Relationship

How we met: 'We were surprised by the crowd for our blessing – but that’s the spirit of Glastonbury'


Before her widely covered wedding celebration at this year’s Glastonbury festival, Sarah Adey’s biggest claim to fame was that her uncle, Stuart Payne, is one of the world’s “most sought-after biscuit critics”. In 2008, at a house party in Plymouth, when Adey and her now-husband, Jack Watney, were first getting to know each other by discussing their claims to fame, it came as a surprise that Watney had not only heard of Payne’s book and website Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down, but was a huge fan. “I knew it inside out,” says Watney. “Years later, we stayed at their house at Christmas, and Stuart made biscuits. It was an exciting moment for me.”

Adey first saw Watney in the common room at the University of Plymouth, where Adey was studying fine art and Watney was doing photography. Adey was nervous about approaching him. “I’d been a bit embarrassed to talk to him,” she says, “because he’s really chatty and fills the room with his presence. I was a bit intimidated.”

According to Watney, Adey hung out with “a really loud group of friends”, which helped shape his first impression of her: that she was kind, friendly, “considered and perhaps a little quieter”.

The two often found themselves at the same parties and struck up a friendship. “We were getting to know each other through our work,” says Adey. Watney is more upfront and claims he used work “as an excuse to start messaging her”.

Neither can recall a specific first date, although both fondly remember a night spent at Adey’s house watching Fight Club. Another noteworthy night early in their relationship was spent at a local Irish bar’s street party, says Adey. Watney says: “I insisted on taking a whole bottle of whisky with me and a bunch of beers. For one of the first dates, I didn’t exactly paint a very good picture of myself. I got completely drunk and, yeah, it was a bit embarrassing. Pretty bad.”

Watney and Adey at their wedding celebration at this year’s Glastonbury festival.



Watney and Adey at their wedding celebration at this year’s Glastonbury festival. Photograph: Richard Isaac/Rex/Shutterstock

When they finished their courses, they decided to stay in Plymouth together, despite their friends moving away. “We were spending lots of time together doing creative things,” says Adey. They explored the English Riviera in an old van, hunting for secondhand cameras and brutalist architecture. “Our relationship grew really slowly. But I think we’re strong for that because we got to know each other so well, just spending time together.”

In 2017, after nearly a decade as a couple, they moved to the town of Glastonbury, where Adey works for a local arts organisation and Watney works in the cycling industry. The couple are Glastonbury regulars and at that year’s festival Watney proposed.

The couple were married at Bath register office on 20 June this year with the wedding celebration held at the festival. “It was wonderful to finally have this moment together,” says Adey, speaking the morning after the ceremony.

“The biggest surprise was how many people came to watch the blessing and wished us well, but that’s the spirit of Glastonbury,” she says. “We feel so lucky to have had so much love and support on the best day of our lives.”

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