting it to be so lovely, because it was November.

Our children were all with us on the day. We have five children. The youngest, Alex, would have been seven, so they were young enough. Victoria, our daughter, stayed with me the night before and the boys all stayed with Martin. We totally made this a wedding about the children and our family. 

They all did a reading at the ceremony, which made me very emotional. I’m personally not a fan of the top-table thing at weddings, so we had a round table in the middle of everybody. Martin and I sat at a round table in the middle of the room with our children.

I was 38 and a half when I was getting married. At the time, I thought, ‘I’m not going to go for one those kind of ball-gown type dresses, because I don’t want to look like mutton dressed as lamb’. 

But then that’s exactly what I went for. I had originally thought I’d get something maybe a bit lacy, and straight down. But everything I tried on didn’t suit me, and I ended up going for exactly that kind of tight-to-the-waist and going-out dress, and it was just beautiful. I loved it.

On the morning of the wedding, I had some butterflies in my tummy alright. But Martin, Martin was in an awful state at the top of the aisle. He was in floods of tears. I wouldn’t have expected it at all.

He just said it suddenly felt like a whole different ball game, because it was our wedding day.

At the reception, I made a speech. I felt, with the year that had been in it, because I had been sick, I had a lot of people to thank. So many of Martin’s colleagues at TV3, and David McRedmond, the CEO at the time, were so kind to him when I was unwell. I just felt it needed to be said. So I gave a speech.

For our entertainment, we had a group of Filipino men, called Tropical Storm. They had guitars and a big double bass, and they can sing absolutely anything. They were such fun. And then we had a singing chef, who was really brilliant. After all of that, we thought, ‘Why not just get a DJ?’ So Phil Cawley, who used to work with Martin, was our DJ, and he just was brilliant. Our first dance was to I Finally Found Someone.

The one thing I always remember from our wedding was the surprise I arranged for Martin. Anybody who knows Martin will know he’s a massive Dublin supporter.

Now Dublin had just won the Sam Maguire six weeks previous, and they hadn’t won it since 1995. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to get the Sam Maguire to the wedding?’ We had a taxi driver go and collect it and drive it down to us in Naas.

Martin had no clue, but I told our children about 20 minutes before the surprise and then I kept them away from their dad, just in case. We arranged to take a group photo in the lobby by the hotel’s staircase. 

The photographer’s cue to the children was, ‘Just one more shot’. So she said that, then the hotel played, When the Dubs Go Up to Lift the Sam Maguire and Martin and his brother all start singing it, not knowing why they were singing it. Next thing, my five children came downstairs holding the cup and when I say the place erupted, well, it was just unbelievable.