Elisa and Ricky were married only a year after meeting in a bar at the end of the Olympic Opening Ceremony (on 27th of July 2012). Although she wasn’t interested at first, and after turning down his number a bunch of times, she eventually agreed to go out with him about two weeks later! “After six hours of talking that night, I decided I would give him a go and It’s been a whirl wind romance since. I still can’t believe it”, she explained.
“But as fate would have it, on September 7th, I was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. The prognosis wasn’t good and our world came crashing down. After just three weeks we knew we were meant for other and this was our challenge. On that night, three very special words were uttered from us of both and the rest is history. Love really is the best kind of medicine. Since I became sick our motto has been HOPE – FAITH – LOVE so we had it as a recurring theme throughout our wedding. It was on my engagement ring, on our invites and on the tables.”
In terms of the styling of the wedding, Elisa and Ricky wanted to capture the spirit and feeling of that day they first met. The bride is also obsessed with the Queen (she invited her to the wedding but she declined) and so a very British wedding with royal references throughout was the perfect theme for them. “There were a lot of street parties going on around the time we met (because of the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics) and we loved the relaxed and ‘all muck in’ atmosphere of them. We found a field on a farm and decided to do our own pop up wedding – street party style. Big marquee, long tables, hay bales and wild flowers.”
“One of my favourite DIY projects was our egg quotes. We wanted to inspire our guest with our motto and thought giving everyone a quote would be a nice idea. We came up with idea of a quote egg. Like a fortune cookie… but an egg! We blew out 150 eggs and then rolled up HOPE – FAITH – LOVE quotes and placed them inside. Everyone had to crack theirs open hoping their quote was meant for them. The response was amazing. People got quite emotional.”
“One of my favourite moments was when Ricky rode in on a white horse!” she continued. “There is a story in Scottish folklore that for a woman in her clan, the 100th man on a white horse that she meets is the man she is destined to marry. So naturally I started counting white horses. After counting my 100th at the Queen’s Jubilee I patiently waited… and waited…. and waited. Finally I meet Ricky. He obviously wasn’t on a white horse in the pub but when I told him the story he loved it so much that he surprised me at the wedding by riding in on this magnificent white horse. My very own Mr Darcy moment!”
“I loved all the preparations for our wedding, “Elisa concluded. “I had something to focus on during my treatment which I believe has kept me going.”
