80 1GM Saturday August 1 2020 | the times
Readers’ Lives
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discount for
subscribersWith big smiles, Noah enjoys
splashing his parents at
bathtime. Next year he’ll be
chattering in Arabic
NOAH ALSAYEDAHMAD WAS BORN ON FEBRUARY 4, 2019
AT THE QUEEN ELIZABETH HOSPITAL, WOOLWICH,
TO EMMA, 29, AND MOHAMAD ALSAYEDAHMAD, 37raced him back down, singing all the
way. His parents, who have been
together for 35 years, took inspiration
and married last December.
Italy, Germany and England were
considered as possible wedding
destinations. The couple found
Unterhof Alm, a 220-year-old alpine
hut in Filzmoos, online and gave
themselves four months to plan.
Guests arrived in Filzmoos on the
eve of the wedding for welcome
drinks at an après-ski bar. “It was the
best moment for me,” says Ella, who
switched out of wedding planning
mode. Her parents performedsomersaults on the dance floor and
the celebrations continued until 1am.
Ella and Alex got ready separately
on their wedding day. She wore a
dress by the South African designer
Elbeth Gillis. It was such an intimate
wedding that the couple decided not
to have bridesmaids or a best man.
Guests gathered for the
horse-drawn trip to the 3.30pm
ceremony. “I had not planned on it
snowing,” says Ella. “I got my slight
bridezilla on at that point.” She had
blankets for guests and was
determined the ceremony would be
held outside.
A traditional Austrian band had
mastered Pachelbel’s Canon in D
Major for the occasion. Ella’s older
brother, Michael, an actor and former
CBBC presenter, read an extract from
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Afterwards,
guests went inside for drinks around
an open fire. They went outside
again to watch the newlyweds use a
two-man saw to cut a log to
symbolise their first task together as
a married couple.
Ella and Alex took a lesson in
preparation for their first dance to
Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes.
“Again, we didn’t want to be
traditional,” Ella says. They stayed in
Austria to ski and left the day it went
into lockdown.
This month she launched her own
wedding planning company, Ella
Hartig, and can now draw on her own
bridal experience. “Our day was so
unique to us,” she says.If you would like to feature a
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thetimes.co.uk/static/terms-and-conditionsElla’s job as a wedding planner made
her determined to do something
different when it came to marrying
Alex. “You know the industry is going
to be looking at you,” she says. “I also
wanted to keep it quite separate from
my work.”
They love skiing and decided to
marry outside, in the snow, in
Filzmoos, in the Austrian Alps. Fifty
guests were transported by horse and
carriage through the forest. What Ella
had not planned for was being struck
down by bronchitis three weeks
before her big day. She had to miss
the final fittings for her dress and
hand over control of the final
arrangements for the wedding to
Alex. “It was quite stressful,” he says.
Fortunately, her planning paid off.
Ella and Alex met at an
“international night” at a pub in
Leeds, where they were in their final
year studying business management.
She was at the University of Leeds; he
was at what was then Leeds
Metropolitan University. Alex is
German, and Ella went with a friend,
Johannes, who is German. Ella,
whose mother is Polish, was reluctant
to go and was dragged out wearing
tracksuit bottoms and Ugg boots. It
was Johannes who noticed Alex and
thought that he was Ella’s type.
Ella and Alex chatted that night
and swapped numbers. He later
messaged her: “When was the last
time you dressed up?” Their first date
in 2011 was for dinner at an Indian
restaurant. “He wasn’t playing any
games,” she says.
On graduating, Ella went to stay
with Alex and his family in Potsdam.
She does not speak German and his
parents did not speak English. His
father, who was an East German
guard at the border with West
Germany, has since started listening
to English tapes in the car.
The couple then went travelling in
India and other parts of Asia before
celebrating Christmas together —
first with her family in Emsworth,
Hampshire, and then with his family.
When Alex did an MA in business at
the University of Bath, Ella stayed in
Emsworth and they met at weekends.
Alex enjoys Ella’s determination
and spontaneity. “It never gets boring
with her,” he says. They are both
stubborn. “He will call me out when
I’m being a princess,” she says. “Alex
is definitely more rational and
Marriages and engagements
An Alpine wedding to remember
practical. I’m a bit more hot-headed.”
He keeps her grounded and she likes
his quick wit.
In 2016 they bought a house in
Stockwell, southwest London. Until
recently, Ella worked for the
Wedding Gallery, a luxury wedding
department store in London, where
couples will spend £15,000 on
stationery alone.
Alex did not understand the point
of marriage and Ella had given up
hope that he would propose. Then he
pulled out a ring on a ski holiday last
year as they watched the sun set from
the top of a glacier in Austria. SheElla and Alex got engaged on a skiing trip and were married in the Austrian AlpsNew readers
The name Miles
came to David
years ago when
he was thinking
of starting a
family. “I was
ready to raise a
family on my
own”, says David,
who may be the
first single man to become a father
through UK surrogacy since single
people were able to sign parental
orders in 2019. Miles arrived at 7.27am,
in a home birth with David there with
his good friends — his surrogate, Faye
Spreadbury, her husband, Lee, and
their children, Eugene and Vinny.
Miles’s middle names are given in
honour of Frances and Clive, his
devoted grandparents who live near
David in Southampton. Miles joins the
other household members: the cats
Helen and Tootsie. “We are all
adapting but there have been no major
tantrums so far, from either the cats or
Miles.” David supports single future
fathers on his site http://www.dadbe.ukThere was some
history of twins
on Angela’s side,
“but not so much
that you’d think
it would be
likely”, says John.
“It was still a
total surprise.”
Ruby, far left, and
Olive, who are non-identical, arrived
eight weeks early and, after five weeks
in a special care baby unit, they are
thriving at home. Ruby was born
three minutes before Olive and is the
bigger of the two. “We think she
might be the more confident one,
whereas little Olive you have to keep
an eye out for,” says John. Watching
them interact has been extraordinary.
“They look at each other and touch
each other; they are realising there’s
two of them in this together.” Their
middle names pay tribute to two
inspirational women: Rosa Parks and
Edith Cavell. “They may be small but
they will have big dreams.”Ella Absalom, 31, a wedding planner,
and Alexander Hartig, 34, an IT
consultant, were married on March 7,
2020, at the Unterhof Alm in
Filzmoos, Austria
Ruby Rosa and Olive Edith Ward
were born on May 25, 2020, at
Homerton Hospital in Hackney,
London, to Angela Thompson, 36,
and John Ward, 40Miles Francis Clive Watkins was
born on July 19, 2020, via surrogacy
in Rothley, Leicestershire, to
David Watkins, 41DAVID CHRISTOPHER PHOTOGRAPHY