Tell us all about the run up to your wedding

Planning our wedding date was a disaster from the start! The wedding was originally planned for May 2020 - 2 years to the date we got engaged. The first problem hit when the May bank holiday Sunday was going to be moved to the following Friday; so our bank holiday Sunday wedding was now going to be on a normal Sunday, causing difficulties for our guests to get the time off work. This was an issue that never was never was however as we entered lockdown before the bank holiday even happened.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the wedding was postponed to august and then again to September. When we were advised to postpone again, we decided to cancel all the plans we had in place for the wedding we and started again with something completely different, in just 4 weeks’ time.

We had originally planned to get married at Oldwalls the Gower, but due to the Covid-19 restrictions we cancelled and planned our own wedding in Toms parents back garden in Mountain Ash. We were lucky enough they let us transform their garden with a marquee, dancefloor, lighting, tables, chairs to make our very own venue.

How incredibly stressful! Hopefully your dress shopping experience was easier.

I knew I wanted a tight fitted dress as I am quite petite, and I didn’t want to be taken over by a big dress. I went to lots of wedding dress shops and tried on multiple tight fitting and fish tail dresses - so many I was getting fed up and felt like I would never find the one. It felt as though they were dresses that I had worn previously for proms or other occasions.

My final shopping experience was at All About Eve in Newport. I loved a dress there that was tight fitting and I thought it was the one so I took my mam, nan, auntie, two maid of honours and my mother in law back to the shop to purchase it! When I tried it on it was a bit of an anti-climax reaction. My mother-in-law saw a dress and asked me to try it on and straight away I said no, that is not me at all. But she persisted so I tried it on for her and as soon as I tried it on, I knew it was the one!! It was completely different to what I had ever planned but I loved it – I felt like a real-life princess! My dress was called Nora, style 69326.

Tell us all about the day itself

Whilst planning the wedding for two years at Oldwalls the Gower I was very laid back as the pressure is off when the venue help to you to plan, but I am not very organised at all, so when it came to planning a wedding in four weeks by ourselves the stress was too much. It became very overwhelming with lots of tears, but it was worth it in the end! It was perfect! I would advise brides not to take on all the pressure of a wedding by yourself and if you want help just ask.

I always wanted to get married at St. Winifreds church as all my family had gotten married there, so although our original wedding had got cancelled I think it all turned out for the best and it was better than we could’ve ever imagined! The garden venue looked just as good as any other venue and it honestly could not have been more perfect. The sun was even shining for us

We had so many issues in the run up to the wedding - our brand-new home got flooded in February and we had to move back in with our in-laws. Tom broke his leg playing football and was in cast for 6 weeks, which he still would have been for our original date in May. Then of course the pandemic happened and with me being a nurse me, Tom decided it was safer for us to move back home so we lived with our dog lived upstairs for around 2 months with our spare room being toms office and kitchen! We are still not sure how we coped, and then the wedding drama came with the postponed dates! We didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel, but somehow, we got there and it’s been the worst yet best year of our lives

What a story to tell the grandkids! We wish you all the best for your future.

Photography – The Wedding Guys