Couple ties the knot on St. Patrick’s Day at their favorite Irish pub

Irish music and the thump-thump-thump of step-dancers’ heels pounding the dance floor filled the air this evening at downtown Riverhead’s Irish pub. That’s the way it is every St. Patrick’s Day at Digger’s Ales and Eats, where beer flows and the party is hearty and green is everywhere on this day of celebrating all things Irish.

But this St. Patty’s Day brought a first-ever event to the venerable Irish pub: a wedding.

Betty Perry and George Roque of Riverhead tied the knot tonight at Digger’s.

The bride wore green, of course.

Perry and Roque exchanged vows in a ceremony that started right after the Mulvihill-Lynch step dancers finished their performance to cheering crowds.

Why Diggers? And why on St. Patrick’s Day?

“Because this is our place and this is our day,” Perry said.

Seventh time’s the charm

The couple has been together 28 years. Why marry now? Because ahe finally said yes, the groom said.

“I guess the seventh time’s the charm,” Roques said, grinning broadly. The other six times he asked her, she told him, “Let’s think about it. Let’s not rush it,” he said.

Theirs was not the first wedding Digger’s has hosted, said owner Steve Wirth. But it was the first one on St. Patrick’s Day.

“And it was the first time we got a call the week before asking for a reservation for a table of 12,” Wirth said. “I explained we don’t take reservations and especially not on St. Patty’s Day. But when they told me what they wanted to do, I said ‘Let’s make it happen.’”

And so it was that Perry and Roque said “I do” tonight at Digger’s, surrounded by a boisterous and noisy St. Patty’s Day crowd, officiated by Pamela Mudzingwa of NYC-I do.