pink weddings magazine » 33
NOel ANd STeve
W
e met 20 years ago during ‘freshers’
week’ at Hertfordshire University,
and within a month were going out
with each other. There was an
instant attraction and neither knew if the other was
gay! However, I lived on a floor of girls, all of whom
were trainee teachers and were on the same course
as Noel. I instantly made it clear to all of them I was
gay and fancied him, even naming a friend’s huge
cuddly toy duck after him. It wasn't long before the
girls and I infiltrated the flat where Noel was living
and we got together soon afterwards.
Our last wedding was
actually our third!
This is because way back in 1998, three years after
we first got together, we had a blessing at the
university. Gay marriage in any form was not legal
then, but our friend’s stepdad was a vicar who was
more than happy to officiate and we held it in the
student union bar surrounded by our friends. We
then had our civil partnership in January 2007, and
then this one marking the conversion from civil
partnership to marriage – 17 years to the day of
our first blessing and 20 years since we first met!
I first proposed to Noel at the start of our second
year of university, just after our first summer apart.
There was no ring then and it was in our bedroom of
a shared student house. This time around it was at a
dinner after several years bringing up our adopted
children. We had finally managed an intimate dinner
in a nice pub and this time Noel asked me – we had
been thinking about having a joint 40th birthday
party, but he took it to another level and joined the
two celebrations together.
Our venue was driven by the
date, as we wanted our
wedding to be on the same
day as our blessing had been.
We phoned several places we liked with ‘Are you
available for 27 June?’ as our first question.
Thankfully Brampton Grange was available, which
suited our needs perfectly as we had decided to
combine both the wedding and our 40th birthday
parties.
The venue needed to look suitable for a
wedding, but spacious enough for a large party after
the ceremony. Because it was a combined event, we
shifted the traditional timings of the day – with the
ceremony starting at 5pm and no distinction
between day and evening guests. The main point
was to bring together all the different groups of
friends and family from across our 20 years together.
We also wanted it to be less formal and more about
celebrating and having a good time.
The colour theme was grey and orange, with a
