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Strictly’s Amy Dowden postponed her wedding so family didn’t miss out due to coronavirus


Amy Dowden and Ben Jones had to postpone their wedding due to the pandemic (Picture: BBC/amy_dowden)

We might be well into wedding season, but the majority of weddings have had to be pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic – including Amy Dowden’s. 

The Strictly Come Dancing professional, 28, is engaged to her dance partner Ben Jones and the pair were due to tie the knot this July. 

Their big day was two years into the planning but the pandemic has meant that the couple have moved it back a year after ruling out a socially-distanced wedding so that their loved ones could all be there.

Amy told Metro.co.uk: ‘Obviously we were absolutely gutted because so much planning goes into a wedding, we’ve been planning it for two years and there was the excitement and the build up to it.

‘As soon as lockdown happened, my family and I and my partner were speaking and we thought this wedding doesn’t look too promising. 

‘We have people in our family who need to shield and things and we’ve got to protect them and we didn’t want them to miss out on our special day.

Amy and Ben had been planning their wedding for two years and wanted all of their loved ones to be able to attend (Picture: Instagram)

‘It is heartbreaking but at the end of the day we still love each other and we’re still going to get married, you have to think that over 45,000 people in the UK alone have lost their lives.’

Amy is hopeful that things will be back to normal next year, though she admits she is scared to get too excited about it in case of a second wave of the pandemic leads to another lockdown. 

She explained: ‘We’ve put it back one year so we are hoping that everything is going to start to come back. 

‘You just worry really that it’s going to have a second spike, you just don’t know and there is no vaccine at the moment so I’m scared to get excited now! 

The Strictly Come Dancing pro (pictured here with partner Karim Zeroual) is scared to get too excited in case there is a second wave (Picture: PA)

‘We made slight changes but it’s ok, the venue has been wonderful and we have had a lot of help with it and I just said to my friends and family “I’m really sorry but you’re going to have to listen to wedding talk now for another year!” But I feel like a wedding and a celebration after all this is what everyone needs.’

Weddings have been allowed to go ahead from July with social distancing measures in place, and some couples have opted to walk down the aisle regardless of the changes, even broadcasting the big day via video call to their loved ones. 

Amy revealed that she and Ben ruled that out as it was important for them to have all of their nearest and dearest with them to celebrate their special moment. 

Amy and Ben will now get married in 2021 (Picture: Instagram)

She added: ‘We didn’t consider a socially distanced wedding because some of our immediate family need to shield and Ben’s nan wants to make sure she’s there as she’s the only grandparent left, and we didn’t want to have to make anyone feel like they are missing out or put anyone at risk. 

‘For Ben’s nan, he is the first grandchild to get married, she’s been so excited so we want her to be a part of the special day. 

‘We want everyone there, you only get married once in your lifetime hopefully and I think because we have put so much planning into how we wanted it, I think if it was any different it would obviously still be really special but we don’t want to look back and wish we’d waited.

‘We kind of knew quite early on because we also have people coming from overseas and we knew with them having to get flights they might have to quarantine and it would just prove difficult.’

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