Patchwork couple Liz and Josh met on Bumble, back in 2016 when it had just launched. After some bad luck on Tinder, Liz says she was “intrigued by the more feminist dating app.” After a brief chat about their love of cocktails, they decided to meet up at a cocktail bar in South London. “We hit it off and had a few too many – my hangover the next day was so bad I had to call in sick!” They’ve been together ever since. Liz chats to us today about their small, intimate Spring wedding and honeymoon to Greece, funded by friends and family.
How did you get engaged?
Liz: Josh whisked me away to Paris for the weekend for my birthday. We’ll often get each other experiences for birthdays rather than physical presents, but he’d definitely stepped it up a gear this time! Josh had planned to do it on this little island on the River Seine but I was directing us to a wine bar and refused to go as it wasn’t on the way, so I scuppered his plans. He was so nervous at the bar trying to think of an alternative plan that he was basically silent – I thought he was mad at me. Afterward, we headed to the restaurant he’d planned for dinner and he popped the question on the bridge we crossed. It coincidentally happened exactly on the hour, so right as he proposed the Eiffel Tower lit up and sparkled. It was magical.
Ah that does sound magical! What kind of wedding did you plan?
We got engaged just before the pandemic so we luckily hadn’t made many plans that had to change. Knowing we wouldn’t be able to have the typical 100+ person wedding (that we probably would have had if Covid hadn’t hit) we planned for something small and intimate from the get-go. I’m so glad we did in the end as it was just perfect and we’d do it the exact same again if we had the choice!
Did you have a first dance?
Our first dance was to Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson. We both love Funk and Soul and knew that we had to have a song that we could have a good dance to. Jess at Start the Dance gave us a few initial dance lessons so that we could practice Josh swinging me around. We had the most brilliant band and it was the first time any of us had seen any live music in 18 months. Everyone really went for it on the dancefloor!
What was your favourite part of the day?
Josh surprised me with brass band Brass Junkies to march us from the church to the marquee down the road. We’d spoken about that previously after I saw a couple on Instagram do something similar, but we ruled it out due to the expense of getting an additional band. But Josh remembered and then got it for me as a surprise wedding present. I’ll never forget that moment walking out of the church and seeing the band there waiting for us. I was overjoyed!
Why did you choose Patchwork for your wedding registry?
I’d heard about Patchwork at an alternative wedding fair. I really liked the mix and match approach and it’s a nice change from the boring wedding registries you normally see. It was so easy to use – you pick a template and the whole thing took about half an hour. As well as being really visually appealing, we liked the option to include text so we could describe why we’d love each thing. It made it feel really personal.
What did you invite your guests to contribute towards?
We picked some physical items from different shops that we’d had our eye on, but also experiences for our honeymoon. Having spent quite a lot on the wedding meant there wasn’t much wiggle room to enjoy lovely things for our honeymoon, so being able to include different gift experiences was amazing. We also needed a few of the standard things for our home such as cutlery and crockery so we got to include these too. Most of our friends and family hadn’t come across Patchwork before but they all thought it was novel and easy to use.
What have you done with the wedding gift money you received?
We spent it on the most incredible honeymoon in the Greek Islands, making so many memories we’ll never forget. We are so grateful to all our family and friends and feel truly blessed.
All wedding photo credits: Voyteck Photo
Thank you Liz and Josh for taking the time to share these beautiful words and pictures with us. We are so glad you enjoyed using Patchwork and we wish you both every happiness together in the future!
If you’d like to create your own honeymoon fund for an amazing trip to Greece we have templates for Mykonos, Santorini, or if you haven’t decided which island yet you can use our Beautiful Island of Somewhere template while you make your mind up!
p.s. You can listen to Liz and Josh’s first dance song on our Spotify playlist, made up of lots of our Patchwork Couples’ first dances.