WEDDING of the YEAR

Big Brother’s Andy West married his partner actor Nicholas Robinson in St Ives on Christmas Eve. He shares their story…

We weren’t supposed to be getting married so soon. There wasn’t enough time and we couldn’t afford it. Luckily for us, St Ives is home to some amazing people who helped us design our perfectly affordable ‘cottage’ wedding, filled with character.

It had to be a Christmas wedding. We both love that time of year and our winter trips to Cornwall have become our own little tradition. You can keep your sunshine and sandy beaches, we like crashing waves, Christmas trees, horizontal rain and cosy pubs.

We got engaged on Christmas Day, 2018. Nicholas had been pestering me to get up from the sofa all afternoon and he finally managed to drag me away from the biscuits and gin as the sun went down. We climbed up to St Nicholas’ Chapel on the Island and that’s when he popped the question. It was a blowy night and we could hear the sea crashing against the rocks on Porthmeor Beach and the whole town was lit up below us.

It was one of life’s few perfect moments but I instantly thought: how on earth are we going to afford a wedding?

Life has it’s funny coincidences and on the following Monday we were joined on our quiz team at the Castle Inn, St Ives by a gentleman we’d never met called David Murthwaite who just so happened to be a wedding registrar. We told him he’d need to be patient and wait a few years because there was no way we could marry any sooner. Life in London is expensive and we had no chance of booking a big hotel or paying for everything expected from a wedding these days.