A couple staged a tongue-in-cheek ‘Big Fat Gay Wedding’ as part of Belfast’s Culture Night over the weekend.

Malachai O’Hara (above right) and Michael McCartan (left) staged the event, which attracted hundreds of the couple’s families, friends and well-wishers, on the steps of Belfast’s 5-star Merchant Hotel, reports UTV.

The wedding was a “light-hearted” protest at Northern Ireland’s refusal to institute full civil marriage for same-sex couples.

“Michael and I would dearly love to get married for real, just as our siblings are able to do,” said O’Hara.

“We are ready and waiting to be a married couple. We shouldn’t really have to ask the permission of 108 politicians at Stormont to do so.

“We know that most people in Northern Ireland want the law changed. Now we just need our politicians to stop getting in the way of us living our lives.”

The Big Fat Gay Wedding was organised by campaigners Amnesty International, the Rainbow Project and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.