Congratulations to our supporters Laura and Guy, who have celebrated their joint 50th birthday by getting married at home. The unique occasion was captured as the last photograph in the Doorstep Snaps fundraising series.
Since the first national lockdown, professional photographer Simon Ward has raised a total of £4,365 for Julia’s House and the Stars Appeal charity, by snapping Wiltshire families in their doorways. For the finale shot of the series, he visited Laura Brown and Guy Eatherington for their very special double birthday celebration.
Dressed in wedding attire and surrounded by candles and fairy lights, Laura and Guy tied the knot in a virtual live-streamed ceremony from the front room of their home in Amesbury, with their four children and cockapoo ring bearer present.
The happy newlyweds, who donated £100 through Doorstep Snaps, said, “The support and care that these charities provide to children and families in need is so important. We heard about Doorstep Snaps and we just felt that this was a really easy way for us to give something back to the local children’s charities making a big difference.”
Nicky Clack, our fundraising assistant for Wiltshire, says, “We were so delighted to hear of Laura and Guy’s unlikely love story and moment of joy in the midst of lockdown, and our congratulations go to them and their family.
"We’d also like to say thank you for their kind donation to Julia’s House, which will help us to continue our vital care for children with life-limiting conditions and their families in the heart of the Wiltshire community, helping them stay safe and well at home.”
Salisbury-born Laura, who is Deputy Head at Clarendon Infants’ School in Tidworth, first got chatting to Guy online three years ago about Type 1 diabetes – a condition shared by two of their four children from previous marriages. When Laura revealed her date of birth, Guy couldn’t believe the connection.
"I said to her, you’re not going to believe this so I’m not going to tell you – I’m just going to send you a photo of my passport,” Guy says. "We were born on the exact same day, just two hours apart. I’m not a believer of horoscopes but it’s amazing how well we matched at every level right from the start, considering we’d gone from being two complete strangers.”
It didn’t take long for Guy to realise he’d met his soulmate and he swiftly moved up from Devon to live with Laura, before proposing to her one year ago. “We’d always planned to get married on our birthday,” says Guy. “It’s not often that you both turn 50, so we weren’t going to let lockdown stop us from having our wedding.”
Due to lockdown rules, civil ceremonies can currently only go ahead in special circumstances, so the couple asked a friend to be a celebrant for the virtual wedding and will have the legal ceremony when restrictions are lifted.
“We’d planned a honeymoon in Mexico in half term, which is looking very unlikely now. But hopefully I’ll still be able to whisk Laura away to somewhere a little further than our living room soon,” Guy says.
Along with Guy and Laura, more than 150 families and businesses have taken part in the Doorsteps Snaps fundraiser since the first lockdown.
“Doorstep Snaps has given people the opportunity to do something different during the monotony of lockdown and have a photographic reminder of the year that was 2020,” says Simon. “A little piece of history to look back on in the years to come, whilst helping to support Julia’s House and the Stars Appeal – two fantastic local charities whose fundraising activities had been decimated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
View the Doorsteps Snaps gallery at simonwardphotography.com
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