Holly Ford, 33, a newsreader for Heart London radio station, and Matthew Harris, 31, an executive producer at LBC radio, were married on July 11, 2015, at Ostuni town hall in Puglia, Italy
Holly and Matt saw their wedding venue for the first time when they arrived in Italy four days ahead of the ceremony. Everything else was left to a local wedding planner. Neither speaks Italian, so even their wedding vows were something of a mystery. “We could have been agreeing to anything,” she says.
Their only wedding criteria was beautiful scenery, good local food and wine. Holly’s older brother suggested Ostuni in southern Italy, known as la Città Bianca because of its white buildings. On the advice of their wedding planner, Holly and Matt booked Masseria Valente, a farmhouse surrounded by olive groves, to which they invited guests to stay and where they hosted the reception.
“A week before we went out, it hit me,” says Holly. “What if it’s not fine?” She didn’t sleep the night before the wedding. Rather than nerves, what kept her awake was the coughing of Charlie, the couple’s one-year-old son. Matt was staying at a nearby villa with his two best men. The next morning, 54 guests made their way in the sunshine to the Ostuni town hall for the civil ceremony. Holly’s wedding nerves finally kicked in as she waited with her father. “I had to have a bit of a word with myself,” she says.
George Harrison’s Give Me Love (Give me Peace on Earth) played as Holly walked up the aisle on the arm of her father. She had two bridesmaids — a school friend and Matt’s teenage sister — and wore a dress from Coast found online. As soon as she saw Matt, she started crying. The newlyweds walked back down the aisle to Van Morrison’s Come Running. On exiting the town hall, they were greeted by a crowd of Italian teenage boys who lined up to kiss Holly on both cheeks. “It took a long time.”
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Holly describes Matt as “perfect husband material”: calm, sensible, funny and kind. He studied politics at the University of Sussex. “He is one of those people who makes everyone feel comfortable.” He took longer to come round to the idea of marriage, but eventually realised that “it proves to the other person you’re making the commitment”.
She grew up in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and has a degree in American studies from the University of Sheffield, and an MA in broadcast journalism. Matt noticed her straightaway when she came to work as a newsreader at LBC, where he was a producer in 2009. It could be a stressful environment. “He snapped at me a few times, but I soon forgave him,” she says. “I think he just charmed his way back in.” They went for drinks after work and kissed on a night bus in 2011. The next day at work, Holly took Matt aside, and, with a stern face, let him know that it couldn’t happen again. “He looked terrified,” she recalls. It wasn’t long before they went for another drink.
In 2013, she moved into his house in Finsbury Park, not far from where he grew up. They wanted children and Charlie was born the following summer. Three months before Charlie’s arrival, the couple went on holiday to Cyprus, where Holly suspected that Matt might propose. Her mother had slipped Matt her mother’s engagement ring. Holly was at the wheel of a speed boat when she turned round to discover Matt on one knee.
Holly is “resilient” according to Matt. She gets up at 3am to read the news on Heart Breakfast and returns at midday, just as Matt leaves to work for LBC’s Drivetime show. She is in bed by the time he gets back. “If we do something at the weekend, we do it together,” she says.
After the wedding, guests went for drinks at a bar in the town square before heading back to the farmhouse for a five-course wedding breakfast under umbrellas to shade them from the sun. The newlyweds’ first dance was to the Kinks’ Better Things. “I cried again,” says Holly. “No self- control.” Matt’s two best men ended their speech by jumping in the pool, and the bride later swapped her wedding dress for a bikini.