This Bride Kelli McGrory 2021

My youngest brother (and youngest groomsman 24 years ago) Paul McDaid is getting married to Lorissa Velekei in Lough Eske Castle, Donegal in May 2022, after a rotten year and a half of Covid-19 restrictions and non-family-hugging opportunities!!! So, I, his oldest sis, Brí, wrote this song, 'This Bride', on the day of his birthday in May 2021, to celebrate the future, remember the past, and enjoy the present, as Paul and Lorissa, as well as every bride and groom on the planet, get to plan and enjoy their wedding days as the world slowly adapts to a new reality.
I am so happy Kelli McGrory Music sang the song for me, as she is one amazing girl who kept the Wild Atlantic Women thriving and jiving through the whole pandemic. With input from Sinead Gibson and Louise Doherty, fellow WAW women, and production by myself and Yvonne Fahy, an extra-county-WAW and former Pats-colleague, we are super proud to have collaborated distantly yet closely on this, our (hopefully - for world health reasons!!) final Lockdown venture.... 'This Bride'.
I hope to be heartily sick of the song by this time next year (Let's think Titanical 'The heart will go on'!).. as every wedding band in the country picks it up and plays it at new weddings, remembering us as the first wedding song post-Covid 19, and remembering our desire to look to the future, focus on the positives, be happy and celebrate what real weddings are all about....... the bride of course!!!
With dresses from McElhinneys (thank you Lorraine McGrattan for being that talented, all-believing forward-thinking wedding expert), brides own, (from 47 years married to 33... and 9!),from as far back as 1968 right up to just a fortnight before release, we even have seven beautiful Lockdown brides sharing their pics and stories.... with drone footage from Ali Farren in Malin to Yvonne Molloy in Slieve League, Paul Doherty Photography, Stevie Toye Photography, my old rusty, trusty camcorder, and everyone and every apparatus in between, this has been some craic.. some journey.. some adventure in conceiving, writing, planning, carrying out and sharing a plan for a video, with bulls in fields, oul' boys pulling up volunteering to be grooms, tides turning, rain pouring and girls in white dodging drops, castle walls, graffiti walls, red heels, red boots, red bloody noses!!!, fences to climb, fields to plough, veils blowing over bridges and blowing off over cliffs, it's all been wile craic, part of the process, memories and history being made...and all inclusive. Thank you #ThisBride team.. you have made this all worthwhile, there's no going back now!!
Finally, if you are a bride or bridal party looking for something a wee bit different, look no further than Donegal... our Wild Atlantic Way, our Wild Atlantic Women, our music, our scenery, our joy of life, our talent, our culture and our vision.... we make dreams happen.
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songsandstories.ie
Music and Lyrics: Brí Carr Music
Vocals: Kelli McGrory Music
Piano: Louise Doherty
Whistle: Sinead Gibson
Arrangement and Production: Yvonne Fahy
Video Production: Brí Carr Music (athousandwords, PaulDoherty Photography, Stevie Toye Photography, AliFarren Videography, and many more Donegal based contributors)

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Go hálainn ⭐💚