MOST couples wouldn’t expect Jedi knights, dracula, a ghostbuster and Arthur Dent at their wedding, but that’s just who turned up for one wedding at a Donnington hotel.
Terry and Liz Eden held a rather unconventional sci-fi wedding on Saturday (January 26) at the the Donnington Valley Hotel, with Mr Eden dressed as Darth Vader and Mrs Eden, née Bick, as a Jedi.
Mr Eden said: “We’ve been to a couple of weddings which were very traditional and although they were lovely when we looked back we couldn’t really remember which wedding was which so we decided we wanted something that was a bit unique.”
Although for legal reasons Mr Eden was not allowed to wear his Darth Vader mask during the ceremony, he wore it at the reception adding: “It’s a little boys dream to get married as Darth Vader so I thought, well, why not.”
According to the couple, you can not get married with a full face covering.
Mrs Eden said: “Sci-fi defines who we are, it’s a huge part of our lives and we thought it was the perfect testament to our relationship to be able to celebrate it like this.”
Friends and family also turned up in full fancy dress costume with the groom’s mum and dad, Mike and Carrie Eden, as Ming the Merciless from the Flash Gordon comic strip and a time lady.
Mrs C Eden wore a green cloak covered with real watches all set at quarter to three, the time when the couple were married. She dressed as a time lady as she believes the next Doctor Who should be a woman.
She said jokingly of her son’s sci-fi themed wedding: “I wondered what I got right in the way I brought him up. We’ve always been a slightly eccentric family.
“I think with fancy dress you always have to strike the right balance between looking good and being able to actually sit down and eat your dinner.”
Friends of Mr Eden, Chris Thornton and Ailsa Leck, went as Jack and Sally Skeleton.
Mr Thornton said: “I was not completely convinced that it was not a wind-up and it was just going to be Ailsa and I together dressed like this and everyone else was going to be dressed in their suits.”
Mr Eden met his wife at the University of East Anglia and they have been together for seven years.
They have both worked in Newbury, Mr Eden for Vodafone and Mrs Eden for Hitachi.
A week before the wedding they moved to Woking where Mr Eden will commute to work at a different Vodafone office.