A couple of florists ditched tradition on their wedding day to “prioritise fun” – snubbing rings, flowers and even a wedding cake.
Instead, John Voyle, 61, and Richard Allison, 48, gave their guests a round of drag queen bingo and a champagne reception on a double decker bus.
Standing at the altar, the pair, from Leicester, opted to exchange state-of-the-art mobile phones instead of wedding rings, and there wasn’t a flower in sight, despite working with flowers every day.
Richard said: “Our big day would not be most people’s idea of the perfect wedding, but it was absolutely perfect for us. It was emotional, hilarious and at times, bonkers.
“We decided to strip everything away from our wedding day that would cause worry or hassle for anyone attending, especially ourselves.”
He explained they did away with lots of wedding traditions, including speeches.
“No first dance, no extended ceremony or customary vows. We even organised a boozy post ceremony bus, so no one had to worry about driving,” he said.
“Our focus was on fun, as this would be the first time many had been to a good old shindig since the pandemic began – and it paid off.”
The couple never wear jewellery so they didn’t see the point in exchanging wedding rings. At first, they wanted a very simple wedding, but their vision soon evolved into a fun, whacky ceremony their guests would never forget.
“When it came to what we were going to exchange instead of rings, it started off as a joke but quickly turned real.”
Instead, John and Richard realised they both wanted new phones, so decided to swap those instead.
Richard said: “We’d been eyeing up the new Samsung phones. We really wanted a Galaxy ZFlip3 and the Galaxy ZFold3 so we thought, why not buy them as wedding presents to ourselves?
“We made a joke of it, saying we were going to exchange them instead of rings as a way to communicate more with each other. It was a bit of fun.”
The couple’s 65 guests had no idea what to expect when they turned up to celebrate the big day.
But when the pair exchanged their brand new phones, the crowd burst into laughter.
“Everyone knew from this point to expect the unexpected,” Richard said. “We were announced married as ‘Voyley and the Duchess.’ Again, the room erupted and we left the register office for drinks on the lawn.”
