Leeds couple marry early and livestream wedding to beat second lockdown

Fiona and Andy Gammage were originally planning to marry on Monday but, with the country entering into a nationwide lockdown, brought the day forward to Wednesday.

The couple, who had 15 guests in attendance, streamed the “intimate” ceremony in Ripon to around 37 further guests on Facebook Live, including family members in Chicago and Australia.

With the exception of a few guests not being able to make the rescheduled date, everything was able to be rearranged, and they even had better weather than their original date.

“We were watching the announcement on Saturday. I think it was delayed by a couple of hours and by probably half five we’d confirmed a lot of the different elements,” Mr Gammage, 31, said.

“It probably took a couple of hours… we can’t thank everyone enough, they pulled out all the stops to try and accommodate us."

Mrs Gammage, 30, said: “It all seemed to work out and miraculously come together, and everyone who could be there came.

“We set up the Facebook Live thinking that it’s the next best thing for all those people that we can’t have there.

“We couldn’t even have hymns so it was quite a short ceremony, but it was a really nice atmosphere.”

Mr and Mrs Gammage, who recently moved in with family in Stamford Bridge, York, to avoid tighter restrictions at their home in Leeds, said they will have a larger wedding event next year.

“We were really conscious we wanted to stick to all the regulations, so we had 15 at the wedding and a socially distanced meal,” Mr Gammage said.

“We weren’t ever planning to do the evening do – back when the regulations changed and the numbers got reduced we decided that we were going to split the day anyway.

“We’re going to do an evening do next year, hopefully when all the regulations have been lifted, and invite everyone we possibly can do.”

The wedding planning was not without complications, with their pageboy and best man testing positive for coronavirus and their maid of honour having to self-isolate just weeks before the wedding.

“The smaller ceremony was perfect, it does mean that you have your nearest and dearest there and you do get more time to speak to your guests,” Mrs Gammage said.

“It’s tough telling people that they can’t come… they’re aware of all of the regulations and restrictions but it’s really sad and it’s really difficult.

“The livestream made it feel a lot better. I wouldn’t change anything about that at all, it was perfect.”

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