Gosport pair to celebrate first Valentine's Day as a married couple after overcoming Covid chaos to hold their 'perfect' wedding

Fairlead Drive residents Ruth and Ollie Peck had already sent out save-the-date messages to more than 120 guests for their October wedding when the Covid-19 pandemic threw their plans into disarray.

Despite the heartbreaking task of slashing the guest list four times throughout 2020, the couple now say their final intimate wedding plan – with only the pair’s parents and grandparents in attendance - was so much better than their original dream.

Ruth, 25, said: ‘With all the stress last year, if Boris had been blocking the church door, we would have stormed in anyway.

'After we were declared husband and wife, I just broke down and then started to dance down the aisle. I couldn't believe that we were finally married.

‘If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have planned a big wedding with 120 people. With fewer people, I was able to spend the whole day focused on Ollie.

‘It was perfect.’

The happy couple, who got married at St John the Evangelist in St Michael's Grove, Fareham, were able to save or recoup more than £5,000 in deposits thanks to understanding planners, caterers, and other wedding providers, with a much larger celebration planned for later this year.

Ruth says she is looking forward to wearing her wedding dress again in front of all her friends and family, including her six siblings and two maids of honour who couldn’t attend the official ceremony.

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She added: ‘They were heart-broken - they couldn't believe they wouldn’t be seeing us getting married. But they said they would be toasting us and thinking of us whether they were.

‘They were amazing - I think it was harder for me to tell them than it was for them to hear the bad news.’

More than 130,000 couples postponed their weddings in 2020, according to weddings insurance company HelloSafe, with The News highlighting couples determined to overcome adversity for their big day throughout the year.

With a honeymoon in a North Yorkshire cottage squeezed in before the second national lockdown, Ollie says ‘everything worked out for the best in the end’ – and hopes their story can inspire couples to keep romance alive during the pandemic.

The landscape designer said: 'Stick with it. It will work out in the end.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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