Your Sussex Wedding - June/July 2020 (Issue 85)

Joy and James tied the knot at Cissbury Barns on 23 rd August, 2019 Images courtesy of Samantha Pells Photography W hen Joy set up an online dating profile one night with her university flatmate, she didn’t expect much to come of it. Then, she found James. “His quick wit, good looks and charm immediately caught my attention, and I was hooked,” Joy says. Their first date was at a fish restaurant in Brighton, where James kept her giggling all night while he performed some magic tricks, and the laughter has continued ever since. The groom proposed on Flamingo Island in Aruba after five years together. Joy remembers, “He was acting weird all day, giving me one-word answers and refusing to let me carry the beach bag. When we arrived at the island, I did think ‘this could be it,’ but tried to put it to the back of my mind to avoid disappointment.” As the evening set in, James asked Joy to turn around so that he could take a picture of her looking out to sea, and when she looked back, there he was on one knee with the ring of her dreams. “Little did I know he’d been designing it for months the help of my best friends,” Joy explains. We were desperate to find out more, so caught up with the bride for the lowdown on the big day… IT’S A KIND OF magic 51  REAL WEDDINGS