Zoe Taylor, 41, and Rachel Knee, 38, were heartbroken when the coronavirus pandemic knocked their wedding plans off-kilter.
While they couldn’t go ahead with their grand plans, the couple decided to get married on the day they had initially chosen – 5 April – in part because they had already had that date tattooed on their feet and engraved into their rings.
After finding a celebrant that would perform the ceremony online, they gathered friends and family together for a full wedding in their garden in Thorveton, Devon, with guests able to watch the whole thing through video conferencing service Zoom.
The ceremony included a reading from their maid of honour, vows, an exchange of rings and even a first dance.
The 100-strong wedding party then stayed online for a fun-filled reception afterwards.
While the wedding won’t be legally binding until August when they sign the official paper work at the registry office, the couple said they will always consider 5 April to be their wedding day.
Rachel, a chartered accountant, said: ‘We were still really keen to make April 5 our wedding date. We had the date tattooed on our feet and engraved on wedding ring.
‘We still really wanted to mark the day so Zoe phoned around celebrants to see what we could do and we really clicked with Julie Fox.
‘She was brilliant. She had a brief phone call with both of us and organised the whole ceremony from that. She nailed it.
‘We organised a Zoom meeting and our maid of honour gave a reading and we read our vows.
‘We decorated all of the garden and Zoe made an aisle. We put bunting up and decorated the fence panels.
‘It was all done on Zoom and we walked down the aisle to a bit of music.
‘There were readings and poems, and we exchanged vows and rings. We concluded with the first dance and then all our family and friends stuck around to chat on zoom. We celebrated with pink prosecco.’
Zoe, who works at Tesco, added: ‘We had loads more on Zoom than we would have had for the actual ceremony.
‘There were 30 separate invitations with around 100 people altogether.
‘It was the date that was important and we just wanted to make it the best occasion that we could. But it was better than we could ever have managed.
‘It’s been an amazing day – we couldn’t have wished for it to go any better. We had people join us who couldn’t even make the original day.
‘We’d lost all hope before we found Julie online – the ceremony that she wrote captured us perfectly.’
The ceremony was carried out by Julie Fox, who runs Aurora Ceremonies in Exeter, Devon.
She added: ‘It was an honour and a privilege to write and conduct the ceremony for such an adorable couple.
‘Mass gatherings may have been stopped – and for good reason – but love never stops.
‘Everyone loves a good wedding so what better way to cheer people up in lockdown?’
Have you gone ahead with your wedding amid coronavirus? Or do you have another moment of joy amid lockdown you fancy chatting about?
Get in touch to share your story by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/14/couple-zoom-wedding-tattooing-planned-date-feet-12555082/?ITO=squid
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