Your Kent Wedding - Jul/Aug 2019 (Issue 85)

THE ELEMENT OF Sadie and John took friends and family by surprise when they invited them to a wedding reception, cunningly disguised as a birthday party Images courtesy of Natalie Hyland Photography E yes met across a crowded dancefloor and time stood still for Sadie and John when they met at a Bexleyheath nightclub. “It sounds cheesy, but that moment genuinely did happen for both of us,” Sadie says. Given this sense of fate, then, it’s perhaps no surprise that John proposed just eight months later. Sadie was looking for a venue to host her 40th birthday celebrations when she found Upnor Castle. She explains, “It was close to Halloween, so I thought an old castle ruin would be quite in keeping. However, when I contacted the venue, they advised that they were only available for weddings. That’s when I had a real lightbulb moment!” The idea had come to Sadie to host a secret wedding at the castle for 15 of their nearest and dearest, with the evening party being their reception. So the pair invited their friends to a masquerade ball at 7 p.m. Little did they know when they arrived that the pair had tied the knot three hours earlier and were welcomed into the reception venue to the sight of Sadie and John holding bride and groom signs! “Our guests were floored,” Sadie says. “There were lots of tears.” Here the bride tells us more about their surprise wedding day… surprise REAL WEDDINGS 53 