Despite so many setbacks, Natalie and Chris were determined not to let anything stop them getting married, not even a second lockdown. Here is their wedding story in Natalies words.

How did you meet?

I met Chris at a nightclub in Walsall. We were both with our friend groups, there was an instant attraction between us and it didn't take long before we started talking. Things went from there and 4 years on there is only a few nights that we haven't been together.

We got engaged 4 months after we first met. Chris took me to Marco Pierre's in Birmingham, he got down on one knee in front of a crowded restaurant. I was really shocked and taken aback, but of course I said yes.

We had planned to get married as soon as we could however life had other plans, not long after we found that I was expecting, so things were quickly put on hold. A year after our daughter was born we started to plan again and decided to get married while on holiday in Greece, soon realising that this may not be the best plan as not everyone could be join us so decided to choose a venue local to home. Having had so many change of plans I was still not happy with my choice of venue so looked again at what was available in the UK but a little further from home.

Scouring the internet we stumbled across a website and spoke with the Gretna wedding Bureau. We both knew instantly that this was it. We had never even imagined Scotland let alone Gretna but the help and support that they gave us left no doubt in our minds that this was finally where we wanted to get married. The date was set 11th June 2021.

Then came the COVID -19 lockdown. Being the spontaneous pair that we are and having such a terrible 2020 we discussed why we were waiting and as the lockdown lifted in July we decided to bring the wedding forward to 9th November 2020. We thought it would be an amazing end to such a bad year.

A week before we were due to get married, England went into full lockdown for the second time, we were in bits not knowing the effect that this would have on our plans. After a week of ups and downs, we finally had the green light and travelled up to Scotland the day before.

We called at the Gretna registrar to collect our wedding papers, both of us on such a high, at last we were here and we were going to get married, that was at least until we had a tyre blow out on the motorway. Could anything else go wrong? I just sat on the hard shoulder of the motorway with the rain pouring down and my two tier wedding cake on my lap, my beautiful wedding dress laid in the boot. I was devastated, so close, but not to be beaten Chris changed the tyre and we were back on our way within an hour to be greeted by our guests at our lovely hotel just in time for a gorgeous meal with our family and friends.

Our big day had finally arrived, and it was time to get ready.

Everything just fell into place and it was the most perfect day we could have imagined. Not all of our friends and family could be with us because of the restrictions, however we have a big anniversary party planned to make up for that in 12 months time. Our wedding was magical, my only wish is that we could do it all again.

Who were your suppliers?

I had my beautiful dress from Dream Days in Dudley and my flowers were by Maria Canavan, everything else was lovingly made by myself witha little help from The Range and Ebay.

What was the highlight from you special day?

Thats easy. Seeing my husbands face, walking down the aisle to the love of my life and seeing him look back at me, the smile on my face was from ear to ear for the whole of the day. It was perfect.

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What's your advice to future brides?

Enjoy every moment, it goes so quickly and do not stress. I never thought we would get to marry given all that we had been through, but on the day, everything was just perfect and fell into place just as it should.

Is there anyone that you would like to thank?

We would like to thank everyone who made the day possible, especially our family for being there, we were only allowed 15 guests due to the lockdown but for everyone who made the effort to be part of our special day we are most grateful. Roll on the big party, wedding day part 2 in 2021. We cannot wait. ❤