Hero nurse gets hitched in Edinburgh after winning dream wedding contest
| Author | Kris Gourlay |
| Published date | 16 June 2022 |
| Publication title | EdinburghLive (Scotland) |
On Saturday, June 11, the first of the five weddings took place at Edinburgh's Apex Waterloo Place Hotel, with Rebekah Brown and James Smith tying the knot in fabulous fashion.
Hundreds of front-line workers within the NHS applied for the chance to have their ideal wedding paid for, with Rebekah and James, from Fife, amongst the lucky winners.
Rebekah is a Specialist Biomedical Scientist working in the Pathology Department at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. She returned to work at the beginning of the first lockdown after the birth of her second child.
Apex Hotels treated James and Rebekah to a complimentary complete wedding package, including a three-course wedding breakfast, drinks, evening buffet and upgraded wedding night accommodation.
In addition, the couple were gifted wedding essentials, as well as having the whole day captured digitally and having flowers taken care off by a professional.
The wedding cake was also especially designed and made for the occasion by Apex's own Food & Beverage Projects Manager, Susan Reid.
Speaking on the difficulties of working during the Covid pandemic, Rebekah said: "It was actually terrifying to be going back to work in a hospital, not knowing what to expect or how to keep my family safe."
The wedding was made even more special as the pandemic ruined Rebekah and James's initial plans to have their own ceremony in 2020. Just like several thousand other unfortunate others, their plans were thrown into uncertainty.
"The restrictions meant we couldn't be sure if the wedding would be able to go ahead or not, but we held out for as long as possible hoping that we'd be able to get married," said Rebekah.
"Eventually we had no choice but to cancel the wedding in June 2020. With relatives due to fly in from all over the world it just wasn't going to work, but we were devastated."
James explained: "We've been together for seven years, engaged since 2016 and we have two beautiful children. We were desperate to finally tie the knot and share our love for each other with our family and friends.
"Apex Hotels made our dream wedding a reality and we can't...
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