The Wedding
They made their introductions on Grindr, chatted for a month and after just under two and a half years, Phil and Leo got married. This is their love story...
The Lowdown
Where: Wotton House, Surrey
Theme: Traditional
Photographer: Andre Gascoine
They made their introductions on Grindr, chatted for a month or more and got to know each other, and after just two and a half years, Phil and Leo got married! This is their love story...
"We both met on Grindr! Yes it works, haha! We chatted for a month, but couldn't meet up because Leo's mum and sister were over from South Africa for Leo's 30th birthday. We Skyped and got to know each other through that mainly. When Leo's family had left, I went round to his house for a barbecue. From that day, I knew we would be together forever. That was nearly seven years ago!
"We had both talked about getting married, and had even got the rings. Leo said that because I was older than him, I should be the one to ask (I'm one year older!), so I surprised him to a weekend in Rome and asked him there. It was a great weekend!
"""We looked at a few wedding venues and nothing grabbed us. When I was young and at college, I did work experience with the police dog trainers, and loved it. They used to train at a derelict mansion in Wotton, and I told all my friends about it.
"Several years later, we all got into a car and drove to that mansion. Once window was open, so we climbed in. It was a great little adventure. We could see on the walls that there were plans to convert it into a hotel, - it turned out to be Wotton House Hotel!
"Leo and I went to have a look around and because it brought up so many memories from the past, we decided to hold our wedding there.
"We saved for about two years to pay for our wedding because we wanted to make it really special. We had 101 guests during the day and another 25 in the evening; there were two casino tables, a photo booth and an awesome DJ."
