Sidmouth couple wed on fairytale of a day

Ferrari and horse-drawn carriage transport couple to Sidmouth church

NEARLY 25 years to the day after her parents, Sidmouth hoteliers Peter and Dena Wharton were married at the parish church, Zo� Wharton has married local man Bobby Marshall in what must be Sidmouth’s wedding of the year.

With the groom, a 28-year-old lettings manager for Harrison, Lavers and Potbury, arriving at the church in his friend’s red Ferrari and the bride, a senior rental sales agent for Avis, in an ivory horse-drawn carriage, Sidmouth residents strained to see the couple as they left the church after the ceremony, which ended with the release of two white doves.

Described as “just a family wedding”, Zo�, 23, wore an ivory dress with a corseted bodice and full skirt with a small train, and a tiara with short veil.

She had five main bridesmaids, Karen Jarrett and Mercedes Beck, who wore dusky pink dresses, and three young ones, Bobby’s nieces Erin and Mya Thorne and Lois Marshall, who wore ivory dresses trimmed in pink. Flowers were from Karen’s shop, Whoops A Daisy.

Six attendants, all good friends of Zo�’s, wore either emerald green or peacock blue. They were Katie Rowe, Zo� Chandler, Sarah Pyle, Marie-Louise Churchill, Rachel Mulkerrins-Dixon and Caroline Costin.

Bobby, whose parents Graham and Vicki Marshall live in Fire Beacon Lane, Sidmouth, had two best men, friends Ian Mortimore and Spencer Jarrett, and brothers as ushers, Jay Thorne, Guy Marshall and Zo�’s brother, Miles Wharton.

The service was conducted by Reverend Prebendary David James.

The Riviera Hotel, owned by the Wharton family for the past 37 years, was closed for the weekend to accommodate guest as well as hold a reception for 110 people and an evening party.

The couple sped off to Monaco for two days, and will honeymoon in the Maldives early next year.