Wedding 'bales' ring out in Clare village church for 'hay-ppy' couple

ONE HAPPY couple were celebrated by a unique sculpture outside a county Clare church this weekend.

Schoolteacher Emma Casey and vet Kevin McNamara tied the knot at Meelick Church on Saturday, and wedding-goers were greeted by a hay-bale sculpture of the pair outside the church, lovingly created by the bride's father.

The wedding capped a glorious week for the Casey family, as Emma's younger brothers Peter and Michael lined out together the previous Sunday for Limerick in their historic All-Ireland senior final win against Kilkenny.

Rather than celebrating his sons triumphs, their father Michael Snr instead worked painstakingly with his neighbour David Coffey to put together the remarkable bride-and-groom made out of hay bales.

According to mam Helen: "Everything in it, apart from the bride’s skirt which was a flower trellis, they found in bits and pieces on the farm. All these bits and pieces, they bent and twisted and did whatever they could to make it. They aren't very artistic, but they put their creative heads together!"

The hay-ppy couple are now living in the family shed, though possibly not for long.

“I don't know what their fate will be," Helen explained. "It all depends whether they can get another cut of silage so they don't have to use the bales!"