A COUPLE were full of surprises leading up to their big day from their 'imprompt' engagement to their wedding at Dalston Hall in Carlisle - they had planned ten months ago.

Farmers Joab and Sasha Ward, 30 and 29, first met on Tinder in 2018 and after arranging to meet up with each other for dates in person - the pair knew they were right for eachother.

Six years later, the pair decided to book Dalston Hall as their wedding venue and told no one about their big day until their save the dates came out.

News and Star: Joab and Sasha WardJoab and Sasha Ward (Image: Rachel Laidler Photography)

Sasha said: "We didn’t have the typical proposal, we had spoke about marriage for a couple of weeks and by the end of it we had booked our venue for 8 months time and started planning the wedding.

"Other than our parents and siblings, we didn’t tell anyone else until we had sent save the dates which came as a surprise to most.  

"There were a few ‘I didn’t even know you were engaged’ questions but in our opinion it was the best way to do it.

"Being farmers we wanted to incorporate some farming things into it, so we named our tables after tractors and we had other subtle tractor things to tie in it but we wanted to keep it like a wedding and not a children’s party.

News and Star: Perfect wedding for Sasha and JoabPerfect wedding for Sasha and Joab (Image: Rachel Laidler Photography)

"My dress was from Keeley at Eden wedding boutique in Penrith and altered by Bryony at Gabrielle couture bridal and Joab's wore a Marc Darcey suit from Goodfellows in Carlisle.

"Our best man was Joab's brother Jonadab and the best women was my sister Sadie.

"Our Flower girl was brides niece Connie aged 5 and page boys were Joab's nephews Jonadab Jnr aged 6 and John aged 4.

"We invited just over 100 people which were for the day and night time do. 

News and Star: Sasha's perfect wedding dressSasha's perfect wedding dress (Image: Rachel Laidler Photography)

"Our drinks and canapés reception started at 3pm after the wedding then our evening meal was leek and potatoe soup, roast beef dinner and sticky toffee pudding to finish.

"We had a John Scott, a magician during the drinks reception who was amazing and kept the guests nightly entertained and we had Kerry Weir music who was our singer for night time.

"The favours we gave our guests were tractor shaped cookies along with a shot of tequila rose in a bottle which had a tag that said 'take a shot we tied the knot on'.

News and Star: Wedding favoursWedding favours (Image: Rachel Laidler Photography)

"We created our own cake which was 4 large cheesecakes, biscoff, lemon, mini egg and raspberry and white chocolate flavours - which went down very well. The cake topper was mini hen and cockerel toys with a veil and bow tie on.

"Then we had our first dance which was a candlelight version of Cascada's song 'everytime we touch'.

"We couldn’t pick a favourite moment, we loved it all.

"Bring there with all our family and friends was great.

"After we had got married we went into a room played a game of pool, we also had a gin each and spent 10 minutes with each other to soak it all in.

"We would recommend that to anyone getting married, although we didn’t realise it, it was definitely needed."

The pair then headed to Scotland for a little mini moon after the wedding for a few days.

News and Star: Sasha and Joab wondering around Dalston Hall groundsSasha and Joab wondering around Dalston Hall grounds (Image: Rachel Laidler Photography)

Who helped on the day?

  • Rings - simple silver bands which we got from Warren James in Carlisle.
  • Rachel Laidler Photography