pink weddings magazine » 71
Darren anD Jon
W
e met each other online and chatted through
MSn messenger and on the phone. Jon lived in
Stoke and I lived in Warrington, so it was a bit
too far for anything to develop, but when Jon
moved to Manchester we picked things up again. We went for
a date in Didsbury and that was that!
We’d been together for nine years and the talk of getting
married had come up once or twice, but nothing serious. We
were on holiday in the north of Tenerife and we started
discussing it again, and just decided to do it. There was no
proposal, no one got down on one knee but it was a beautiful
setting in the shadow of Mount Tiede with the sun setting.
Initially we were going to have a civil partnership, which was
all that was available at the time, but fortunately the law
changed just in time, the year we got married.
We wanted a traditional wedding in a stately home and
were living in Cheshire at the time, which is full of potential
venues. We opted for arley Hall with its beautiful house and
gardens. Jon wanted something that felt very english; being
South african he was bringing family over and wanted them
to enjoy the Cheshire countryside. It was slightly less formal
as we didn’t want morning suits, but we had a full wedding
party, including four groomsmaids, three flower girls and a
page boy. We wanted a colour scheme that that was neither
too feminine (pinks and pastels) nor too masculine (blues,
greys and blacks) so opted for a so green with white. We
travel a lot, so that was the theme for the day. as the guests
entered there was a map of the world and the tables were
named a er our favourite holiday destinations, the top table
being Cape Town in honour of Jon’s South african birthplace.
