Dan & Emily live together in the Oxfordshire countryside with their two ragdoll cats, Charlie & Leo. Dan is a record producer and musician (DJ Fresh!). Emily is a photographer and a passionate home cook. They met briefly through mutual friends in 2013, a few days before Dan had leave the UK to tour Asia, they exchanged contact details and the two of them spent the entire time talking on the phone and on Skype. They talked all day, every day, often falling asleep on the laptop because of the 7 hour time difference. The couple arranged to meet again in person on the day Dan returned. At that point it was very obvious that they were already in love – it seemed impossible that they had known each other for just a few weeks. Since that day, the two of them have never spent more than a couple of days apart. We spoke to Emily all about their wedding and honeymoon.
How did you and Dan get engaged?
We got engaged during a bomb scare in Gibraltar airport! We landed there for a festival Dan was playing at and he had it all planned out (besides the potential terrorist threat part). He wanted to propose on the runway, which has an incredible backdrop, but we were stuck stationary for over an hour while the suspect item was removed. Finally, as we disembarked he asked our dear friend Jamie to take a photo of the two of us in front of The Rock of Gibraltar and as he did Dan got down on one knee and proposed! The cabin crew were in on it, Jamie was in on it, all of my family and his knew and I had no idea.
What kind of wedding did you plan?
We wanted to have loads of handmade touches. The wedding cake was made by myself and my mother-in-law Jil, the place cards were origami which our friends pitched in to help create, we designed the invitations from scratch. It really made the run up to the wedding so much fun. It gave us an excuse to get together with our loved ones before the big day to create something beautiful that everyone could be a part of.
Did you have a first dance?
No, we just hit the dance floor with everybody as the music got going. As we did a great big rainbow appeared in the sky (according to the smokers outside!)
What’s your advice for other couples on their wedding day?
Hire a videographer. For us it really captured the spirit of the day in a way pictures can’t.
What made Patchwork the best honeymoon fund for you?
We wanted to fund our honeymoon in Bora Bora, which was definitely a bucket list trip – a dream come true, and somewhere we had always wanted to go. Using Patchwork for our gift registry was completely suited to our idea of the perfect wedding gift, an amazing experience for the both of us. Patchworking our honeymoon also made us really think about the experiences we could have on our trip, we did things we wouldn’t normally have done like a traditional polynesian lunch and a fishing excursion!
Since friends of ours had already used Patchwork over the years we had an idea of how well it would work for us – the slick interface, room for creativity and ease of use put it above any other website we were considering.
It was immensely humbling for us to receive so much love and generosity from our friends and family, who, by the way, were thrilled that they could buy our wedding gift without having to leave the house! It was lovely for them to feel as though they could contribute to our honeymoon in such a simple but meaningful way.
So you didn’t want to go down the traditional gift list route?
No, we’d lived together for 3 years before getting married so we really didn’t need anything for our house. Patchwork enabled us to create something easily online for people to gift as little or as much as they wanted with a fun personal touch.
Even older family members had no problem figuring out how to send us a wedding gift!
Would you recommend your trip to other honeymooners?
Absolutely, it was paradise on earth. The most beautiful thing either of us had ever seen by far. We spent it scuba diving with manta rays and biking around an extinct volcano. We were so lucky to experience something like that in our lifetime.
Thank you so much lovely Emily & Dan for sharing your sweet Patchwork story with us. And a huge congratulations from Team Patchwork!
If this has inspired you to make your own honeymoon fund patchwork, just customise one of our readymade patchworks or create one from scratch.