A match made in Hythe

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Lisa and Gavin met online and immediately knew they were destined to be together.

Lisa Munden, 42 met Gavin Brown, 43 on match.com six-and-a-half years ago. After a few initial chats online, they decided to take the plunge and meet up at a pub in Liverpool Street a few weeks later. They hit it off immediately. Lisa remembers, “We had a great, fun night and didn't stop talking and laughing. Gavin was both handsome and funny.” Despite being slightly late for their first date, Lisa was greeted by a huge smile on Gavin's face the moment she walked in. She tells us, “People say when you know, you know! I knew. From the moment I saw him, I knew we would be together.”

Gavin shares with us a similar sense of serendipity, “Straight away I felt at ease. She was like a breath of fresh air, so kind and genuine.”

The proposal came as quite a surprise to Lisa; she sets the scene, “We had arranged an annual Christmas afternoon tea with both sets of parents and our two daughters at the Sanderson Hotel in London.” It was 15th December 2016, the family had just sat down to eat when Gavin could be heard asking the soon-to-be father-of-the-bride for his permission to wed his daughter. “He could hardly get his words out,” laughs Lisa. Through tears Gavin got down on one knee and asked Lisa to be his wife. “I smiled from ear to ear and of course said yes,” she adds. Dads cried and mums excitedly chatted about new hats, while Lisa reflected on what had just occurred, “It was a great and happy day, the ring was stunning and what a huge surprise!”

The wedding date was set for 26th May 2018 at St Leonard's Church, Hythe, followed by celebrations at Hayne House, Saltwood. Here, the bride reminisces about the day…

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We saw Hayne House and both of us fell in love with it instantly. Even though we had only seen the plans we could see great potential in the new Orangery. Plus, the size of the garden was just perfect, as we knew the guest list would include at least 20 children.

Our friend Dawn loves a project so when I saw my ideal table plan on Pinterest I approached her to make it for us. She created it from Victorian floorboards and photo frames from antique markets.

Favours were small jars of wild flowers, thistles and white roses for each of the ladies to take away.

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Gavin wore his family tartan, Ancient Lamont. The groomsmen accompanied him in the Scottish theme and were decked out in Black Watch tartan, which complemented the groom's beautifully.

Our flowers had a big job to do! We wanted a meadow feel with wild blooms and natural foliage, incorporating Scottish thistles to represent Gavin's heritage and English roses representing mine.

We wanted to continue with a natural theme, so our naked cake was decorated with the same blooms as our floral arrangements.

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Musician Alana Rose played for our reception drinks. Her style was laid-back vocals with acoustic guitar – just the type of music we both love. We wanted the atmosphere of a busker at London food market.

I wore Georgiana by Temperley. I wanted something light, British and simple yet detailed. Gavin wanted me to show off my curves!

The bridesmaids' dresses took a lot longer to find than my ow n, but we had lots of fun shopping trips! After we'd made a decision on the flowers, we knew they would be wearing blue.

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We all let our hair down in the evening and partied with a DJ providing the music, we also had garden games and a vintage photo booth. All of which proved popular with our guests.

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