Your Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Wedding - August/September 2023 (Issue 40)

Tim and Rich are both from London and unknowingly lived one road away from each other for years before coincidentally moving to Australia around the same time. “We first met in Sydney in 2018 when a mutual friend, Mandeep, thought we would get along and asked if we’d like to be introduced,” Tim tells us. “Rich agreed to come on a weekend away to Avalon Beach with me, Mandeep and a couple of friends so this was the first time that we met. I was the designated driver and offered to pick Rich up. He later told me that as soon as he got into the car and saw me, he thought that I was handsome!” Rich adds, “The first evening during our trip away, I told Tim that I was taking him on a date and not taking no for an answer! His response was ‘yes’ so we went to a painting class together later that same week, and the rest, as they say, is history.” After looking at engagement rings together a few months earlier, Tim proposed to Rich nine months into their relationship at the Henrietta Hotel in Covent Garden, London when they were back in the UK to attend a family wedding. “The proposal took place just as I was waking up from a jet-lagged sleep!” Rich tells us, “I thought that Tim was acting a bit strange on the flight when I tried to put a book inside his bag but he wouldn’t let him anywhere near it - little did I know that the ring was inside!” REAL WEDDINGS 21

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