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The new year has just begun but the Wedding of the Year may already have taken place - last Saturday's marriage of Westlife pin up Bryan Mcfadden to pop star and TV Presenter Kerry Katona.

The bride's brief to the wedding experts who helped create her big day was to 'think fairytale' . And fairytale it most certainly was - a magical intimate celebration in the tiny Church of Immaculate Conception in Rathfeigh., County Meath, followed by a party to end all parties (this is Ireland after all) at historic Slane Castle which is famous for it's music-world links.

The theme couldn't have been more appropriate, for life really has been a fairytale for the couple, both 21, these last three years. Plucked from obscurity - Kerry had been on the dole before joining girl band Atomic Kitten. Bryan was a bouncer at Mcdonald's and had worked as a bingo caller before his Westlife audition - they each both rose to the top of the pop charts before falling deeply in love and embarking on what was initially a secret romance.

But for both, the wedding was the shining highlight of their dream come true existence. "I used to come to pop concerts in the grounds of Slane and look up at the castle,” reveals Bryan, “but I never, ever imagined in a million years that I'd be getting married here."

If you’d asked Kerry's proud mum Sue Katona, she might just have predicted it - almost down to the last glittering crystal on Kerry's gown and Gina shoes. "From the moment she was born Kerry was determined to make something of herself,” Sue told HELLO!. “She dreamt of a day like today - and she got it."

Although Bryan had first proposed 3 weeks after meeting Kerry, almost exactly 2 years ago, nonstop work commitments and the birth of their adored daughter Molly Marie in September delayed the big day. Initially, however, Kerry hadn't even wanted a grand wedding. Says Bryan: "She wanted us to disappear and get married without even our mums there. Her explanation was that if we have a big day there'd be 200 on my side of the church and only five on hers"

In the event, Kerry fell in love with the idea of that grand wedding and enlisted the help of wedding planner Tara Faye of Xena Productions and, as co-ordinator, Joanne Byrne, one of Dublin's most dynamic PR executives.

This was the joining not just of a young couple, but of two very different families: Kerry's small, close-knit group from Warrington - her mum Sue, grandmother Betty Katona, aunt Angela Turner and uncle Lenny Turner - and Bryan's extended Irish Clan. "Bryan has almost 200 first cousins as both his dad and I come from large familes." explains his mother Mairead, who is one of 11 children, while her husband Brendan is one of 14.

Kerry, meanwhile, is not just Queen of Bryan's Heart (in the words of one Westlife's mega-hit) but of her new mother-in-law's too. Smiles Mairead: “Out of all the girls in the world, if I could have chosen a bride for Bryan, it would have been Kerry. She's absolutely gorgeous."

The immediate families have forged deep bonds - although for reasons of space, only aunts and uncles rather than those 200-odd cousins were able to be present for this true Irish Wedding, an hour's drive from Dublin - a city where the band are true local heroes and where travellers arriving at the airport are greeted with a giant billboard that announces: WELCOME TO DUBLIN, HOME OF WESTLIFE

In keeping with tradition, the bride arrived almost an hour late for the wedding - which had Bryan quipping after 45 minutes: "If she's not here in five minutes I'm out of here." But the arrival of his daughter, carried by proud granny Sue Katona, proved the perfect distraction. Bryan jumped up from his pew to kiss Molly, who was dressed in a tiny ivory silk dress with a burgundy sash. “She just looked so cute, smiling away,” Bryan told HELLO!. "But that's how she is, a dream baby and as good as gold."

Soon after Molly's arrival, the bridesmaids made their entrance one by one. And then all eyes were on Kerry. As the nine-piece chamber orchestra played Pachelbel's Canon, the beautiful bride stepped through the arched doorway and walked down the aisle of the 150 year old stone church. She chose to arrive on the arm of her one-time foster father Fred Woodhall (Kerry had spent part of her childhood in care, while remaining incredibly close to her mother) and drew gasps of admiration as she appeared. Bryan admitted to being blown away by his first sight of his bride. "She looked stunning. I was almost shocked at how beautiful she looked. When I turned to see her, I saw a princess walking up the aisle."

"Every little girl fantasises about a fairytale wedding dress, but mine truly is." Kerry told HELLO! glowing with happiness. On the advice of Westlife stylist Michael Crosby, she and her mother had visited the Mayfair studio of couturier Neil Cunningham, who created the wedding dresses of Jamie Oliver's wife Jools and prima ballerina Darcey Bussell.

