Amrit and Ash met during their second year of university. “We were put into a group together in one of our seminars and slowly got to know each other,” says Amrit. “We eventually started dating the following summer. We have the same sense of humour and connected through music. We would often give each other recommendations, and when I had a radio show at university, Ash would send requests in. Once we graduated, we saved up and went travelling around the world for four months. We knew we wanted to be with each other forever, so we decided to move in together. Ash is from North Wales and I’m from the Midlands, so we agreed that wherever one of us got a job, we would move there. Ash got a job in Cardiff, and the rest is history.” Ash proposed in 2019. “We had not long bought our own house, and everything felt settled,” shares the bride. “He took me back to our university, where there is a beautiful manor house in the grounds. We walked for about an hour in the freezing February wind. I love trees, and Ash kept stopping to admire them. I was on tenterhooks thinking, ‘is this it?’ but he didn’t ask! We walked back to the manor, and I was admiring the view of the fields when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there he was on one knee with the most beautiful ring! He quickly asked me to marry him, and I laughed and said ‘yes’. It wasn’t exactly a surprise as we’d been together for seven years and I was highly suspicious when we arrived for the walk, but it was wonderful. I couldn’t stop staring at the ring and didn’t stop smiling for weeks!” The happy couple booked their wedding for July 2020. “Due to the pandemic, our big day was postponed, and we were in limbo,” explains Amrit. “The whole country went into another full lockdown in January 2021, and when wedding venues opened with a limited capacity, we both decided we’d had enough of waiting. We booked to get married at Castell Coch in April 2021 with just two of my bridesmaids as witnesses. We surprised everyone by telling them we had gotten married! It was a magical, romantic way to do it, but we were really excited to have a big party with our friends and family in the summer.” SETTING THE SCENE “St Tewdrics House is absolutely stunning, and we loved that it could be decorated to suit any theme,” recalls the bride. “As we drew closer to the big day, it became clear that it was going to be one of the hottest days of the year! Last-minute, I ordered a large number of white fans from eBay to help keep everyone cool.” Amrit and Ash gave their guests wildflower seeds as favours. “It was really important to us that our wedding was as environmentally friendly as possible,” adds Amrit. “I know from talking to friends that many people leave bulky wedding favours, so I wanted something that would be useful. Many of our guests have planted their seeds and have already told us the joy they feel at seeing their flowers grow. These also doubled up as our place names which saved us from having to order more items or waste card.” “Our table plan was a custom-made map of the world with a quote from Lord of the Rings on,” says the bride. “This allowed us to make the most of the travel theme in a meaningful way. Our tables were named after some of our favourite places we have visited. I purchased some kraft card tags and asked one of my bridesmaids to use her calligraphy skills to write the guests’ names. These were then pinned to each country on the map. As we wanted our items to be multipurpose, this doubled up as our guest book. I used chalk pens to write guidance onto a pretty mirror we had lying around, asking for guests to write bucket list ideas for us to complete throughout our lives. It worked well, and we’ve kept the tags safe in our wedding scrapbook.” For their centrepieces, Amrit and Ash used souvenirs. “We wanted to avoid buying things that would end up in the bin, so we used items we had bought from different countries and asked our guests to supply some,” shares Amrit. “We also left guide books on most of the tables for guests to peruse as we wanted them to leave with a new interest in a place they may have never thought about visiting.” “Instead of flowers, we asked our florist, Catherine Gray Flowers, to source plants from each of the countries that our tables were named after,” explains the bride. “Each was placed in a pretty pot and were used as gifts for the wedding party. I was keen to inject as much colour into the wedding as REAL WEDDING 35
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