Wedding of Portsmouth Royal Navy couple who met on board warship

With their 30 guests, the Portsmouth couple tied the knot at Langstone Hotel on June 19. Paige, 26, says: ‘It was just so nice to see everyone.

“To be in a room with 30 people felt quite surreal after the year we have just had.

‘It’s nice to have something to celebrate.’

Paige, née Shrimpton, and Lee met while they were both working in the Royal Navy. Paige explains: We were deployed on HMS Daring in 2016. Lee is a leading seaman ATW and I worked in electronic warfare.

‘We were friends first, I thought he was really funny. It then blossomed into something more.

We dated for a year before we got engaged.’

The couple welcomed their son Albie, now two, into the world in September 2018. Shortly after, Lee, 31, was deployed for seven months.

‘When he came back in April 2019, he asked me to marry him. He had picked my ring up in Dubai,’ says Paige, who now works as a carer.

They originally planned their wedding for June 2020, which got cancelled because of the pandemic. But after both Paige and Lee lost two close family members in the space of six months, they were even more determined to tie the knot.

Paige says: ‘Sadly we lost my grandad to Covid at the end of 2020 and Lee’s dad died of Covid earlier this year too. There were two very important people missing on Saturday.

‘It was nice to celebrate with our 30 guests. After we had lost people, we were even more determined to make it go ahead.’

Nerves didn’t kick in for Paige until just before the ceremony: She says, laughing: ‘I was very cool until the doors were about to open.

“The events manager asked if I was ready and I just replied “no”. What’s daunting is that everyone is going to turn around and look at you.’

The Toppings and their wedding party enjoyed a three-course wedding breakfast at Langstone Hotel and are planning their future honeymoon.

All pictures by Carla Mortimer Photography, carlamortimerweddingphotography.co.uk.

A message from the editor, Mark Waldron

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