We said ‘I do’ with Kate and Wills
As the Royal couple celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, we speak to three couples who shared their special day...
Sighing, I blinked back happy tears as I watched Kate Middleton kiss her real-life Prince Charming, sealing their wedding vows. But I couldn’t sit around revelling in their romance. ‘Come on,’ I said, standing up. ‘Now it’s my turn.’ Because I was marrying my own prince – even if he wasn’t officially of blue blood. I’d met Daniel back in 2008 at Heathrow. I was an air stewardess and he worked for an IT company based at the airport, and we got together after bumping into each other regularly. He was a huge family man, who worked hard but was also lots of fun – which he proved when he proposed on a Christmas flight to Washington DC the next year! I was in full fancy dress as Mrs Claus when his voice came over the PA system, asking me to marry him. How could I say no? We loved our trips away, so we decided to get married in Antigua and settled on a date of 29 April 2011, to give our family and friends time to save up if they wanted to come along. When Prince William and Kate Middleton announced they were going to tie the knot on the same day, we were delighted – and because of the time difference, we wouldn’t miss out on their big day, or ours. In the morning, we all got together and watched the royal couple say ‘I do’ before going to get dressed ourselves. As the registrar announced, ‘You may now kiss the bride’ and Daniel and I locked lips, he laughed. ‘That was a better kiss than William and Kate,’ he joked. Like them, we’ve also had a little boy, Ethan, now nine, and although we’d have loved more children, unfortunately we weren’t blessed with any more. We’d always planned to go to the Maldives for our 10th anniversary but, with the Coronavirus, we’ll be staying at home. We’ll have plenty more anniversaries to celebrate – as, no doubt, will William and Kate!
‘We watched them get married, before we did’ DONNA MATHIESON, 39, FROM SURREY, MARRIED DANIEL, 41, IN ANTIGUA