Airing on RTÉ One tonight at 8pm, A Ring and a Prayer is a documentary series that delves into the weddings that bring together diverse families, faiths and traditions.
The six-part series captures the Irish experience of multicultural marriage in all its glorious technicolour.
From three-day Hindu wedding, to pagan hand-fasting, many couples find creative and colourful ways to celebrate their differences on their big day.
One such couple is Alex and Shanti, whose story started many years ago, while sitting on a school bus.
"We were on the same school bus for five years, but we didn't talk to each other at all," Shanti laughs. "We were on a night out and Alex text me afterwards, so it was all after we had finished school."
Born in Nepal to a Nepalese mother and Canadian father, Shanti came to Ireland when she was just three years of age, and says that staying connected to her Nepalese traditions for her wedding was incredibly important to her.
"The Nepalese heritage was a major factor," says the 26-year-old. "Alex was so accepting of it, so it was really nice to bring in those elements of the wedding.
"Once he proposed, we discussed what we saw the day being like and I couldn't see myself in a white dress, I could just see myself in the traditional clothing, which is why we started leaning towards the Nepalese side of things."
Hailing from Navan, Alex grew up in a Catholic family, and says he had only ever experiences Catholic ceremonies.
For his own wedding, he was excited to step away from tradition, even bringing in some personal touches of his own.
"I wanted to include gifts for each of my groomsmen so I organised cigars and a small little thing of beer in wooden crates, just so they'd have a remembrance of the day," he explains.
"We had two different types of boutineers as well, so one was a lighter colour which resembled the closer circle, and then another one for other family and friends."
"I got to pick the first dance song too, I got away with that," he laughs. "Dressed Up in White, which is ironic because Shanti didn't wear a white dress, but the rest of the song makes sense!"
To prepare for the big day, the couple committed themselves to long long hours of organising - particularly as certain Nepalese items were difficult to find in Ireland.
"The dress alone we had to go to London for because there's nowhere in Ireland to find a dress similar," Shanti explains. The stunning two piece was heavily-beaded and weighed a tonne, but the bride insists it was perfect for her big day.
"At the end of the day, it was worth it because a lot of the family had travelled for it and they had no idea what to expect."
Flying in from Nepal, many of Shanti's cousins and aunts had packed both traditional and Western dress options as they weren't sure what to expect from the experience.
To see so much of the culture embraced in both the ceremony and the events leading up to the wedding, made it all incredibly personal to the two.
"We're such an odd couple as it is," she laughs. "We did a big get together the night before and I had a traditional Henna artist come to the house; she did Henna for most of the women and some of the men. Everyone got really involved and embraced the culture."
"My side of the family had no idea what to expect," says Alex. "They're used to the traditional Catholic wedding so even the ceremony itself - everyone was blown away by it. It was a big shock but not in a bad way - everyone accepted it."
"We took bits and bobs from both sides," adds Shanti, explaining that she had both her parents walk her down the aisle, which wouldn't typically be seen in a Nepalese wedding.
"Nepalese culture is really geared towards men in a sense," she explains, noting that a traditional ceremony could last for up to three hours, and would see the couple walking around a fire and other activities suggested by the priest.
Cutting their ceremony down to just 30 minutes, the young couple passed on the fire but did embrace some of the more simplistic Nepalese traditions.
During the ceremony, Alex applied Shanti's sindoor powder, representing her transition to becoming a married woman; he placed a tilhari around her neck, representing their union; Shanti then gave Alex a gold chain to reciprocate; and the couple gifted one another a flower mala to represent their marriage.
To see the Nepalese-Irish ceremony in full, be sure to tune into A Ring and a Prayer on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
Click through the gallery above to see photos from Shanti and Alex's wedding day.
