The last couple to get legally married before the UK went into lockdown have held an incredible socially distanced wedding in their back garden.
School chaplain Sarah Joy Gillard, 25, and new husband Luke, 30, were meant to have their dream wedding ceremony for 160 guests at St Mary’s Church in Weaverham, Cheshire, before a reception at nearby Hartford Golf Club on Easter Saturday, April 11.
But the couple of two years had their perfect £12,000 Easter-themed nuptials, planned after Luke proposed in North Wales in March 2019, thrown into crisis last month as social distancing measures and group gathering limits were tightened across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Desperate to become man and wife in 2020, Sarah Joy and Luke instead rushed to tie the knot at their chosen church at 6pm on Sunday, March 22, with Sarah Joy’s parents as the only witnesses present – little more than 24 hours before Boris Johnson ordered the country into full lockdown and banned all weddings for the foreseeable future.
But left heartbroken they had been forced to shelve their original wedding plans, they decided to hold a romantic service in Luke’s parent’s garden in Wavertree, Liverpool, where they have been living together with Luke’s family since becoming husband and wife, on their original wedding date over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.
Sarah Joy Gillard, 25, and her new husband Luke, 30, rushed to get married at St Marys Church in Weaverham, Cheshire on the 22nd March before the UK went into lockdown and weddings were banned
To celebrate the date the ceremony should have taken place on, the couple help a socially distanced wedding in Luke”s parent’s backyard, with his family over the Easter weekend (pictured)
And despite the prior heartache, Sarah Joy said it felt like a fairytale when she donned her dream long-sleeved frock to walk down a makeshift aisle to her new hubby, a games tester – before the couple said speeches to each other, were toasted by guests on a video conference call and drove around to wave to local relatives and pals in an open-topped car.
Sarah Joy, who is originally from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, said: ‘It all happened so quickly – the whole country just changed within the space of a week.
‘Just five weeks before at my hen do, we had been blissfully wrapping toilet paper around each other to look like wedding dresses and it hadn’t even crossed our minds the wedding could be affected.
‘Just a week later, toilet paper became the new currency and the world went into meltdown.
The couple exchanged vows during the wedding reception, which was broadcast to 160 guests on Zoom (pictured, Luke and Sarah Joy during the ceremony with Luke’s family. Sarah moved in after their church wedding)
Sarah Joy aand Luke in the back of his sister’s convertible on their way to Luke’s parents house for the reception
‘But even at that stage, all I thought was that the government might limit numbers for gatherings and I might have to cut some people off the guestlist – we weren’t at all thinking it would have to be completely cancelled.
‘As it became clear the wedding would have to be cancelled, above everything, we knew we still wanted to get married this year no matter what.
‘We had so long to get to this point and we didn’t want anything else to stop us from tying the knot, so we started to look at whether there could be another way.’
The couple (pictured) still wanted to mark their special day with a zoom party with their loved ones and friends
Pictured: Sarah Joy and Luke pictured kissing during their back garden wedding reception on Saturday 11 April
As Sarah Joy and Luke made new plans, with the situation constantly changing, Luke began suffering possible Covid-19 symptoms and had to self-isolate for seven days.
This meant the couple, who didn’t live together before they tied the knot, could only make difficult decisions about their wedding over the phone.
With rumours swirling all weddings might be banned indefinitely, on March 21 they decided to hold their legal Church of England ceremony the next day – the first time they had been able to see each other for a week.
The newlyweds (pictured) could not have been happier to celebrate their wedding with their loved ones on Saturday
The couple embraced after exchanging speeches during the Zoom reception on their special day (pictured)
But after the brief service, with Sarah Joy living at Luke’s family home and with them both anticlimactic, they decided to mark their original wedding date with a garden service for their new household – Luke’s parents, his two sisters, brother-in-law and niece.
On the day, the couple gave speeches to each other, had readings and live-streamed the ceremony on Facebook to all the guests who were invited before Sarah Joy’s dad gave his father of the bride speech via the app Zoom.
