Vlogger Anna Saccone Joly reveals she got married in €233 eBay dress that came in 'bin bag' (2024)

Over the past decade, the couple have become a double-barrelled household name by sharing every detail of their love story, from courtship to childbirth and beyond on YouTube.

Now Ireland's top vloggers have revealed how it'll be 'I Do' - take two - when they mark their tin wedding anniversary this September.

"For our ten-year anniversary we're going to redo our wedding because we didn't have a photographer, we didn't have a videographer, we didn't have a band, we didn't have anything," jokes Jonathan. "We got one slice of cake and it was gone - we never saw it again!"

"It was really basic," agrees Anna, who was born in the US to an Irish mam and Italian dad before moving to Cork aged seven.

"We didn't have a lot of money at all ... so things like my flowers I didn't choose because I went for the basic pack. I got my wedding dress on eBay for £200 (€233) and it arrived in a black bin bag.

"Obviously my mood board now would be a lot more glamorous than it was back then," she laughs. "But we were being realistic for what we could afford."

Since tying the knot in Italy in 2011, the internet power couple have welcomed a brood of four: Emilia (eight), Eduardo (six), Alessia (three) and Andrea (two), who have become mini YouTube stars in their own right on the family's channel, as well as on Instagram and TikTok.

And daddy cool Jonathan - who famously only started the channel to impress Anna - admitted he's still in constant awe of his best friend and wife.

"Anna had four children in her twenties," gushes the 41-year-old from Dublin. "I did nothing in my twenties!

"I started to grow up in my thirties but I just can't imagine doing what Anna did in her twenties, getting married and having four kids.

"I think a huge advantage for our marriage is that the marriage comes second to the friendship," continues Jonathan, who famously beat Prince William and Declan Donnelly to be crowned the UK's Celebrity Dad of the Year 2019. "We're best mates first, we both have the same career goals in mind and we both have very similar parenting ideas.

"Yeah, we fight every day like everybody does, but you don't go to sleep on a fight. Sometimes, you know, when you're having a really bad fight it does go on for a while, but at the end of the day, once you cool off a bit, you know that the friendship bit is more powerful."

"We'd have the same core values, so that helps," adds Anna (33) on juggling four children under the age of eight in lockdown.

"I mean, Jonathan's mum did it too, and my mum has three and I look back and my grandmother had four, and she didn't have any help.

"So I kind of look to those women and think, wow, if they [could do it], well, then, I can manage."

Webtrepreneurs Anna and Jonathan's numbers first went skyward when they broadcast their eldest daughter's birth on YouTube in 2012.

Although they've since opened up about everything from suffering miscarriage to being trolled by strangers on the online reality show, Jonathan insisted there are still some elements of their lives that remain private.

"Our business relationship is definitely different to our personal relationship," explains the social media star, who also produces, directs and edits the videos. "Our personal relationship is not something we actually broadcast. Even though we do share a lot of our life, we don't share a lot of our life either.

"Having the kids definitely takes a huge strain on your time that you have together," he concedes. "So Wednesday nights are our date night. We make our own pizza and we watch some crappy Netflix together.

"We're at a stage now where I know lots of divorces happening and it's like, woah, I remember when everyone was dating and then everyone was getting engaged and then everyone was married and then you go through a generation of babies and house-buying.

"It would be very difficult if Anna was a doctor, or something like that, and then I was doing what I'm doing, because I think people are always growing, they're always evolving. I think that you would grow apart.

"But because we both are in the same business together, we're evolving to the same destination all the time. I think that just keeps us together."

Earning an estimated €200,000 a year through advertising, the busy parents now live in the Surrey countryside in the UK with their young family, which also includes six Maltese dogs.

Ahead of their milestone wedding anniversary later this year, however, Jonathan confesses that he never actually got down on bended knee in the first place - spilling all on new podcast Real Weddings with Sara hosted by Irish Wedding Blog founder Sara Kennedy.

"When we got [engaged] it was one of those things where we were living together for a couple of years and then it was like, 'so should we get just married or something?,'" he recalls.

"Then about a month before the wedding I was like, 'right, I need to propose to Anna'. I don't want our story to be that we both just agreed to get married.

"I got her mum to call her and I filled our flat with roses and put candles down and then texted her mum like, 'tell her to get off the phone and come downstairs'.

"When you go down to propose to someone it's really weird, you're like a bumbling fool.

"We were [a few years into filming] for SacconeJolys, so it would have been awkward if she said no."

Despite looking forward to the chance for an 'I Do'-over, meanwhile, Jonathan reckons marriage isn't everything. "When we look back, it was such a mess," he jokes of their big day.

"There was loads of things that we missed, but then because the wedding was not the peak of our relationship, it means that our relationship is still really strong 10 years later.

"Our wedding day wasn't the best day of our lives - the best day of our lives is every day."

⬤ All episodes of 'Real Weddings with Sara' are available on the GoLoud app now