BIG DAY >>>

Sharni and Robyn 5 years on and stronger than ever!

In our community most don’t make it past a 5 month engagement yet you have reached the 5 year milestone of tying the knot, we would love to go on a trip down memory lane with you both.

First off, introduce yourselves and let us know where you are from/live ?

I’m Sharni Edwards-Peoples I’m from Brighton originally but now live in Belfast and have done for the past 10years and I’m Robyn I’m 31 from Belfast

When and how did you meet, were you single for a long time before you started dating?

Sharni - My wife & I met back in February 2014, I was single for a year or so before I met Robyn. We met by complete fluke being from Brighton. I didn’t know anyone from Belfast but at that time my cousin had moved over, so myself and my other cousin arranged a weekend away to visit him. Whilst visiting my cousin we went out for a night out in the town - we headed to the Kremlin where my cousin introduced us to some of his friends he’d made over in Belfast - one of them happened to be Robyn. As soon as we met we hit it off straight away, my weekend away turned into a week & we spent every second together from there on out.

Robyn - Before we met I was single for about 8/9 months, I wasn’t planning on meeting anyone at this time in my life but once we met I knew I wanted to get to know Sharni & keep in contact with her.

How long after you started dating did it take to pop the question, was it an immediate yes ? And who asked who?

Robyn - we were dating for close to 2 years when we got engaged, we were in Paris for an Ariana Grande concert I proposed first in may of 2015 at locks bridge, the same year on my birthday sharni proposed to me which was what we’d both always spoken about, we both wanted the the proposal. It was definitely an immediate yes.

Tell us about your BIG DAY , location, amount of guests etc.

Sharni - Our big was day crazy insane, we had booked our wedding in for the 11th February 2020 as this is our anniversary of the date we first got together, little did we know this was coincide with the law change of the bills being passed for same sex marriage in Northern Ireland. Being from Brighton I wasn’t even aware of the difficulty LGBTQIA people had in Northern Ireland as I’m from the gay capital of England. It blew my mind how hard you all had to work for this bill to be passed & it became an absolute privilege for me to be a part of this history. Our big day was set to be held in Carrickfergus at the Loughshore hotel, with all the hype & all the press wanting to be a part of our big day we agreed on having an intimate ceremony with our nearest & dearest around 50 people allowing a time slot of 30mins after the ceremony & creating history by becoming the first same sex marriage in NI for the press. To this day it still blows our mind that we made history on the most amazing day of our lives!

Tell about the food and drink?

Robyn - The food was beautiful, there were options for the guests to choose from and the guests were all happy with the meal!

We had a few bars throughout the hotel, one in our reception room also which was great.

Our cake and dessert table was from Alex at Heavenly treats. She did an absolutely amazing job, everyone was talking about how good the cake and all the treats were, absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend her! Went above and beyond for us!

Were there any hiccups or did all go to plan?

Sharni - I can actually say honestly we were very lucky - everything went to plan for us, no hiccups at all. Our whole day was pretty much scheduled due to the press & TV interviews before & after our ceremony so everything went to plan & everything was kept to schedule from our interview with GMB at 6am, to our hair & makeup with the girls from the salon in The Loughshore hotel (couldn’t recommend them enough they were amazing & kept my nerves at bay, treated us all like queens unreal service). To the ceremony and so on. From start to finish it was the cliché perfect wedding day.

Did you have a honeymoon? If so tell us about it, any recommendations or places to avoid Robyn - We left the next morning from the Hotel to go on our honeymoon and it just started snowing in February. It was so beautiful! My mum booked us our honeymoon as a wedding gift which was amazing!

We went for 2 weeks in Cyprus, it was absolutely beautiful, the views, the sea and the food were all amazing! It was the start of the season so it was peaceful, the perfect honeymoon!

In your daily lives what do you do for work? What interests do you share and have that are different ?

Robyn - I went back to being a healthcare worker recently after a few years of being a chef. We have so many different interests. Sharni loves football. I will get her tickets for matches and join her at them. We both love music and going to see different artists around the world as we both love travelling also. With opposite shift patterns when we get time off together we both enjoy date nights together having dinner & going to see a movie or going for a few drinks together.

Sharni - I work as a Deputy General Manager at a Pizzaexpress branch in Belfast and have worked for the company for 14years. We have many similar interests and others completely different. I’m more into my sports, especially football where as my wife is more artistic even though she does enjoy sport I’m just what she would call obsessed with my football.

Do you do everything together in terms of socialising, travel ?

Robyn - we travel together, we love getting away on holiday and also enjoy mini city breaks during the year also. We also socialise together with friends on nights outs & events but also socialise separately at times.

Sharni - We also like to do things separately too. With our jobs being so different as well our schedules seem to miss each other quite a lot so when we do finally get the time to spend together we definitely make the most of it with cute little date nights or nights away. My favourite thing to do is to spend time with my wife.

Have you a family, is this something on the plan for you?

Sharni - We don’t have a family as of yet but we will definitely be trying for a family very soon! We discuss it all the time and we’re very open and communicative of what we want as a couple - I love that about us.

Tell us who made your day possible in terms of rings, flowers, photographer, cars etc

Robyn - There were a few people who made our day run as perfectly, our wedding coordinator Leigh-Anne from Loughshore helped us from the moment we booked with her, she organised so much and ensured we had everything we wanted for the perfect day. Diane from Wedding Belle decorated everything so beautifully! Our hair and make-up artists from the salon Shannon & Colleen who not only did our hair and make up throughout the day but ensured no media got to us before the ceremony. All the staff that day went above and beyond for us! We had a videographer and photographer who were both lovely and made us feel at ease! Love equality helped us so much too, they came to help manage the media as it was still all new to us, they helped with our nerves and helped us with everything along the way!

In the past 5 years has your relationship dynamic changed ?

Sharni - In the past 5 years our relationship dynamic has not changed at all, we’re still as happy as we always have been & I love her more every single day we’re together. Even our friends mention this to us all the time when we all socialise together.

Robyn - We feel more secure in our relationship from when we got married but I don’t think the dynamic has changed, we still do as much for each other as we did beforehand.

Having now had 5 anniversaries how do you spend them, do you get into the hype of presents, trips away etc or are they usually lowkey ?

Robyn - We do enjoy travelling and booking trips for each other to spend our anniversaries together, this year Sharni took me for dinner. We saw Bob the drag queen and she got me tickets to see Katheryn Ryan, my favourite comedian. I love different shows, events and gigs.

We both booked it off work to ensure we had a few days together. We still go all out on presents, balloons and decorations which is nice.

Sharni - Having now had 5 wedding anniversaries & 11 years of being together we still make a massive fuss of each other and spoil each other rotten - we’ve always made a big deal to celebrate our anniversaries - even as the years go on we still celebrate massively - lots of presents, nights away, trips away the lot, I love spoiling my wife.

The old cliche question, what is the secret to a happy marriage and healthy relationship.

Sharni - The secret to a happy life & a happy marriage for me is so simple. Literally don’t sweat the small stuff, don’t hold on to little things, let things go. Life’s way too short, make the most of it especially if you’re lucky enough to do that with your favourite person in the whole world! appreciate each other.

Robyn - For me it comes down to a few things, communication is a must, trusting each other is also essential but it’s the small things to keep a relationship healthy such as celebrating the wins in each other’s lives, laughing together, having fun and enjoying life.

Sharni & Robyn Edwards-Peoples

Thanks for taking the time to chat with me Interview with Daniel May