They cut a cake featuring antibacterial hand gel toppers dressed in a hat and veil before they were driven around in Luke’s mum’s convertible car to wave to friends and family who live in the area, who wore their best clothes and threw confetti as they passed.
Neighbours socially distancing participated in the celebrations by cheering the happy couple on (pictured)
The bride (pictured) toasted the couple’s 160 guests, who witnessed the reception via video conference app Zoom
The couple, who are both Christians, have been forced to put their honeymoon to Majorca on hold and have completed on a house they have bought together, but have been unable to move into it yet.
While they did not have wedding insurance, luckily their reception venue and suppliers have let them postpone their date and they plan to have their original golf club bash next April as a one year anniversary party.
And despite the upheaval, Sarah Joy said she now views her unusual garden wedding as the best day of her life.
The couple, who are both Christians, have been forced to put their honeymoon to Majorca on hold and have completed on a house they have bought together but have been unable to move into it yet (picture waving at relatives from the car on their ‘wedding day’)
Luke and Sarah Joy think they are ‘probably’ the last couple to get officially married before the lockdown was enforced (pictured driving to the ceremony with Luke’s sisters)
She added: ‘The day after we got officially married, the government enforced the complete lockdown and banned all weddings – we think we were probably the last couple in the country to get married before that happened.
‘But afterwards, we felt quite down about everything and quite traumatised by it all – like we’d stumbled into our marriage, and hadn’t been able to have the day we’d planned.
‘Luckily, as it turned out, the garden service was the best day of my life so far.
On the day, the couple gave speeches to each other, had readings and live-streamed the ceremony on Facebook to all the guests who were invited before Sarah Joy’s dad gave his father of the bride speech via the app Zoom
Pictured: The couple cut a cake featuring antibacterial hand gel toppers dressed in a hat and veil
The couple held hands as they professed their love to each other during the intimate ceremony, as guests watched via video link
‘I was really surprised – I was worried it would feel like a poor imitation of our original wedding, but when it got to the actual morning and I put my dress on, I was absolutely buzzing.
‘I was counting down the minutes until I could go downstairs into the garden and walk down the aisle – it really felt like a proper wedding.
‘As I walked down the aisle, Luke played a song he had written for our first dance and we gave speeches about how we felt for each other.
Sarah Joy said she feared the backgarden ceremony would feel like a bad imitation of the day they had planned, but was still thrilled with results (pictured cutting the cake)
‘As we were driving through the streets, so many people stopped to cheer, everyone was so excited for us.
‘We’re both the sort of people who like things to be a bit different anyway, and as it turned out the fact our wedding was so abnormal made it so special – maybe even more special than it would have been in some ways.
‘It may not have been exactly the day I had been dreaming of since I was a little girl, but it was perfect in its own way.
The bride (pictured) said the day was not how she had planned her wedding, but still was perfect ‘in its own way’
Even though it was a small ceremony compared to what they had planned, Sarah Joy said the intimate reception was the best day of her life so far (pictured with Luke)
Happy couple: Sarah said that the alternative nuptials was still the best day of her life
In order to make the most of the social distancing guidelines, Sarah and Luke only waved at her relatives from the car. Pictured outside of the car: Sarah Joy’s sister Hannah Jones and her husband Daniel with their boys Percy, five, and Eric, two, while Sarah Joy and Luke sit in the car with his sisters
Pictured: Luke reading his speech to Sarah Joy during the ceremony, which took place almost a year after he proposed to her in March 2019
The couple plan to have another wedding reception when the coronavirus pandemic will have blown over (pictured during the reception)
‘At the end of the day, the most important thing was our relationship and to show how much we love each other and we were definitely able to do that.
‘My advice to other couples due to marry soon and deciding what to do is if you want to get married, just do it and find a way to celebrate which is completely different to the original day you had planned.
‘Then, hold your original wedding reception when this all blows over too, and you get to wear the dress twice!’