"I said to Neil, 'I’ve just had a baby but I want to look slim and tall!" remembers Kerry who is 5ft 3in to Bryan's 6ft 4in. "Neil gave me a duchesse satin basque over a fishtail skirt with tulle underneath, shimmering with Swarovski crystals. Mum instantly burst into tears when she saw it. The first time I tried it on I felt like a little girl again as I was wearing it with some high heels they gave me and my green socks! But it still looked amazing."

"Then Neil suggested a veil. I laughed and said, 'Dont virgins have them?' But I ended up with a veil and Swarovski tiara, so it was even more beautiful than I could have dreamed." (For added drama Neil created an exact duplicate of the Ł10,000 dress in black for Kerry to wear for dinner and dancing afterwards)

To go with her 'something new' dress, the bride chose a 'something blue' garter from Susan Hunter, Dublin's swankiest lingerie store, and borrowed a Ł7,500 bracelet and Ł7,500 earrings from jewellers Appleby, who also made the couple's rings. But when asked what her 'something old' was to be, Kerry giggled, "It'll have to be my nan Betty, I adore her. She's the warmest, funniest, most beautiful person I know - apart from me of course!." she added with another laugh.

As her attendants, Kerry chose her six closest friends - her Aunt Angela Turner, who was matron of honour, Lisa Rhodes, Michelle Hunter, Maryln Corbally, Bryan's 18 year old sister Susan and Atomic Kitten Natasha Hamilton - "my best mate from the Kittens," says Kerry.

Fellow Kitten Liz McClarnon also jetted in for the wedding, fresh from the band’s chart success with Eternal Flame, "I told Liz, ‘If you’re not there, there isn’t going to be a wedding!" said Kerry. "I love Liz - we were like sisters, living in each other’s pockets 24 hours a day. But the reason Tash is my bridesmaid is that she was my drinking partner when I was single."

In keeping with the wedding's white, gold and burgundy theme, the bridesmaids wore customised black-beaded, wine-coloured raw silk dresses with fishtail trains by Ian Stuart International at Virgin Bride, who also made their matching silk shoes.

The groom’s outfit of a gold frock coat over a burgundy waistcoat shot through with gold was a very last-minute choice in place of traditional morning dress, which Bryan thought made him look like a hotel porter. He was attended by Westlife member Shane Filan, and friends Mark Murphy, Ray Arnold, Gary Nolan and Peter Smith, with Eddie Loughlin as his best man. The rest of Westlife - Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and Nicky Byrne, who was accompanied by his long-time girlfriend Georgina Ahern, daughter of the Irish Prime Minister - were among the wedding guests.

Faced with Bryan’s sartorial emergency in the run-up to the wedding, master tailor Louis Copeland was commissioned to make a new outfit almost overnight. Kerry was bowled over when she first glimpsed Bryan in his frock coat two nights before the wedding but she superstitiously refused to let him kiss her in it - despite his best efforts - until the day itself.

“He looks amazing,” she beamed on the night of the wedding. “But then he always does. To me Bryan looks just like James Dean...” The effect was only slightly spoiled when he reappeared five minutes later wearing only the tie, a schoolboy’s cap and a pair of charcoal-coloured Y-fronts stuffed with socks. How these two love a joke....

In fact, the walls of Slane Castle had been reverberating with laughter all week long in the run-up to the wedding. Kerry and Bryan had invited 26 of their closest friends and family to join them at the castle for six days of celebrations and a glimpse of the amazing lifestyle the couple’s success now affords them.

This was the first event this historic castle had hosted since it burned to the ground in 1991 and was faithfully rebuild from photographs and fragments - an epic labour of love that took the Earl of Mount Charles, it’s owner, and a team of expert craftsmen and builders ten years.

“I’ve been pretending I live here in this castle that my millionaire father died and left me!” reveals Kerry, who in reality was raised single-handed by her mother Sue. “But I can’t keep the pretence up, I keep saying, ‘You’ve got to come and look at this,’ like an excited kid!”

In the countdown to their special day, the atmosphere was like one giant slumber party. There was quad-biking, clay pigeon-shooting, horse-riding, a spa day for the girls and a golf tournament for the boys - for which they were joined by Bryan’s close friend Ronan Keating. “It was two pounds a man - that’s a pot of 40 quid!” smiles Bryan, who may now be a multimillionaire but still clearly remembers when that sum would have been a small fortune. Incidentally, the pot went to Bryan’s uncle Gerard Crotty. “Of all my uncles, he’s the one I’m closest to,” says Bryan, “so I’m glad it was him!”

