What's it like to have a socially distanced wedding?

Most couples spend months preparing for their special day.

But Vera and Matt had less than 24 hours to invite guests, buy flowers and outfits for their ceremony, after small weddings were allowed to take place again as lockdown restrictions were eased in Wales.

The couple who are both engineers in Cardiff, were due to get married and hold a reception this week.

But instead, they had a small, socially-distanced ceremony, attended by the groom's parents.

It comes as small weddings were given the go-ahead to start again, but only in places of worship and register offices, and if they choose to open.

Vera said: "When lockdown started in March, we were hopeful things would be normal, but it became more difficult. In the end, we cancelled our plans because of the restrictions. It was gutting. But we remained hopeful of doing it.

"We kept trying the registry office almost twice a day to check if whether we could have it. We'd pretty much given up hope until they rang us on Wednesday afternoon to say they can go ahead with ceremonies."

"It's been a rollercoaster of emotions. I remember running into town trying to find make-up. I ordered a white dress online, which was a fraction of the price I had originally paid for!

She said: "We went to the supermarket in the evening to buy the flowers for my bouquet and our friends surprised us with a cake."

Vera's family, who live in Malawi, attended the wedding virtually through a video conferencing app, which was held at the registry office in Cardiff's City Hall.

"It was quite strange. Obviously they would have wanted to have been there, but it's a brave new world."

"They had never used an app like that before!"

Due to the current restrictions, everyone had to sanitise their hands and keep socially distanced, which Vera said was "strange."

Vera said in hindsight, they "preferred" the stripped down ceremony.

"We had been planning our wedding for a really long time and sometimes you get caught up in the hype of it, so the more time you've got, the more extravagant you get."

"It ended up feeling more us," she said.

"We still want to dance and celebrate with our friends and family, but we got the wedding we genuinely would've wanted."

The married couple went to a local park, where they sipped champagne in plastic flutes.

"We were home by six o'clock. Matt insisted he carried me through the threshold and then we ordered a curry in and exchanged our wedding gifts. It was actually the best day as we got to spend time for each other."

"Once we sat down, It was a huge sigh of relief. We were like 'did that just happen?'"

Vera said she is having to think another gift for Matt after he broke the 'small gifts only' rule and brought her a road bike.

"I got him a set of coffee mugs and he brought out a bike with a bow on it. I was like 'oh!'"