Popular First Dates waiter Pete announces marriage to Tallaght nurse Megan

The popular waiter on the hit RTÉ TV show will be seen tonight showing fellow staff and diners his wedding snaps.

Pete (34) confirmed to Sundayworld.com that he got married on September 9 last to Dublin nurse Megan McHugh.

“We got married in Kinsale, up at Charles Fort,” he tells us. “We had been up that area before on a staycation and we just loved it, like Kinsale is an absolutely incredible place.

“The wedding party wasn’t massive, it was me, Megan and our two best friends. Megan wore a white suit, which was absolutely stunning.

“We had a quick drink in the Bullman. Then we went to a restaurant called Saint Francis Provisions, which is an amazing restaurant, and ended up in the Black Pig in in Kinsale.

“I had a little celebration with Megan’s family and later with my family. We had lots of little meet ups with people.

“When I came back and did the show after I got married everyone was like ‘oh congratulations‘ and we had a nice kind of drink after the show one night to celebrate the wedding.”

The couple are still saving for a honeymoon and Pete explains how first met.

“Basically I was on Tinder and had liked Megan and we had matched previously, and sent her a message and she didn’t reply, so I thought nothing of it and time kind of went by,” he recalls.

“I was out during Covid times and I think you had to have your E9 of food or something like that.

“I just happened to be in a restaurant on Georges street and she happened to be out brunching with some of her friends across the road. I walked past her and one of her friends noticed I was wearing a Lisa Simpson t-shirt, and she called down the street ‘I love Lisa Simpson!’.

“Her name was Lisa too. There was a bit of back and forth. Then Megan said to her ‘hold on a minute, I recognise that guy, I think I matched with him on Tinder and blah blah blah’.

"She then sent me a message saying ‘hey I think you just passed me’. We then agreed to go on a date shortly afterwards and the rest is history.”

Pete is delighted he clicked with Tallaght native Megan.

“There was only a few weeks between when we matched and it just fell between the cracks. She didn’t want to reply at that moment, which we all have to respect,” he points out.

He smiles when asked what attributes he likes in Megan.

“First of all she’s absolutely drop dead gorgeous,” he beams. “That was the first thing that struck me, then her profile stood out to me. She just seemed like she was a happy-go-lucky type person and you know if you get a good feeling about somebody, you kind of look at their picture and say ‘she looks gorgeous, she seems funny, she seems smart’.

"I noticed she was a registered nurse as well, so that intrigued me a lot too.

“She wasn’t a watcher of the show and then only when she went back through it and messaged me she put two and two together. I would say she did her research before our first date.”

Pete was previously in a couple of relationships which only lasted a year or so, but he stresses he himself would not do a show like First Dates.

“It wouldn’t be my type of thing now,” he maintains. “I have never done a blind date, I think I’d be too nervous. I definitely wouldn’t want to be on TV for the whole world to see me on a date.

"I think I’m a bit too reserved for that, so fair play to anyone who does it because its nerve wrecking.”

In September 2021 Pete decided to pop the question to Megan.

“I proposed in the Westbury hotel (in Dublin)”, he explains. “We had booked a room there for our first year anniversary and I managed to sneak off and decorate the room with help from friends and staff. So I went up to the room and proposed when she came in.”

Pete is originally from Burgess Hill near Brighton and admits many people are surprised he’s actually English given his accent.

“I’m here about 11 or 12 years,” he adds. “A lot of people think I’m from south Dublin because I have a neutral accent with the Irish in it.

"I don’t know how it happened, I just spent a lot of time around Irish people and just really immersed myself in the culture when I arrived here.

"I guess over the 10 plus years, it just adapted and turned into this I suppose.

“I originally just decided to come here for a bit of a change of scene, I knew a couple of people over here at the time and I came over for a Summer, just to kind of try my luck and try something different, and ended up just loving it so much and staying, so that was really it.

"I only intended to just pop over for a couple of months for the Summer and just have a bit of craic and see kind of how I’d get on in Ireland and just ended up loving it from day one and I’m still here.”

Pete has also changed careers.

“My career up until very recently has been exclusively hospitality,” he says. “I’ve worked in restaurants, cafes and places like that. I started at waiter level and ended up general manager of a number of restaurants over the last few years. But then recently last year made a bit of a career change into a slightly different field.

“I work for a company called Occu and they are a private landlord and we are based in Dun Laoghaire. We have 650 apartments here and I basically look after the residency in those apartments.

"So linking them with the property maintenance, solving all of their problems, putting events on for them, growing the tense of a community here as well for all of our residents, and it’s been the first port of call for any trouble, they may have to resolve their issues.”

He admits many people give him a second look.

“It’s kind of evolved a little bit over the years. When I first started doing the show it was ‘where do I know you from , your face looks very familiar, I know you from somewhere’.

"Over the years it hasn’t gotten to the stage of ‘oh you’re your man from First Dates’.

"I actually went and got my hair cut today around the corner from where I live and my barber has cut my hair for the past three or five months. He said ‘you know what you never even told me you’re on TV, I’m only after putting two and two together’.

Pete and Megan now live in Dun Laoghaire and he’s enjoying his new season on TV.

“I think I’ve done seven seasons. I came in after season two and we are now on season nine,” he concludes.

• First Dates continues tonight on RTÉ 2 and is available on the RTÉ Player