Jenna and I have done this all a little back to front as we invite you to celebrate our wedding this July. When I asked Paul (Jenna’s Father) for his blessing I had no idea that come our wedding day I’d be sharing my heart with anyone other than Jenna. Yet that’s exactly what has happened as our hearts have been filled with love for our beautiful son Finlay.

Marriage, at least the way we view it, is not only for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, but also about together overcoming life’s adversities; to be stronger and to do so with a smile on our faces knowing that we have someone to share the ups and downs that life throws at us and that those downs will never outweigh the ups.

In November when Finlay was 6 weeks old we were told the sad news that Finlay had a rare eye condition called Aniridia (literally means “without iris” http://www.rnib.org.uk/eye-health-eye-conditions-z-eye-conditions/aniridia which means he is partially sighted/blind.

We cried and mourned all the things that he/we wouldn’t be able to do. Selfishly I remember walking past a tennis club the day after, seeing a father and son playing tennis, only to break down in Jenna’s arms as simple dreams of the future I hadn’t even thought of were being taken from Finlay, Jenna and I. For the next few days we lived in darkness, literally. Jenna and I switched off all the lights in the house unsure whether lights would damage his eyesight further.

This darkness though was short lived due to the love and support from our families and all of you who will be coming to share in our wedding, but most of all from Finlay.

Finlay’s life has just begun and despite this challenge, his dreams have yet to be formed; but with the love, support and lust for life that is present in all of you, I am positive that Finlay will have every opportunity to fulfill any of his future dreams.

It is with this in mind that if any of you wish to give us a wedding gift, that it be a donation to aniridia research at London’s famous eye hospital, Moorfields, so that Finlay’s dreams and those of
other children with a similar condition can be more easily realized.

Lots of love Simon and Jenna