Diagnosis love Bethany and Matthew tied the knot on 4th August and styled their day in an elegant palette of neutrals Images courtesy of Kim Williams Photography Bethany was working as a ward nurse when one day while doing her usual 5pm drug round she found herself faced with a man looking for his younger brother who’d had surgery earlier that day. As she showed him the way, she thought to herself, “Why couldn’t I have met this man when I was looking slightly more put together?” Happily for Bethany though, this man was Matthew and he hadn’t been the slightest bit put off by her old nurse’s uniform or lack of make-up and had felt a connection too. Later that evening, he asked her out for dinner, and she gladly accepted. This was truly the start of something special. When Matthew proposed, he and Bethany had been together for five years. “We both knew the next step would be marriage, which was something we both really wanted,” Bethany explains. On 5th November 2022, he asked her if she’d like to go for a walk; nothing unsual there as this was something they’d do a lot, but it was usually Bethany who suggested it. Arriving at Virginia Water Lake on this grey and miserable day, they walked all the way around it when Matthew said, “Let’s take a picture.” Now, this did surprise Bethany as it was a first for Matthew. As he set up the camera and put it to video, she asked, “What are you doing?” To which he replied, “I’m going to ask you to marry me!” The couple still laugh about it to this day, as Matthew never did actually ask, since Bethany jumped on him before he got the chance, and they have it all on video to relive the magical moment. No sooner than the ring was on her finger, Bethany set about looking for a wedding venue. They wanted to get married locally in Guildford but had no idea what their options were. “Our friends and family were sending so many recommendations that it started to get a bit overwhelming,” Bethany remembers. They were on the verge of taking a break when a friend sent them the Wotton House brochure and begged them to just look at this last one. “The first photo I saw was of the Old Library, and fell in love,” Bethany says. “Our tour with Ishika cemented what we’d suspected and by the time we returned to the car, we couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else,” Matthew explains. So, the date was set for 4th August 2023. Read on as Bethany shares her treasured memories of the big day… REAL WEDDINGS 45
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