From Ballincollig to “I Do”: Audrey and Ben’s Cork Love Story

Audrey and Ben met over pizza. Well, kind of. Audrey Sacris Powell and Ben Powell met on a Discord server. Audrey was in a public chat, discussing how she eats the crust of a pizza first, when Ben’s curiosity was piqued. The pair started messaging privately and hit it off. Now they are happily married, and have a special connection to a well-known Cork location.

Audrey is originally from the Philippines, and had always planned on moving to Ireland. Ben is from Coventry, and he moved to Ireland to be with Audrey. The pair maintained a long-distance relationship for two years while they sorted paperwork, passports and more.

They credit the time they spent bonding over text and video calls for their strong relationship. Audrey compared the early stages of their relationship to Love Is Blind, the reality show where contestants date without seeing each other.

“It took her two years just to see my shoes,” says Ben.

The couple live together in Ballincollig, where Audrey works as a care assistant. They love the town and spend a lot of time in the Ballincollig Regional Park. This is where Ben proposed.

“I was planning to propose since July, saving money for the ring and everything,” Ben said.

Audrey’s family was visiting Cork for Christmas, so Ben got a little bit of help from her brother and her dad. On the last day of their visit, they took a trip to Ballincollig Regional Park. They stopped to take some photos, and Audrey didn’t suspect a thing.

“It was only then I realised that my brother was already recording a video, and the next thing I knew, Ben was on one knee with a ring in his hand, and everything just went blurry from there.”

They got to planning straight away. Audrey and Ben got married in the registry office in Cork on August 13, 2026. They will have a church wedding in the Philippines on August 14 next year.

Their Cork wedding was an intimate affair, with fewer than 15 people in attendance. Ben’s family travelled over, along with friends, Audrey’s uncle and aunt from Wicklow, and their landlord and her son.

After the ceremony, the newlyweds returned to the Ballincollig Regional Park, the place that had already played such an important role in their relationship, to have their wedding photographs taken.

And there was one person in particular who made a lasting impression on the couple: their photographer, James O’Driscoll.

“He was genuinely amazing,” Ben said. “He immediately saw a shot and would say, ‘Okay, I want you now.’”

James had the couple posing, moving and trying out different shots throughout the day, putting them at ease in front of the camera.

“He was so fantastic,” Audrey said. “On the night of our wedding, I literally asked Ben, ‘What’s your favourite part of the day, apart from getting married?’ And he said, ‘James.’”

The couple were so impressed that they have already been recommending him to friends who are planning their own weddings.

“We were the ones that got married, but it was basically James’s day,” Audrey joked. “We were stars, but he was clearly the director.”

Following their photos in the Regional Park, the couple headed to Market Lane for dinner, rounding off their first wedding celebration in Cork.

But their wedding story is not quite finished yet.

Next year, Ben’s family will make the long journey to the Philippines for the couple’s second wedding, a larger church celebration that will bring together their families and friends.

Audrey is the eldest child in her family and the first daughter to get married, while Ben is the only boy in his family and the first to tie the knot, making the Philippine celebration particularly significant for both families.

They are hoping to keep the guest list below 100 people, although Audrey admits that Filipino weddings can quickly become much bigger affairs.

“Your mum and dad want to invite the whole town for the wedding.”  

The couple are already working with a wedding coordinator in the Philippines and have begun dividing up jobs among their families as they prepare for the big celebration.

Having already made it through one wedding day, they have learned a thing or two about keeping calm when things don’t go exactly to plan.

Ben’s advice is simple: let the bride enjoy herself on the day.

“The woman’s always going to take charge before, but I would say on the day itself, it’s the man’s job to actually take charge and make decisions based on the day.”

For Ben, that meant everything from organising transport between the registry office and the Regional Park to making last-minute changes when plans inevitably went awry.

“I was like, ‘Okay, who’s got cars? Who hasn’t got cars?’” he recalled. “It’s just making new plans and new plans all over until we actually finished the day.”

Audrey was more than happy to let him take over.

“On the wedding day itself, I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t want to stress myself anymore. This day is my day,’” she said.

Her only concern?

“The heels that were killing my feet. That was it.”

For a couple who began their relationship arguing about how to eat a pizza, Audrey and Ben have come a long way.

From a chance encounter on Discord, to two years of long-distance dating, to a proposal in Ballincollig Regional Park and an intimate Cork wedding, their story has already taken them across continents.

And with another wedding waiting for them in the Philippines next August, there are plenty more memories, and probably a few more photos still to come.