Sam and Kimberley's Wedding in Newcastle, Tyne & Wear

As I was brought up by my grandparents and mother I am old fashioned for my age so we do not live together so we were desperate to get married as soon as possible. After contacting many local catholic churches I was told no, no, no because of the pandemic etc, Priests promised to call me back then didn't and I was even hung upon. I had even given up on my dream of a church wedding when out of nowhere I had a phone call from a lovely funny priest who had heard I was looking to get married he was from the same church my grandparents were married over 50 years ago. So I was elated and we looked all over the area for venues.

We had 30 guests coming from all over the country from Belfast to London to Newcastle etc so we wanted to create a weekend event including a meal the night before so everybody could mingle, we were looking for a hotel venue with a spa, hairdressers, etc all the time naively hoping the pandemic would soon go away and the government wedding numbers would go back up by the time our November wedding came around.

At this point we were elated everything was booked and planned I had a beautiful dress and we had picked a very unusual square carved chocolate cake, we had chosen two beautiful wedding rings, arranged everything with the lovely Father Gordon, chosen 2 bridesmaids and a best man and Sam had been fitted for his suit now we just had to wait for the big day. My fiance Sam was living in a hotel and running his businesses he owns around the country from there so he could be close to me and we could arrange things together and stay in a bubble.

We continued to watch on the news students partying, huge crowds protesting, and many people traveling around Europe and Dubai, etc. eventually the news broke that numbers of the corona were going up and weddings would go down to 15, that was the first of many blows but all was not lost we wanted to carry on with just our families, however, our venue had different ideas and the next day rang us up to cancel even though we had expressed our desire to carry on on a smaller scale. I was disgusted with rule-breakers as I had truly followed all the guidance because of my grandfather and other people but a lot of people seemed to be self-involved and not thinking of others when attending these huge gatherings and spreading it and being allowed to continue to travel the world then back to the UK no questions asked.

The day after the venue canceled I heard the hard news my mother and grandfather had been in a terrible car accident on the way to his hospital appointment. My grandfather's landrover had flipped over due to a fault with the breaks he thought quick and didn't want to injure anybody in the cars in front he swerved the car and it flipped completely over we were so fortunate and it was almost a miracle that both walked away with little harm.We didn't know where to turn but found a lovely venue where lewis carol lived and wrote Alice in Wonderland, it had been renovated and was very stylish it was right on the edge of North Yorkshire so we rebooked there for our 13 guests. They appeared so upset that our last venue had let us down just two months before the wedding and were so accommodating and helpful and they were continually expressing their shock and horror at the last venue letting us down.

We were now all set with fewer guests but a lovely Yorkshire venue and to us, the most important thing was being together and getting married and for myself to be getting married in a beautiful church to the love of my life. with just two weeks before the wedding, it was again devastating to hear we were going into another national lockdown which would just last over November including our November 28th wedding date. we decided to postpone the wedding to 12th December which the venue was really great with and understanding and booked it all in and changed all the room dates we had booked etc we also rearranged our car, cake, flowers, church date, etc. by now I was becoming a pro at arranging weddings.

As you can imagine we were most shocked to receive a phone call from our new venue halfway through lockdown to tell us they had heard hospitality would not reopen again until next year so they had to cancel our wedding I thought how could you know that when Boris hadn't even made the decision yet? A few days later it was announced we were in tier 3 despite being a small town with no high cases etc. I could have understood had London not been placed in tier two which I still find bizarre. Our venue was also in tier two so they had no need to close or cancel our wedding we could have carried on as planned as they had given us their word and made many promises. This was all about enough to push us over the edge but by this stage, we were just so desperate to be married asap before anything went wrong.

Many people would think we were crazy to try and carry on but we love each other and wanted to be together. we wished and hoped to be moved into tier three however as we all know now not many areas were ever moved down a tier. We heard the news there was to be another lockdown in the new year we thought it's now or never. The priest suggested we should get married at Christmas as they wouldn't be able to take that away from us (they did try) at first I thought this was a funny joke as he is a joker but the more we thought about it why not. We settled on December 23rd but this was a shot in the dark as Christmas plans had not yet been announced but we were used to guesswork by now. As we know Christmas was changed from 5 days we could mix with others to just Christmas day. This AGAIN put a stop to any small gathering way may have done.

We didn't care at this stage we had our outfits, our 15 ceremony guests including my family, Some of my fiance sam's great friends, and a photographer, Sam's family were unable to attend unfortunately due to being moved into tier 4 at this point. The family home was beautiful as it was also Christmas so decorated to the nines and had a magical feel to it. We were not allowed a reception or anyone back to the house but we had still had paid for our beautiful chocolate cake so we created a mini table with a white linen table cloth to photograph it, I and my new husband cut it which was a disaster as it was rock hard chocolate which we never thought through. I'm sure my grandfather enjoyed some and we boxed the rest up to give away. I was so caught up in the moment walking up the aisle to my future husband I had not realized my earring had fallen out on the way, I thought what a Bridget Jones moment! luckily somebody found it so I was able to slip it back in when signing the register.

The bridesmaid my sister and cousin both looked amazing very unusual, I wanted a Downton Abbey feel with jewel winter colours which reflected in the flowers and corsages. They wore huge magenta pink fur jackets to match their magenta pink dresses the same designer but different styles reflecting their personalities their hairs were simply blown dried by themselves and adorned with a gold hairslide each. My dress was Swarovski crystal I had to sew it in myself due to being on a lockdown and still shielding. My mother and aunt kept to the color scheme in their emerald green and hot pink looks.

We FINALLY had a beautiful wedding in a beautiful church. My Grandfather walked me down the aisle and gave me away, where he married my grandmother we just lost the year before. everything was incredibly symbolic and magical on the day when I reached the aisle and Sam lifted my veil and looked and he and stood in front of the beautiful alter I found myself overcome with emotion after our incredible journey.

We all posed for photographs outside the church my grandparents also were photographed at the same door on their wedding the car service opened a bottle of champagne for me and my new husband we enjoyed and needed a glass as we couldn't believe we had made it finally. We then went to another location we know well to photograph outside (with the permission and support of the venue) we couldn't be happier with how they turned out despite it being freezing temperatures with constant rain, mud, and touches of sleet. needless to say, the dress is now ruined ha!

Sam owns businesses up and down the country which he has started from scratch by himself and worked hard, and I am starting my own sustainable fashion website where I restore vintage clothing and create my own designs so once all this is over we are greatly looking forward to married life together as well as traveling together before setting down we are looking forward to being together and supporting each other and the marriage itself. It's just our luck that another lockdown should happen as soon as we are married ha but we feel very lucky and are currently enjoying married life in the countryside. As the priest put it 'we have been forced to celebrate our marriage stripped back away from all the big celebrations making the wedding about our union and nothing else.'

(I have many more images to send please ask if any more are required)

Thankyou for reading,

Kim