First Dates waitress Laura Tott recently married her partner Sean Clarke in a stunning coastal ceremony in Devon.
And now the 30 year old has exclusively shared her wedding album with OK!. From tears at the aisle to a Radio 1 DJ and saxophonist at their reception, the couple have shared all the pictures and details from their beautiful big day.
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The phrase “there wasn’t a dry eye in the house” can often be overused, but when First Dates star Laura Tott married Sean Clarke in a stunning coastal ceremony in Devon the day was full of emotion.
Laura, who turns 30 this week, tells OK! she even surprised herself by how tearful she was on her big day, and reveals she also saw her dad cry for the first time.
The new Mr and Mrs Clarke wed at 1pm on Sunday 7 August at
the gorgeous Tunnels Beaches in Ilfracombe in front of 115 of their family and friends.
And the beachside venue perfectly lent itself to Laura and Sean’s wish for an “unbelievable, incredible and wild” day.
Laura, one of the original waitresses on the Channel 4 dating show, says she was hit by “excited nerves” just an hour before her wedding and was extremely emotional even before she got to the venue.
“The hour before it actually dawned on me that everyone had come down for us.
"I couldn’t even talk, I couldn’t hold a glass, I was shaking so much. It was excited nerves, but I’ve never known myself so nervous,” she says.
“As soon as I saw Sean at the end of the aisle, I got all my tears.
"My eyes just filled up and I could hardly get my words out for the ceremony, but I managed it in the end.”
And gas engineer Sean, 33, was equally as moved by the occasion
as he recalls the minute he laid eyes on his bride for the first time.
“It completely took my breath away,” he says. “She was walking down the aisle and I could feel myself getting more teary. She looked absolutely gorgeous – I couldn’t have pictured anything more beautiful.”
Laura wore a stunning white gown by designer Paloma Blanca, complete with a trailing veil.
While she admits she initially thought she’d go for something more traditional, she says the dress suited the venue because of its beachy vibe, and it also had a personal meaning for Laura.
“My mum picked it!” she tells us. “When she handed it to me in a shop, I said, ‘I don’t think that’s really going to be for me.’
But my mother-in-law said, ‘If your mum’s picked one for you, just give it a go and try it on for her,’ and it ended up being the one! It was only the fifth dress I tried on.”
And Laura’s dad Ashleigh was reduced to tears when he saw his daughter in her dress for the first time.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry, so as soon as I saw him with tears in his eyes and he couldn’t even say any words, that was it, I was gone,” she adds.
But it was Laura who chose the stunning venue – and she did it before she even got engaged to Sean after spotting it on a friend’s wedding video and falling in love with it.
Following the ceremony, guests were treated to canapés, and there was an ice-cream tricycle and jugs of Pimm’s on the beach as a saxophonist played.
In fact, entertainment was a crucial part of the day. While there is often background music as guests mingle after the ceremony, Laura and Sean took a different approach.
“I wanted it full party from the start,” she says.
“Straight after the ceremony the saxophonist went into party mode
with Sweet Caroline and everyone was up dancing. That set the tone for the day, and that’s before we’d even had our wedding breakfast!
“Then [after the wedding breakfast] we had Melvin Odoom from Radio 1. He was our DJ and we had our first dance overlooking the sea.
"My now-husband surprised me with a Michael Jackson tribute. And we flew in a five-piece Irish band. I didn’t want there to be a dip at any point.”
Sean laughs, “She loves Michael Jackson more than she loves me. I always said I wanted to do a little surprise for her. It got everyone on
the dance floor doing the moonwalk.”
The newlyweds, whose engagement was announced in June last year, had their first dance to a cover version of Shania Twain’s You’re Still The One, followed by 90s club classic Freed From Desire.
Laura says, “No one left the dance floor and that’s exactly what we wanted.”
As well as the party theme, the day was full of personal touches.
Sean’s stepdad was master of ceremonies and the DIY table decorations were themed around each year Laura and Sean have known each other, with 12 tables for 12 years.
“We had a photo [on each table] that represented each year,” Laura says.
“We had jars of our favourite sweets and our guest book was a globe, because we met travelling.
"It said Mr and Mrs Clarke on it and the date and we got gold pens for everyone to sign it.”
And instead of a traditional three-course à la carte wedding breakfast, the couple opted for a barbecue feast of mini burgers, lamb chops, halloumi skewers and fresh salads.
For dessert guests tucked into Eton mess, while the evening’s nibbles were the unusual choice of giant nachos on skillets.
However, there were some wedding traditions Laura kept, and she tells us her maid of honour, Demi, bought her a beautiful gift to represent something old, new, borrowed and blue.
“She got me a pin, an old sixpence – and it had a poem on it. It covered all aspects and I put it on my garter – my garter was blue, too!”
At 4pm it was time for the speeches from Demi, Ashleigh and Sean’s two best men.
And Sean read a poem he had written for his new wife, saying, “Who would have known that this northerner with the bit of a belly would fall in love with that girl from the telly.”
He went on, “Their adventure has just begun, The moral of the story being, Laura Clarke you are the ONE.”
Laura’s First Dates colleague Austin Ventour helped her celebrate her big day, however there were some famous faces missing.
“Merlin [Griffiths] and Fred [Sirieix] were unable to make it,” Laura says. “Fred’s daughter [Andrea] was in the Commonwealth Games, and she won gold around the time of the wedding.
"I had messages from CiCi [Coleman] and Grant [Urquhart]. And one of the sound engineers came with his wife.”
The newlyweds met in 2010 while backpacking in Australia and happened to be staying in the same hostel.
“My favourite bit was when he told his friends, ‘I’m going to marry that girl one day,’ and 12 years later, here we are,” she laughs.
“We went off travelling for a little bit and then got together a few years later. But we just stayed in contact.”
London-born Laura moved to Cheshire – Sean is from Manchester – and they renovated a house by a canal and are hoping to start a family next year.
“We’d love a few children,” she says. “We’ve got a really lovely house and set-up.
"The next thing would be to buy something with a bit more land. And then it all gets serious.”
Laura now works for the ambulance service, something she describes as the “best job in the world”.
And although she no longer appears on First Dates, she hasn’t quite left her TV roots behind.
“I’d love to do it if they’d have me back,” she says. “I’d run back in a heartbeat. It’s two different worlds.
"It’s the paramedic side and then the First Dates side – I love them equally in different ways. It’s the team, they’re the ones who make it.”
When we ask her why she’s no longer on the show, she replies, “They freshened up the team. So, me and Austin had to step back and they’ve got some new guys.
“We were all part of the hotel one [First Dates Hotel], but because of Covid it’s not been filmed since.
"Because it’s such a big production and Covid is still lurking, they can’t really take the risk.
"I’m hoping once that’s up and running I’ll be back with the team then.”
As the couple leave for a honeymoon in Kenya and the Seychelles, they sum up their magical wedding.
“It was unbelievable,” Sean says. “It beat any day I ever had by a country mile.”
Laura adds, “It’s hard to put into words how amazing it was. People say it’s the best day of your life and I don’t think anything will ever top that for us.”
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