AMY + JOSH by Chris and Ruth - Together Journal

I am a yoga teacher and Josh runs Josh Carmody Studio, designing and making furniture. He opens my eyes to the world of design, art and history.

In 2015, we travelled around Europe for more than three months and we’ve been back every year since apart from the year our beautiful son Charlie arrived.

We met at a gym where I was teaching. Josh would come to my Tuesday night sessions. He was polite but gave off the “not interested in a friendship” vibe, which turned out to be a front. When he thought the timing was right, he asked me out for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I said yes to dinner, and here we are.

When my friends met Josh, they all loved him instantly and dubbed him the “dreamboat”. I always feel loved and that feeling has never wavered. Josh is so gentle and a man of ethics. He says he loves the way I brighten any room and how I make everyone feel loved and appreciated.

The first year of parenthood is harder than you assume. Sleep deprivation can turn you into an irritable mess. Josh’s mum said to me: “You are teammates. It all started because of love”. It’s been a mantra for me ever since, something I’ll take with me throughout our marriage.

Josh proposed in Plaça de Sant Felip Neri, a beautiful square in Barcelona where we’d ended our three months in Europe the previous year. We loved this little nook in the busy city. He’d picked up a custom-made ring in Paris he designed himself and proposed as we perched on the fountain. As I cried and said yes too many times, a group of teenagers smiled at us and moved over to give us space.

For me, a wedding in Tuscany encourages you to strip it back to what’s important: land, family, love and wine.

Villa Vignalunga is in the stunning Castiglione D’Orcia, a picturesque town that makes you feel so aware of having your feet on the earth as you breathe in all its beauty.

Local greenery was the focus for the ceremony and reception and our “altar” was a backdrop of beautiful gardens. It felt very romantic — all balanced with our two-year-old making everybody laugh and holding his little Italian toy car the entire time.

The reception was in the gardens, one long table with a simple olive branch as a runner. The long, wine-fuelled dinner ended with cutting the cake, dancing the tarantella and hitting the dancefloor until the early hours.

I never expected to wear a gown like Casado by Hera Couture. I twirled when I put it on and pictured myself in Tuscan gardens, in front of sunlit sandstone. The boys’ suits complimented the architecture and colours beautifully.