Bury St Edmunds couple finally get married after wedding postponed three times due to the Covid-19 pandemic
Fourth time's the charm for one Bury St Edmunds couple who finally got married after having to postpone their wedding three times due to lockdown restrictions.
Tom and Emma Palmer tied the knot on Saturday at Tuddenham Mill surrounded by friends and family who they said made their day special.
The couple had originally planned to wed in March 2020 but lockdown restrictions put a halt on their plans. They then rescheduled for six months later in September 2020, but only a set number of guests would be allowed to attend so they decided to postpone once again for March 2021. But ever the fashion, the nation went into another national lockdown in January last year and so the couple thought it would be best to wait until March 2022.
Finally, Tom, 31, and Emma, 38, were able to exchange rings on Saturday after a two-year delay.
Emma said: "The wedding was great and long awaited. We feel relieved but it’s also surreal because we’ve been waiting for so long.
"We both felt very ready and surprisingly not nervous. Our favourite part of the wedding was the ceremony which is the part we didn’t think we’d look forward to - standing in front of everyone and saying things to each other - but that was the bit we enjoyed the most.
"We’ve had so many gifts and well wishes and we’re still being flooded with messages and pictures. Our house is full to the rafters with wedding stuff," she added.
The day had a bitter-sweet tinge for the couple as Tom’s grandad had passed away before he could see the couple get married.
"We lost Tom’s grandad who would have been best man. He would have been there on the first date we set. The reason why we wanted to get married in March 2020 was because it was my nana’s and late husband’s 30th wedding anniversary and the day after was Tom’s nana’s and grandad’s wedding anniversary so it would have been a nice celebratory weekend. Little did we know that Tom’s grandad would fall really poorly and not be with us shortly after, so that was really sad.
"But on the upside the weather on our original date was horrible. We were supposed to have hail and rain, but on Saturday morning the sun was shining and it was a beautiful spring day. We struck gold.
"And Tom did see his grandad at the cemetery in the morning to give them his buttonhole," she added.
Although the couple weren’t able to get married on their original date and mark their other special occasions, they did get married on their 11th anniversary of first meeting.
They are now set to honeymoon on a 10-day trip to the USA, visiting Florida Keys and Las Vegas.
The couple had struggled during the pandemic with Emma being made redundant from her job at Dorothy Perkins and Burtons, and Tom, who is a driving instructor, unable to work. But now things are better than ever.
Emma said: "Tom is a self-employed driving instructor with a franchise and he's gone from strength to strength. He was nominated as one of the top 100 driving instructors in the UK which is a massive achievement for him because he's only been doing it for nearly three years now.
"And I am home baker. I opened my business last year in May and it's going really well. I've got weddings booked in and I've done stalls around the area. It's been a whirl-wind year but a really good year."
