This was no ordinary wedding photo. Most people have a great view, in Swansea it’s usually a sea view. But Beth and Allan Winkley preferred a background of tropical plants for their wedding look.
And they were so impressed with the result that they did it again 30 years later with the same photographer taking the pictures!
Beth, 61, and Allan, 70, from Llewitha, met in 1988 when they were together at Sketty Primary School. Although the couple were married in Swansea County many years ago, they decided to have their wedding photos taken in a unique location at the time.
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“It was a wedding in February,” explained Beth. “We didn’t want people to get cold while waiting for the pictures to be taken. So we went to Plantasia to see if we could go there to make them. It was lovely tropical heat and people thought we had gone to a very exotic location for our wedding.”
(Image: Stephen Morris)
(Image: Stephen Morris)
(Image: Plantasia)
Plantasia in Swansea bills itself as a rainforest zoo. It has 40 different species of animals, including marmosets, parrots, meerkats and crocodiles. There are also a number of exotic rainforest plants, including birds of paradise and weeping fig.
The couple decided to celebrate their pearly wedding anniversary in February by returning to Plantasia thirty years later, wearing the wedding clothes they were married in decades ago. The couple even invited their original wedding day guests to meet for food and drinks in the same pub where they held their 1993 reception in Penclawde. You can get more Swansea news and other news straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletters here.
This place was close to Beth’s heart, as she is a lifelong avowed plant lover. Her father studied botany and Beth later left teaching to work for an environmental charity and is now a volunteer at Swansea Botanic Gardens.
(Image: Plantasia)
(Image: Plantasia)
As for what inspired them to recreate the photos in 2023, Beth said they usually go on holiday to celebrate big birthdays, but when she realized they’d be at her home in Swansea for the first time to celebrate, she convinced Allan to go along with it. a nostalgic. photoshoot .
“We spend most of our birthdays away because Allan taught half of the term. We went for this birthday before Christmas. So I thought: I have a hat, I have a dress. I have shoes. I even took the sugar flowers off my cake, I still have a lot to do,” he added. Despite only wearing a tie in his original outfit, Allan was happy to pose for pictures taken by his friend and photographer Stephen Morris, 71. who took the original photos when he was 41 years old.
(Image: Stephen Morris)
(Image: Stephen Morris)
After the photos were taken at Plantation as well as Swansea Quay, the couple went to dinner and drinks at the pub where they had their initial reception, now called the Rake and Riddle in Pencloddy. Allan’s best man, whom he met on his first day of school in 1974, was in attendance, along with other close friends and family. The couple even baked a cake covered in the same sugar decorations that Beth kept all these years later.
As for the secret to a happy marriage, Beth and Allan said they both had their own hobbies and rarely spent weekends together.
(Image: Stephen Morris)
(Image: Stephen Morris)
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Source: Wales Online
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
