Meet weddingsonline’s Real Bride, our UAE Editor Sonja

Hi! I’m Sonja – new Editor here at weddingsonline.ae and bride-to-be and I am incredibly excited about both! I can’t wait to share my wedding journey with you and help you all on your wonderful journeys, by bringing lots of inspirational articles, handy hints and top tips!

I’m getting married in Dubai this year (twice!), so I’m going to be sharing my story as I count down to the Big Days…

weddingsonline.ae real bride Sonja

The countdown:

I’m getting married in 10 days. TEN! I’m also getting married again in 94 days (to the same man, I think it’s important to add!) but I can’t think about that fully right now because thinking about and planning two weddings was blowing my mind! I’ve broken them down into the Small Wedding/Wedding #1 and the Big Wedding/Wedding #2 to save me having a mini bride-to-be meltdown.

Why two weddings? We’re both Brits living in the UAE so to legally tie the knot here we’re required to marry in one of the two Christian Churches. Priests can, and do, carry out blessings on location in the UAE, but they can only legally marry you inside the church. Loads of couples decide to do this part in secret and then have the ‘blessing’ in front of guests as the real wedding, while others invite their guests to the church ceremony and then head onto the reception venue. We considered both of these options and for various reasons (we wouldn’t be able to keep the fact we were married a secret, we didn’t want to transport UK guests all over town from church to reception etc.) decided to have two weddings. We could have chosen to have both weddings within days of each other, but we really wanted to get married as soon as we could – simply because we can’t wait to be Mr and Mrs – and as we all know, the weather here in Dubai is a good few weeks away from being cool enough to be outside for hours at a wedding without melting.

This first wedding actually started as just us and our parents at the church, with me wearing a simple white dress from Reiss, followed by a brunch with our closest Dubai friends… but has now become a full on mini-wedding. Everyone invited to brunch was so excited, they wanted to come to church too (which is lovely) so then my simple white dress somehow got upgraded to a proper wedding dress (albeit a short one). It’s actually incredible how quickly wedding plans escalate, but I couldn’t be happier. Why have one celebration with people you love when you can have two – is the way we’re looking at it.

I am so excited about the whole day and I’m hoping this wedding will make me less nervous when it comes to walking down the aisle at the Big Wedding/Wedding 2… although I doubt it!

weddingsonline.ae real bride Sonja

How we met:

James and I met at a Flywheel class (that’s indoor cycling) two and a half years ago (both sweaty and wearing lycra, the only way was up from there!). He overheard a conversation I was having and joined in and I remember thinking something along the lines of “oh hello, who’s this guy?!” About six months later I was at Flywheel again (I go a lot!)… there was hardly anyone in class, loads of empty bikes, but fate gave me a wonderful treat that day because there he was on the bike right next to me. Two months and lots of liking of every status and picture posted on Facebook (him, not me!) later, he finally asked me out on a date. We were both really busy at the time so had to get a date in the diary for about three weeks’ time, but in the end we couldn’t wait so changed our schedules so we could bring the date forward. So that was it… an official date at 40 Kong (we were both so keen we arrived so early we had to wait by the lift until the staff had finished preparing the bar), both out of our lycra and in normal clothes…and it really was the best date I had ever had. I’ve had plenty more incredible dates with him since, but that first night we laughed constantly and didn’t stop talking. I knew actually, quite weirdly, that first night that this guy was going to be around for a long time and we did become pretty much inseparable after that first lovely date. My dad always used to say to me “when you know, you know”. I had no idea what he meant… and then I did.

Sonja x

P.S Next time I’ll be talking ‘the proposal’ and also sharing all the details of the Small Wedding/Wedding #1 as I count down to the big day!

Main photo by Eva Derrick Photography via Wedding Bells

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Sonja Stephen-Willn
Sonja is our UAE Editor and a bride-to be! An ex-magazine Editor and Showbiz Columnist, Sonja has swapped her love of celebrity gossip for stylish wedding loveliness. From rustic to vintage, beach to ballroom she is constantly searching for fabulous inspiration to share.

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