An Edinburgh bride has opened up about her dream 'Disney' wedding more than a year after celebrating her surprise Christmas engagement in front of The Dome in Edinburgh.
"The planning process wasn’t easy," Anita Young, 25, told jewelry creators at Austen & Blake.
The couple planned their wedding in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic, but "managed to have the perfect day" nonetheless.
Anita Young, an Instagram content creator and online fitness coach from Edinburgh, shared the story behind her big day, and revealed that her dress had been inspired by a rendition of Disney's Cinderella.
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"My inspiration was from the Cinderella movie that came out in 2015. The dress in the movie was blue, worn by lily James who played Cinderella, but I recreated it in white with a glitter fabric, with a similar neckline and fabric all around the trim of my dress, made to look like I was walking in the clouds," Anita said.
"My parents got my dress, my bridesmaid's dresses and my mum's outfits all bespoke made, designed by myself and brought to life by fashion designers Philp and Tony Armstrong. Philp has made clothes for The Housewives of Cheshire and celebrities in that area, and came down to dress me personally which made my day extra special.”
Anita and her now-husband celebrated a surprise engagement in front of The Dome in December 2020, and the couple was married in the summer of 2021.
“Richard proposed to me on the 21st of December 2020 in Edinburgh outside The Dome. We went out that evening for a meal at Chaophraya Thai restaurant, where Richard was originally going to surprise me and propose. But when he asked the man who worked there to take a photo of us and he said no because of COVID, this ruined his chance to put the camera on and film it, so he kept it cool and acted while thinking fast," Anita recalled.
"He then said we should go and see The Dome after this and get a nice photo for Christmas. Once we got to The Dome he asked a man to take a photo of us then as we posed he got down on one knee to my surprise and proposed which was just so magical! We then went home and told our families we were getting married which was a very exciting time.”
Planning a wedding isn't easy in the best of circumstances, but Anita said the process was doubly stressful with the changing rules and restrictions of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
"We knew we wanted to get married that summer but were in the height of the pandemic with lots of rules and regulations, so we finalised our wedding date to be the week there were no restrictions," she said.
However, the week before the wedding, the government announced new restrictions, and the couple were forced to downsize their wedding from 200 people to 60.
"As you can imagine, it was not nice having to choose only 60 out of 200 family members and friends, but it had to be done. We still managed to have the perfect day and those who were there ended up being immediate family members from each side.”
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