Dinah and Joseph Portwood planned to have two big Harry Potter themed weddings.

But the Wimborne couple who are huge fans of the famous wizard  had to change their arrangements as the country went into its first national lockdown.

Tight coronavirus restrictions meant only six people could attend their ceremony at  Canford Parish Church. The country went into lockdown the very next day so they say their day was "truly blessed".

Dinah recalls how a Harry Potter joke led to their engagement on a lovely May afternoon: "We were planning to have dinner with Joseph’s parents at Pebble Beach, a cliff top restaurant in Barton on Sea, New Milton with a sea-view terrace. He insisted we take a walk before dinner, and we were lucky enough to have the whole beach to ourselves. We always have inside jokes about portkeys, being big fans of Harry Potter and after making a joke about the Portaloo as a portkey on the beach, Joseph decided to pop the question - and I said yes!"

Covid meant their planed ceremony on April 18 in Canford Magna, was quickly moved forward to 22 March, a day before lockdown. They hope to have another wedding later this year in Dinah's native country, the Philippines.

She adds: "The bridal party was our vicar and Joseph’s parents as our witnesses inside the church, then we were later joined by Joseph’s sister and brother on the church grounds as our maid of honour and best man due to the restrictions at that time."

"The most stressful part was having to let go of our guests not being able to celebrate with us, especially my family from the Philippines. They were supposed to fly in to celebrate with us. We had to accept the fact that we won’t have most of our families and friends to be physically there to celebrate with us. It was really sad to think that all of our efforts in organising our big wedding day would be gone as lockdown was looming on us.

"But we enjoyed our wedding day, without it being too fancy, and big like we planned. It was just us with the love and support of our families and friends online, and God. Our vicar helped us set up a Facebook livestream for the wedding ceremony and all of our families and friends, got all dressed up and celebrated with us virtually."

The happy couple even danced to Redbone’s Come and Get Your Love as they left the church:" We did  it as we were exiting so our virtual guests could still see it!"

They offered this advice: "To our fellow lockdown brides and grooms, keep calm and carry on. It’ll be fine and we’ll all get to celebrate after this dark cloud disappears. We are still planning to have a bigger wedding reception in the later part of 2021 with our families and friends. With a little bit of determination and luck, you can also pull off a beautiful day full of good food, good friends and lots of love. No matter how small and simple it may be."