Your East Anglian Wedding - February/March 2021 (Issue 47)

REAL WEDDINGS 39  I t was love at first sight for Sophie and Chris. After chatting online for while they decided to meet face-to-face and the rest, as they say, is history. “I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true,” confirms Sophie. “We had our first date in Ipswich town centre at a little coffee shop and ended up talking for hours. We hit it off straight away as we had so much in common and we both wanted to meet again. After that it didn’t take long for us to feel like we’d known each other for years!” POPPING THE QUESTION Chris proposed in May 2019 while they were on holiday in the Peak District to celebrate the three-year anniversary of their first date. Sophie recalls, “Chris wanted to climb Kinder Scout, one of the highest and most challenging peaks. We arranged to do it, not realising it was literally a rock climb to the top. We were both shattered when we reached the summit and as I was standing at the edge looking at the scenery he called me over and got down on one knee. I burst into tears and a group of hikers nearby gave us a round of applause. It was a total surprise and we spent the whole two-hour trek down talking about the wedding!” PLAN B Shortly afterwards they started planning their big day and booked a large countryside wedding venue for 10 th August 2020, little knowing what was around the corner. When COVID first struck they agreed to sit tight for a while in the hope it might all blow over by the summer. “Oh how wrong we were!” sighs Sophie. “We decided in May that we’d move the whole wedding to June 2021 as we both thought it would be ok by then. Come September though, with infection cases on the rise, we took a long hard look at our plans and decided to go for it and have our 2020 wedding, as all we really wanted was to get married.” They whittled the guest list down to nine key family and friends and notified the other 41 day guests and more than 60 loved ones they’d originally invited for the evening do. “Unfortunately our original venue was far too big for such a small wedding, so we immediately started researching intimate venues that would still fit our style. We came across Jimmy’s Farm, which I’m ashamed to admit I’d never actually visited before, despite living only two minutes away! We went for a tour around the restaurant and the grounds and instantly fell in love. The restaurant is beautifully decorated and is the perfect size for an intimate ceremony and the grounds are lovely too. It was just what we wanted and it fitted our rustic, countryside theme perfectly.” They booked the date for 3 rd December and got cracking with the arrangements in order to pull it off in time. LOOKING THE PART The search was then on for Sophie’s dream dress. “I already had an exact picture in my mind of what I wanted and I bought the first one I tried on.” She had her heart set on a vintage boho- style, halter neck dress with detailing on the top and a not too voluminous skirt. The Bridal Lounge in Hadleigh happened to send her an email showcasing some of their sale dresses at the time and one in particular, ELIA by Aire Barcelona Bridal, caught her eye. “It was exactly what I was looking for so I immediately booked an appointment.” As soon as she tried it on, she knew it was the one and chose subtle accessories with just gypsophila in her hair so as not to detract from the dress. “My mum also bought me a lovely white fluffy jacket to wear in case I felt cold as it was a winter wedding.” Unfortunately, Chris didn’t get chance to sort out the suits before rescheduling their wedding and shortly afterwards the country went into lockdown so fittings weren’t available. Sophie says, “We decided to not worry too much about the groomsmen matching, after all as long as they were there that was all that really mattered.”