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And anyway, I had a wedding to distract me from feeling sorry for myself. After a decade running a luxury fashion and travel website I had skills, a great contacts book and ideas – it was time to explore the world of freelance journalism. But I didn’t want to let it defeat me and after 10 years I knew it was the right time to move on. Getting engaged one month and being made redundant the next was the biggest kick in the stomach – or so I thought. Talk about plummeting from dizzy heights to a whole new low. I was so looking forward to a few child-free days of feasting on carbs and Italian wine as we planned to fly to Italy to look for venues – until I was told I was at risk of redundancy. Fast forward eight years - and I thought I was finally about to marry the love of my life. Since then, we discussed marriage on and off but, after buying our first home, we prioritised the extension of our bungalow. We met at work at the online shopping site Global Blue in 2012 and kept our relationship a secret for a year. By early November, we were booked to visit the area on a location-scouting trip.Įamonn and I have a two-year-old daughter, Clementine Lilac. It wasn’t until a friend got back from a conference in Puglia and recommended a few resorts as possible wedding venues that things started to take shape. We liked Tuscany, but thought it was too remote and obvious. I love Capri, but without a budget of £50,000+ to spend, you would be laughed at. We have always loved Italy, so I spent many, many hours researching the perfect location. We just wanted a picturesque location, good weather, amazing food and to enjoy the day with close friends and family. We both wanted a short engagement and opted for the beginning of the season in May. Meanwhile we were well on our way to planning our dream wedding and could never dream a pandemic could be about to derail everything.
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It was a worrying development, but being stoic Brits, we assumed it would all blow over. My previous job as Digital Editor at Global Blue relied heavily on the Chinese travel and shopping market, and now they weren’t even leaving their houses. We realised it was serious, but never imagined that it would cause the whole country to shut down. Eamonn’s colleague was due to head to China for Chinese New Year but her parents advised her not to travel due to the outbreak. The first I heard about coronavirus was in January, around the time our invites had gone out.
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But when it has come to coronavirus and our wedding, that’s how it has felt: a flicker of hope gradually being extinguished as the days have gone on. It’s hard to describe the pain of something that you’ve been looking forward to for months being gradually taken away from you. Now the reality has sunk in we know what this means: our wedding in Italy in May won’t be happening. Even writing it now feels unimaginable – and yet the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of stress and upset. I never could have imagined on that day last September, when my partner Eamonn got down on one knee and proposed in a national park in Ireland, that the following year we’d have to cancel our dream wedding with a few weeks to go.