‘It was heartbreaking’: Why these NHS workers decided to postpone their wedding

Cancelled dates, rearranged venues, missing loved ones.

Tying the knot comes with lots of worries ordinarily, what dress to wear, who sits where, what food to serve, and so on, but 2020 made things ten times more stressful.

After initial rules saying 30 people could attend, the rules were changed to only 15, before the second lockdown brought a halt to all weddings, except where one of those getting married is seriously ill.

It’s been an exhausting rollercoaster for hopeful couples.

Healthcare workers Sara Courtney and Mike Purkiss, from Gosport, have decided to take back a small amount of control - and postpone until December 2021.

The couple, who have been together for six years after meeting at work and bonding through their shared love of skiing, finally decided to tie the knot in January and began excitedly planning their wedding – only for coronavirus to strike, sending their work into overdrive, and wiping out their plans.

Sara, a community nurse, said: ‘Just before the first lockdown, we were doing all our planning. It was so exciting.

‘We both work for the NHS so when Covid hit, we didn’t have time to think about anything else, let alone the fact that we were getting married.

‘We were working all the time. Mike is a cardiologist and he was working with Covid patients every day and I was helping to launch our organisation's major incident unit.

‘We were working long hours, every day, then coming home and talking about Covid, watching the news, and then talking about Covid some more. We had almost forgotten that we were getting married.’

Throughout the first lockdown, the couple worked so hard that their three children - Sara’s son Lewis, 17, and Mike’s children William, 13, and Mia, nine - went to live with relatives for 10 weeks.

Sara, a Royal Navy veteran, said: ‘It was so hard. That was a really difficult decision to make.’

However, as things started to settle down, the family were reunited and the wedding looked like it might still go ahead on December 21 at Southend Barns in Chichester - only for a crushing announcement that only 15 people would be allowed to attend.

Sara, 47, said: ‘We couldn’t make that work, we are a family of five to start with. We really tried to make it work, but we just couldn’t. It is 15 people at the wedding, not just 15 guests.

‘We toyed with the idea of not inviting our parents, or not inviting our children, but we just couldn’t do it.

‘They are our loved ones and we wanted to celebrate with them. It was heart-breaking but we made the decision to move the wedding to December 2021.

‘I believe the restrictions will be extended and by doing so, pushing the wedding back so far, felt like we were taking a bit of control back.

SEE ALSO: How you can bring joy to a lonely person in the Portsmouth area this Christmas

‘All our family live away, and they need to make plans and book accommodation, it wasn't fair to keep them hanging.’

The couple now hope their wedding will go ahead next year, with a two-week honeymoon in the French Alps after.

Sara said: ‘Back in March we didn’t know what was coming. It was a really scary time. We didn’t know how coronavirus would affect the human body.

‘We always knew that it would come in waves, like any pandemic. The predictions were quite accurate about a second wave, and when that would hit.

‘I am just hoping that with a vaccine and rapid testing, that it could bring about a change for the way we look at events and social situations.

‘Rapid testing could change a lot, such as care homes and visiting, and I hope that it will help us get back to a more normal way of life.’

Figures

WHEN weddings were first banned on March 23, a staggering 73,600 ceremonies were affected.

Figures from HelloSafe, a wedding insurance comparison site, estimates losses of almost £5.3 bn this year for the sector, with more than 132,000 couples postponing.

Although once again banned in England, unless one party is seriously ill, weddings are allowed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In Scotland, wedding and civil partnership ceremonies can take place with 50 people attending in level zero areas, 20 in levels one, two and three, and 15 in level four

In Wales, wedding receptions can have up to 15 people indoors and 30 people outdoors

In Northern Ireland, wedding receptions are limited to 15 people.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news online - as well as our new Puzzles section.