John and I met in1981just before he went to sea on HMS Sheffield. We wrote to each other for 6 months and just as he was due home HMS Sheffield along with many other ships, was redeployed to join the task force heading for the Falkland Islands as Argentina had invaded them. During the conflict HMS Sheffield was hit by an Exocet missle. The ship was lost and 20 men lost their lives, thankfully John was safe and returned home. We carried on our relationship and got engaged he then went back to sea while I planned our wedding. Everything was booked, I had my dress and we were due to marry on April 22 1984, however i got cold feet and call it off. I knew I had made a mistake but John moved on with his his life, married and had a daughter, I went from relationship to relationship and could never settle down and never married or had children. I kept my wedding dress despite being told several times I should let it go, I couldn’t. We met up again some 35 years later following the death of his wife, he was looking for an old friend of his on Facebook and came across me in the process and we got back in touch. I realised very quickly that I still loved him and over time we started seeing each other, fell in love again, bought a house and John proposed to me again on 1st September this year. We found Winchester Royal hotel on wedding dates and loved the place. Katie and Marie showed us around and we’re so helpful and lovely we said yes straight away. The rooms they use for weddings are lovely and will work perfectly for our little wedding, they are intimate but roomy, we just know it will be perfect. Katie and Marie will help us plan the wedding and advise us and we look forward to their input, they know what they are doing!! The hotel is lovely, they have very nice rooms for our guests to stay and the packages they offer are extremely good value on top of that, as an NHS worker, they offer a discount which meant we were able to upgrade from the basic package to the next on up which was amazing.
Can’t wait to get married to John, it’s going to be perfect in the beautiful venue we have chosen.