Your Kent Wedding - Page number 49 - September/August 2021 (Issue 98)

A SLICE OF THE Mediterranean When the pandemic interfered with Carly and James’ plans for a destination wedding surrounded by loved ones, the couple brought a touch of Cyprus to Kent Images courtesy of Trilion Productions C arly met James through a mutual friend in the pub where she worked. “We always have so much fun together and spent most of our first meeting hysterically laughing,” she tells us. So, it didn’t take either of them long to realise they’d met their respective match. Friday 13 th turned out to be a lucky day for the couple as that’s when they got engaged. James had planned a romantic proposal in a London park on a weekend away, but the British weather was running true to form and it rained all day, so instead he decided to pop the question at their hotel. He set up the room with lights in the shape of a heart and had the bubbly at the ready. Carly had no idea what was coming: “I was in such shock I can’t even remember his speech,” she says. The pair had dreamed of saying “I do” overseas surrounded by their nearest and dearest, and had booked Aphrodite Hills in Cyprus, but when the pandemic struck it became clear that everything they’d been planning for the past two years couldn’t happen. Carly and James did make the best of the situation though and flew out, just the two of them, on 14 th August 2020 to tie the knot and enjoy a two-week honeymoon. When they returned, Carly’s lovely parents offered up their house as a wedding venue allowing them to celebrate their nuptials the way they’d dreamed. So, they spent the next eight weeks planning the perfect big-day, recreating the Cypriot courtyard wedding they’d envisioned, in Kent. Happily, by this time the government had relaxed its Covid guidelines meaning all 30 loved ones on the original guest list were able to join them for the UK wedding on 12 th September, 2020. Read on as the bride tells us more... REAL WEDDINGS 49