Amy & Joshua's Wedding Story
After planning our wedding for the past two years the 5th September 2020 was always going to be our day whatever the plan as the specific day meant so much to us. When we heard about lockdown in March we thought everything was going to be fine with 6 months to spare and the wedding would go ahead as planned.
With getting regular updates from the fleece and following the news daily, we were able to keep in touch if any updates were made. When we found out the local lockdown started at the end of July we were gutted to find out that our hopes of a 30 person wedding reception was taken away once again. With one month to spare we had everything crossed that we would pull through out of lockdown! We then had our final meeting with Carrie-Anne two weeks before the wedding and there was still no change at the time but we came up with a Plan A (whole day) and a Plan B (ceremony only) so we knew that when our final deadline came round to letting the fleece know our decision (one week before the wedding) we knew what plan we would take so it was easier to organise and both options were covered.
The Friday evening announcement came (24 hours before our deadline date) and thankfully we were allowed out of local lockdown and the reception could also take place! We had one week to sort our DIY table plan/seating arrangements etc out but looking back it was plenty of time as everything else was organised. It was just a quick email over to Carrie-Anne to say on with Plan A and finally we could get excited! We actually phoned close of play Friday eve to let Carrie-Anne know as we couldn’t believe our luck and needed to tell everyone! We always said during Covid wedding planning that we never thought the day would happen with plans always changing until the morning of the wedding just so no other announcements could happen. We didn’t want to get our hopes up just to be disappointed.
We set up the day before at the fleece and it soon started to feel real! We thought 30 people would look lost in the function room as it is quite a large room, however we had a top table of us two and both sets of parents, and then 6 tables of either (3/4/5) people depending on their households and it didn’t look any different to how we imagined it!
We honestly are so relieved the day happened, but looking back the day couldn’t have gone any better from the service to the planning and every guest said on the day how special and privileged they were to be there. It didn’t feel at all like what we had pictured a Covid wedding would have been like. Don’t get me wrong guests had to wear masks during the ceremony and that was a negative when that rule was announced but I didn’t notice anyone other than me and my husband so that honestly didn’t even bother me. We weren’t allowed a DJ but that didn’t bother us either as we weren’t dancers anyway but I think almost every guest said how nice it was not to have a DJ with loud music playing all night and not being able to speak/hear people properly. It was lovely to sit back and see our guests talking on their tables and actually bonding. Something we felt so lucky at how intimate it was and that we were able to have our nearest family and closest friends there and that everyone we love got on so well and said how nice it was to be a small wedding.
The fleece made us all feel very safe on the day, from hand sanitizers on every table to excellent table service for drinks so you weren’t at the bar mingling. To make a little fun and less what we thought would be a dragged out evening (which it wasn’t as the day flew) we did a wedding trivia quiz, we handed out one quiz per table with their own pen and asked them to fill it out if they wanted to after the evening meal to pass time. Everything went quiet and suddenly it all got very competitive and it was actually lovely to see everyone participating! We read out the answers and that was that! Some people then left when they were ready from around 9.30pm onwards in dribs and drabs but the night went so quick it was midnight before we knew it and the day had finished!
We can’t thank the fleece enough for letting us be their first Covid wedding, and although it was frustrating at times not knowing what the government plan was, we stuck at it and wouldn’t have changed a thing! We feel forever grateful that we could get married when we did and one piece of advice is never give up. The end goal of marrying your best friend hasn’t changed, it’s just the plan that had to be tweaked a little! And don’t forget you can have a massive party once it’s all over if you want one but the goal of marrying someone you love is still there and can still happen!
