Marrying my climbing instructor

It was the end of my final year at university and some of my friends were going away on a trip. However, not having seen my boyfriend in a while and wanting to save the money, I wasn’t intending to go with them. Then a few weeks before they left, my boyfriend dumped me (I later discovered he was cheating) and my best friend persuaded me to go on the trip to cheer me up, so at the last minute I booked myself on it.

We were on an active holiday in the Alps and one of the days we spent climbing with an instructor. He was a fun guy and came out with us for a drink later too but I didn’t take much notice – having sworn off men after my recent indignation, and my best friend telling me to keep away as he seemed to fancy himself as something of a ladies’ man.
When we got home, he had added me on Facebook, so I accepted and over a month or two we started chatting more and more. One day I was complaining of being bored and he suggested I went back for another week to do some more climbing (I had no job prospects and no idea what I was going to do with my degree), but I declined as I had no money. He then offered to buy my plane ticket, which I felt very uncomfortable about but my Mum reminded me that you should grab these opportunities when they come along.
So off I went with a one-way ticket and a suitcase packed for 2 weeks…I came home 4 months later engaged, and 1 year and 4 days after the date of that flight we were married!

Due to our situation we couldn’t actually set a specific date for the wedding until 6 weeks’ prior so the planning was virtually none existent and many of the reception details were left to chance (decorations/entertainment etc). We ended up getting a warm sunny day in October, our best man managed to find flowers and table decorations from around the hotel to decorate where we were eating, and another function taking place in the hotel on the same night not having booked a DJ either meant the hotel hired one to keep us all there drinking for longer – we had a great night for the fraction of the price of everyone else I know!

Submitted by Tamsin