An Irish wedding planner is shocked that she was forced to remove decorations from a Wicklow church.
Planning expert Edel Cooney was told by a priest that the wedding ceremony would be canceled if she did not comply.
Cooney, who owns the events company Vintage Affair, was forced to remove objects like ornate chairs and battery powered lanterns.
Speaking to radio host Joe Duffy on RTE, she said the priest insisted it was a health and safety issue. The planner and her staff also had to reposition six large cherry blossom trees outside the church.
Cooney said the priest told her she had the church "like a fashion show".
Edel Cooney is a wedding planner. She's telling @joeliveline that one of her weddings in Co. Wicklow was delayed by an hour when the priest demanded her decorations were removed from the church. The decorations looked something like the example below #Liveline pic.twitter.com/0lJX5lwQXh
— Liveline (@rteliveline) October 4, 2018.
The groom explained that he also received word from the irate priest on the morning of the big day.
"I was getting a few photos with family outside when my phone started ringing. There was a voicemail from the priest and it was just carnage. I said to my two brothers, 'We need to go to the church.'"
"The first thing I saw was Edel in tears, so I said 'Don't worry about it'. The priest made a bee line for me as we walked in the gates. I said, 'What's the issue?' and he said it was totally unacceptable, that this wasn't a big party."
Dave and his bride Jennifer complied and said that the wedding ceremony was still "lovely" despite the confrontation.
Jennifer also called he show to say that the priest was "very nice in the run up to the wedding" but she was disappointed when she saw that all the cherry blossom trees had been put outside the church and not up the aisle.
Listeners had mixed responses to the ordeal. Most people seemed to believed that priest was in the right and that he "should have been consulted about the decor well before the wedding day".
"Totally agree with the Priest. It's a Church a place of worship and reverence. Respect for the blessed sacrament at all times. Flowers yes but no trees," another said.
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