Your Sussex Wedding - April/May 2020 (Issue 84)

The styling of Ty and Heather’s big-day was inspired by Cadbury and Disney – two of our favourite things! Images courtesy of N Davies Photography Tale as old as time T y and Heather each provided a shoulder for the other to cry on throughout their friendship. Ty explains, “We met when Heather was dating one of my friends, and I was having a nightmarish love life. We were there for each other when they split, making our friendship even stronger. Whilst on deployment of my second tour of Afghanistan in 2009, I decided I couldn’t let her get away, and asked her to be my girlfriend via the camp’s satellite phone.” We fast-forward eight years, when the couple were on holiday in Barcelona, but unfortunately Ty’s proposal plans had been going awry. He says, “I left our holiday money on the airport shuttle bus, the rooftop bar to our hotel, where I had planned to pop the question, was closed, and then we got lost on the way to the restaurant I’d chosen as the back-up location.” Not deterred, Ty saw an opportunity to slip into the kitchen when Heather ordered a chocolate surprise dessert, which came with a 15-minute wait. He asked the manager to place the ring box on the plate and get some Ed Sheeran ready to play. Still not out of the woods, Ty remembers, “Heather being Heather, mistook the ring box for the ‘surprise’ element of the dish and completely ignored it, saving it ‘til last. By this point, the entire restaurant staff and other customers were getting restless in anticipation of the moment she’d finally realise, with me repeatedly asking, like the scene from Seven , ‘what’s in the box?’” Happily, she finally did look in that box and much to Ty’s relief said “yes” to becoming Mrs Astridge. We caught up with the groom to find out more about their wedding day on 20th July, 2019… 53 REAL WEDDINGS