But the highlight of the pre-wedding partyathon was Thursday’s karaoke night. Kerry belted out Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I will survive’, while Bryan, who was one of Dublin’s top competitive karaoke singers before joining Westlife, took the mike for “every other song” according to his mother Mairead, including ‘Matchstick Men’ and ‘Mustang Sally’. Wasn’t it intimidating for their loved ones to get up and perform in front of these two professionals? “Not really,” joked Kerry’s Aunt Angela. “They can’t sing either!”

Lord Mount Charles enjoyed seeing the couple and their loved ones let their hair down. With it’s natural amphitheatre, his home has hosted rocks concerts for U2, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and Queen. Many of the artists have stayed at the castle and even become friends. “It’s appropriate that our first big event after reopening is for a member of Westlife,” says Lord Mount Charles, “because they’re the biggest music phenomenon around.”

Since they first tasted fame in 1999, Westlife have of course been making, and breaking, records - getting into the ‘Guinness Book Of Records’ as the most successful new chart act of all time and achieving five consecutive Number Ones with their first five singles. (In all, they have now had nine Number One hits.) But during their days at the castle, that celebrity was almost forgotten in the cosy familiarity of family life. Said Bryan; “It’s been so great for Kerry and me to be able to spend this time with the people we love and to treat them to a once-in-a-lifetime experience here at Slane. It’s a time we’ll always remember and treasure.”

Just as they will treasure their memories of the wedding itself. To watch the couple take their vows during a traditional wedding Mass, 240 guests squeezed into the tiny, flower-decked church just 13 minutes from the castle. Said Bryan: “It’s the most perfect little church I’ve ever seen in my life. Beautiful.”

The vaulted church looked even more exquisite thanks to the work of Irish society florist James Bailie who, in keeping with the fairytale theme, created towering candelabras with white roses and Christmas-tree branches, reflecting Kerry’s love of all things Christmassy. The choir rail was garlanded with more branches, white roses, trailing amaranth, euphorbia and white lilies, which infused the chapel with their romantic fragrance. The bride’s bouquet, meanwhile, was a tight posy of ivory Bianca roses, wired with Swarovski crystals to make it sparkle as she moved. Her flowers were echoed in the bridesmaids’ bouquets, which also featured hypericum berries and gypsophila.

Romantically lit by dozens of beeswax candles amidst branches and pine cones, the service began. It was led by old family friend of the McFaddens, Father JJ Mullin. “He was my school chaplain but also much more,” says Bryan, who went to Rosmini school in Drumcondra, Dublin. “He was brilliant. Whenever you wanted to get your homework done, or just have a smoke, you’d go to his office. He was more like a friend to the pupils and was always just JJ to us. I always said if I ever did get married - however unlikely that seemed - then I wanted him to marry us. So he was thrilled to bits when I asked him.”

AT the start of tehir wedding ceremony, Kerry and Bryan lit a candle at either end of teh altar, symbolising their two separate lives. Having taken their vows, the couple used those two candles to light a single one symbolising their union. They then ignited the tapers held by their mothers in the front pews, who turned to light those of the other guests, and so on. Eventually, each member of the congregation was holding a lit candle, sharing a truly moving experience. For Kerry and Bryan, this was perhaps the most highly-charged emotional moment of the service, as their 21 year old friend, singer and DJ Dane Bowers, sang his solo ‘From The Heart’ from the gallery.

“Dane’s is a song that’s very special to us,” explains Bryan. (During Dane’s time as front-man of the band True Steppers, his hits included ‘Buggin’ and ‘Out Of Your Mind’ with Spice Girl Victoria Beckham.) “Kerry and I had been going out for about a year and a half. We were getting on perfectly and everything was great, but one night we were sitting listening to that song when we looked into each other’s eyes and it just sparked something off, as if it was the first week we met all over again. It was really strange because it was the same for both of us - and pure coincidence that it happened to be a friend who was singing the song.”

“It’s been like that ever since. I just love Kerry so much. She’s the mother of my baby - and a really great mother - and she’s my best friend. I can’t believe my luck. So to have that song for our wedding, sung live by Dane, was really special.”