Katie Laden, 36, head of marketing for the Harris + Hoole chain of coffee shops, and Simon Critchlow, 42, a dental consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, were married on September 11, 2021, at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London
Katie and Simon were reading the Sunday newspapers in bed when she had an idea. He had recently won a prize to stay in a London hotel for being an NHS hero. She wondered out loud whether it would be fun to run off and get married at the same time.
“I was terrified I’d gone too far,” she says. Simon does not rush into things and half an hour passed before he wholeheartedly agreed to her unconventional idea. They decided to keep their wedding as a surprise from guests, who thought they were being invited to a joint birthday dinner for their hosts.
Katie and Simon met through the Tinder dating app in 2019. She was living with a friend in London. “I’d had a terrible dating history on and off Tinder,” she says. It was Simon’s smiling profile picture that led her to have one more go.
Simon had been married before and has two children, Sam, nine, and Will, seven, who have relocated with their mother to Wales. He was not looking for a serious relationship. “I couldn’t have imagined meeting someone like Katie,” he says.
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They met for dinner in London. Katie made sure to arrive a little bit late and discovered that Simon had ordered her a glass of wine. “What a smoothy,” she says. On their second date, he ordered her a glass of champagne. “We had great conversation,” she says.
After six months together, Katie moved into Simon’s flat in south London. He was away on the weekend that she moved in and she took the opportunity to paint white over the grey walls. They enjoy cycling, tennis, squash, ballet and opera, and sometimes run home from work together along the Regent’s Canal.
Simon grew up in Peterborough and studied dentistry at Newcastle University, where he also did an MA. He is now a dental consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital and head of the maxillofacial and dental department.
Katie studied hospitality management at the University of Surrey before moving into food retail. At the age of 31, she packed up her house in Manchester and went travelling in South America for a year. She is now the head of marketing at the Harris + Hoole chain of coffee shops, which is owned by Caffè Nero.
Some of her favourite moments are when she is cooking and he is playing the classical guitar in the next room. “He is so happy, thoughtful and kind,” she says.
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He had planned to propose on a trip to Goa and then in Antigua, but Covid got in the way. Instead, in September last year, a few months after they had decided to get married, he proposed officially.
During lockdown, Katie was put on furlough while Simon’s workload shot up. He continued to see patients and also took on hospital staff as patients, while their usual dental practices were closed. His commitment inspired her to enter him into a competition as her NHS hero. They built their wedding around their prize: a two-night stay at the Portobello Hotel.
They arranged to get married at Old Marylebone Town Hall — Simon liked the idea that it was where Paul McCartney had married. They wanted a small wedding and invited eight guests, which they kept to friends and Katie’s two younger sisters. Their plan is to have a mini-ceremony with Sam and Will this Christmas when they go to stay with Simon’s parents. “They are the most wonderful children,” she says. “They are hilarious; so clever and funny.”
They had to move their wedding date twice due to Covid. “I was really down about it,” says Katie. She would go for walks wearing her wedding ring to try it out. A few months before their wedding, they moved house close to Simon’s private practice in South Woodford.
The couple stayed at the Portobello Hotel on the eve of their wedding. The next day they went for a walk and picnic in Holland Park. Simon then went back to their house to get ready. Guests gathered at the hotel at 4.30pm and Simon announced that the celebration was in fact a wedding. The ceremony was at 5.30pm.
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Katie walked in on the arm of her friend, Rommel, to Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. “It was just so nice standing with Katie and saying our vows,” says Simon. They walked out to the opening chorus to Bach’s Magnificat and headed to the Wolseley restaurant with their guests.
“It was right for us,” says Katie. “A small wedding felt more special.” They called their parents the next day to break the news, which was well-received. They went on honeymoon to Andalusia, where Simon enjoyed looking at classical guitars.