Teddy Swims: From saying ‘I do’ to their first dance at a concert

For most couples, their wedding day celebrations end with a farewell to their guests, not a front row seat to a Teddy Swims concert.

But that’s exactly what newlyweds Neil and Leighann Hanna experienced on Monday night.

Last October, Neil bought tickets for the American singer-songwriter’s appearance at Belfast’s Ormeau Park. While the date was marked in the calendar, it slipped Leighann’s mind when she booked their wedding for the same day.

“We’ve been together for a while,” she said.

“I just said ‘right, let’s just do it’, so I booked the wedding about a month ago and I messaged Neil at work and said ‘this is the date we’re getting married’.”

But when Neil checked his work calendar, he said he was already off that day for something else.

Speaking to BBC News NI Leighann said she thought her now-husband was “just trying to get out of it”.

“And then he went no, honey, we’ve got the Teddy Swims concert that night.”

The couple live in Neil’s home town of Bangor in County Down, but Leighann is originally from Musselburgh in Scotland.

With just 12 guests due to attend the wedding, including their three children, they decided to go ahead with both events.

“That was not in question, I was not missing Teddy Swims for anything,” Leighann said.

Neil joked that he was “just doing as I was told”.

“We moved the time of the wedding to 12 o’clock. We had our little ceremony. We went to a restaurant in Bangor for our little lunch and straight after it Neil and I went up to Ormeau Park,” Leighann said.

“This is going to sound strange, but we don’t really like big gatherings … unless Teddy Swims is singing.”