{"id":515918,"date":"2026-06-24T10:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/515918\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:33:10","slug":"my-wedding-day-with-laura-nolan-our-reception-tables-were-named-after-dances-we-performed-on-dancing-with-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/515918\/","title":{"rendered":"My Wedding Day with Laura Nolan: ‘Our reception tables were named after dances we performed on Dancing with the Stars’"},"content":{"rendered":"

We got married on May 30 in the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Carlow, just 20 minutes from our venue, Kilkea Castle.<\/p>\n

We thought we\u2019d go for a small wedding<\/a>, but by the time we\u2019d invited our family, we were already over 100 people.<\/p>\n

That was before we\u2019d invited our friends: So we ended up with 170.<\/p>\n

We worked with a wedding planner \u2014 Everita Kenny \u2014 and she was absolutely incredible. I would say, though, that I was very hands-on with everything, too, and I was going back and forth with Everita. I\u2019m a very detailed person. I think it comes from all the dancing competitions over the years.<\/p>\n

Before we started planning anything, my mom had seen a dress online and sent it to me, saying: \u2018I know you\u2019re not looking yet, but isn\u2019t this beautiful?\u2019 It was stunning. When I did start to look at dresses, I couldn\u2019t get that one out of my mind. It was from a brand called Milla Nova, and they happened to be stocked in Verona Bridal in Belfast.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Nolan on her wedding day. Picture: Guilherme Resende & Edgar Camargo @guilhermertds<\/p>\n

My mom and myself went up to Belfast and my mom found the actual dress in the shop. It was the very first dress I tried on, and it was the dress. Now, I tried on around 20 or 30 dresses afterwards, but that was the dress. I did have it slightly altered to make it an off-the-shoulder look, and I just loved it. It was so princessy and fairy-like; perfect for a wedding in a castle.<\/p>\n

It was ideal that my mom had found the dress; it was a real full-circle moment. All the years I was competing in dance competitions, my mom designed my dresses with me. And for the biggest day of my life, it was just so beautiful that my mom still knew exactly what suited me!<\/p>\n

On the day of the wedding, we had a lovely, chilled morning in the castle, getting ready. We had make-up artists and hairdressers from Dancing with the Stars, who came down to help us to get ready. Everyone was flying in and out of the rooms, and everyone was excited, and it was emotional, too.<\/p>\n

For the ceremony, because we weren\u2019t actually from the Carlow parish, we couldn\u2019t use the parish priest, but we had a great plan B. We asked Fr Ray Kelly \u2014 we know him personally \u2014 and it was so lovely having him do the ceremony for us. He also sang Hallelujah during the ceremony and it was incredible.<\/p>\n

And then, Niamh Kavanagh, who had been on Dancing with the Stars this year, said, as a wedding gift to us, she\u2019d love to sing during the ceremony. She sang In Your Eyes and it was pure goosebumps.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Nolan and Matthew MacNabb on their wedding day. Picture: Guilherme Resende & Edgar Camargo @guilhermertds<\/p>\n

Myself and Matthew had tears in our eyes. It was just sensational to the point that people didn\u2019t want the ceremony to actually end. We had candles on the aisles and some people got the candles and were swaying them in the air.<\/p>\n

Because we had met on Dancing with the Stars, we had included a few nods to the show throughout our day. All our reception tables were named after dances we had performed together on the show and each table had a photo of us doing that specific dance.<\/p>\n

Then, we asked Jack Boylan, the Dancing with the Stars voiceover artist, to record a special introduction for our first dance as husband and wife. So, we had the announcement: \u201cDancing their first dance as husband and wife, it\u2019s Matthew and Laura,\u201d and that was so cool.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Nolan and Matthew MaNabb on her wedding day. Picture: Guilherme Resende & Edgar Camargo @guilhermertds<\/p>\n

Deric \u00d3 hArtag\u00e1in is one of my best friends, and he was our MC, too, for the day, and he did a great job.<\/p>\n

We also had two glitter balls installed over the dance floor to tie in to the Dancing with the Stars theme. The Event Band was our band for the evening, and they did a pre-show during the meal, which was unreal. We were actually having our dinner while dancing! Then, afterwards, they did a set, and I\u2019ve never seen anything like it; everyone was up on the floor all night.<\/p>\n

Before the wedding, everyone kept asking us what we were planning for our first dance. It took us ages to decide what we wanted to do, because we didn\u2019t just want to do another show dance; we wanted it to be intimate and personal, but also reflect our time on the show.<\/p>\n

\"LauraLaura Nolan and Matthew MacNabb on their wedding day. Picture: Guilherme Resende & Edgar Camargo @guilhermertds<\/p>\n

So I choreographed a dance to Heaven Can Wait, by Dean Martin, and included little moments, like when Matthew kissed me for the first time in rehearsals, and other moments, and it was just lovely. Yes, it was a choreographed dance, but it was so personal to us.<\/p>\n

The party went on until after 5am! My dad and my cousin love a sing-song, and one of my close friends, Anna Caplis \u2014 she was on Ultimate Hell Week with me \u2014 she\u2019s an amazing singer, so she was up doing the sing- song in the residents\u2019 bar, too. We were all up singing Irish songs until all hours.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I actually think about the ceremony a lot: Walking up the aisle with my dad, and that feeling when we were doing the vows. That internal happiness and love, and the love from everyone around us, is the thing that stands out to me.<\/p>\n

Laura Nolan is a professional dancer, appearing on RT\u00c9\u2019s Dancing with the Stars. Laura is on Instagram @la_nolan.<\/a>
\n