John and Catherine were due to get married in 2020 but that for obvious reasons didn’t happen. They set a few new dates but finally decided that no matter what they would get married on 11th July 2021. This turned out to be the England Euro 2020 final and a few things had to change, namely a big screen so everyone could watch.
I asked Jon to send me a little bit about how they met. Here’s what he said:
‘So how did we meet? We met through work, John worked as a trainer, for different offices in
Greater Manchester. So are paths first crossed briefly during the times he came to the office I was based in. Years later we arranged to go on a date, in Castlefield Manchester. After a few months, we both realised we had very strong feelings for one another. We dated for a few years, and we decided we needed to move in together. We talked about getting married, and on a night out with some friends, my friend Annie joked, “ you should go and see my dad, he’ll make your ring”, no pressure John.
Annies dad is a retired jeweller. So we made an appointment with Annie's dad John and went to his workshop. We chose a ring, but John kept hold of it, so I had no idea when he was going to propose. Then on Easter Sunday 21st April 2019, which was Johns's Birthday, my mum and dad were having a BBQ with all the family round, and John's mum. So John decided this was the day to propose, and got down on one knee in front of our families, oh, not before my dad decided to get John a garden kneeling pad. It was the perfect day. So then we went to all the wedding fairs, and started planning and meeting with suppliers, trying on wedding dresses, and came across Bartle Hall, which was the perfect place for our wedding.
We picked the date 5/9/20, and sent out save the date cards to our families and friends, then we sent out the invites in February 2020. Then came a global pandemic and the country went into lockdown in March 2020. So we just kept planning our wedding, choosing flowers, menus etc thinking everything would be ok for September. We realised our wedding might not happen, or happen as we had planned.
In June we made the decision to postpone til 01/04/21. So then Christmas came, and more bad news, we couldn’t meet up with family, and in the new year, we couldn’t see how it would be possible to have 90 family and friends at our Wedding by April, and decided to postpone again, to 11/07/21. Then we were relying on the restrictions being lifted on 21/06/21.
The announcement came on 14/6/21 to delay the restrictions, but the number of guests we could have was more than 30, so good news that we could have all our family and guests, but tables were restricted to six guests, and no dancing inside. So we thought we are going for it, we can’t postpone it again. So now we are so excited, and our family and friends are too, that it is actually going to happen.’
The day was wonderful. Full of tears and emotions and genuine happiness. It was so lovely that they could finally get married and their day had come.
Here are a few of my favorites: