Chris and Rebecca's Wedding in London - East, East London

We had said that we would elope overseas to get married but with the pandemic continuing we realised it might be problematic for a while and so decided to have a secret wedding here in the UK. We hadn't seen anything in person until our actual wedding day going only by online images, gut feelings and the distance between everything. For us this added to the excitement and we had no pre expectations. It was just fun and exciting.

All the suppliers and venues were so wonderful to work with remotely. We actually booked our ceremony and hotel within 20mins of deciding to get married in London! Even we were taken a back at how quick we did this.

We decided to have 6 guest that were in on our wedding day secret, 6 friends to share our day. We did let our families know we're getting married but explained we were keep the date and everything else a secret. Everyone was so understanding and I think the pandemic help us out here. To be honest, having watch a family member get married a few years earlier and all the family politics and a sad fall out, we decided to go super small. It also meant we got to spend more money on certain things without going into wedding day debt.

Our theme for the wedding was simply things that we like. The colours were actually picked by Chris and based on his suit choice. He wore a dark green tweed three piece suit with a burgundy and navy lining, an oatmeal colour shirt, and burgundy bow tie and pocket square. I can not tell you how many people commented on his suit on our wedding day, people in the street, sat in traffic. One gent stopping his phone conversation to tell him! So I chose to have dried flowers that were natural and with a hint of burgundy, green and finished with a burgundy and neutral silk ribbon and made a button hole to match. And of cause with it being the pandemic, we had matching burgundy silk masks. It was important for me to feel like me on our wedding day, and I did. I felt relaxed, I didn't feel like I was playing dress up which had been a fear of mine.

Even with our small guest list of 6, we still had to ask someone to wait outside during our ceremony which was heartbreaking. For a room that usually could seated up to 15, we were only able to have 6 including our photographer. We also had to rearrange the date 3 times but thankfully everything was moved and remained the same, same day of the week, same times just a month later than originally planned. We know how lucky we were.

We didn't have a cake, no first dance. I choose to do a speech that not even Chris knew I was doing and i'm really not one for public speaking.

We honestly had the best day, relaxed, fun, full of laughter. From the taxi not turning up and me jumping in the road to hail one, to an unplanned stop outside a local pub round the corner from the registry office to drink champagne. Accidently shoot the cork up the road in front of police. The walk back from the restaurant to the hotel, all slightly merry, chattering, laughing and enjoy summer night air. To eating food we'd forgotten we'd ordered, to having to stop the wedding because my nose was running everywhere from cry so much (so attractive) and falling in love with our photographer.

Bless Chris I keep asking if we can do it all again. Perhaps in 10 years he has said!