A mud-loving couple from Coombe had reason more than most to celebrate when Boris Johnson revealed the roadmap back to a life more closely resembling normality…
Their ‘history making’ wedding ceremony – the first ever to be held at the iconic Belvedere Tower at Powderham Castle in its 247 year history – can go ahead as planned this May.
And the honour of the ‘history first’ date will go to a former gamekeeper to the Royal Family who met his now fiancée whilst online dating with Muddy Matches.
Mark Perry, who served on the royal Sandringham estate for over 30 years, unearthed rural romance with Jemma Page whilst online dating with Muddy Matches – the UK’s original home of countryside dating – two years ago.
Then, just 5 months after matching online with Muddy Matches, and just days before the first lockdown was instructed in March 2020, the couple got engaged.
The proposal came after Jemma had upped sticks 200 miles to bubble up with Mark in the East Devon countryside as speculation of a national lockdown picked up pace.
It also put an end to a year of 4 hour round trips each weekend to grab precious time together.
Jemma was even forced to wait until restrictions were relaxed in the summer to get an engagement ring before they set a wedding date of May 27th, 2021. It is a milestone in the calendar they have sweating on ever since sending out 30 ‘save the dates’ in November.
Thankfully, proposed roadmap timings mean the muddy couple will welcome their full quota of guests… fingers crossed.
Jemma said: “We celebrated our engagement with family and friends over Zoom and we had to wait 3 months for things to open up again so I could collect an engagement ring. So, I am thrilled to say that, after Boris’ roadmap being revealed, that our muddy wedding will go ahead as planned on May 27th.
“This is the second wedding for both of us; so, we agreed an intimate day with very close friends and family is right for us.
“Lockdown has been great in giving us yet more time to plan, but if nothing had changed or numbers had gone down to 6 again, we will still have gone ahead”.
Their wedding ceremony at the iconic Belvedere Tower has drawn attention worldwide and will feature in a TV documentary on Romantic British estates and castles to appear on television across America.
“Our wedding will be televised on Smithsonian TV. The producer couldn’t believe his luck that our wedding is the week they are there filming, so the film crew (under strict instructions to make no noise) will film the ceremony and interview us during the week beforehand.”
And, staying close to their rural roots that matched them on Muddy Matches, the Devon-based couple will guarantee their big day has muddy touches with all guests being transported by tractor, from the deer park to the 18th century tower.
The reception will take place at the Folly at the Pig Hotel in Coombe where groom-to-be Mark is head groundman.
“We just wake up every day incredibly excited to have found each other. We still get on extremely well despite having been in each other’s pockets since March last year when lockdown became living together after only seeing each other at weekends.” Jemma adds.
“We have loved making long term plans to live together and going to country shows, planning the animals we’ll have in our new home. We have created bucket lists of where we’d travel, what type of dogs we’ll get. Hopefully, there will now be lots of goats, chickens, and perhaps even a donkey.”
You can join us on our social media pages, follow us on Facebook or Twitter and keep up to date with whats going on in South Devon.
Got a news story, blog or press release that you’d like to share or want to advertise with us? Contact us
