Wedding dress shock for Bickley brides (From News Shopper)

Wedding dress shock for Bickley brides

11:50am Thursday 23rd October 2008

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Wedding bells are ringing, it’s your special day - how would you feel if another girl was wearing the same dress? Reporter CHARLOTTE McDONALD spoke to two ladies with identical taste.

MOST girls have been dreaming of their wedding right down to their bridal outfit since they were little.

Lisa Goodhew and Emma Johal - who had never met - were no different.

Both were planning their marriages for over a year and both had bought their wedding dresses many months before the ceremony.

So as they stood on the lawn at the Bickley Manor Hotel, Thornet Wood Road, Bickley, they were more than a little surprised.

Lisa, whose maiden name is Tanner, said: “I was in total shock. I have always dreamed of wearing a big white dress.

“At first I didn’t like it - how could this happen?”

Emma, born Higgins, said: “What made me laugh is that I had two friends who were arguing the week before the wedding because they wanted to wear the same dress.

“They went in different ones in the end.

“Instead I was the one person who was meant to be wearing a special dress, and someone else was wearing it!”

Solicitor’s firm operations manager Emma had just tied the knot with partner of eight years, 31-year-old IT analyst Sukhdeep, at the hotel at 2.30pm.

The 26-year-old bride had then gone outside to have photos taken with her family, when she looked through the window of the hotel to watch another bride sign the registry book.

Emma, who lives in Swanley, said: “I started to say ‘That’s my dress! That’s my dress!’ over and over.”

Lisa, of River Park Gardens, Shortlands, didn’t find out until after getting hitched to 29-year-old Brad, a marine insurance surveyor.

She said: ”I couldn’t believe it when people were saying to me the other bride had the same dress.

“You wouldn’t ever dream of that happening. But it all worked out fine.”

Emma said: “Some people might have found it upsetting but we found it hilarious.”

The pair bought the white strapless gown from the same shop, Bride and Groom, in Bromley High Street, three months apart, Lisa as far back as last November.

Emma, who had looked in other shops in Bexley as well, said: “There were hundreds of beautiful dresses in that shop, out of all of them we chose the same one.”

The spooky interlinking of their wedding did not stop there.

Emma and her sisters had met Lisa’s mum Susan Tanner the day before the weddings at a nail bar in Orpington.

Mrs Tanner overheard the girls chatting and told them that her daughter was getting married at the same hotel the next day.

Not only that, but afterwards, the brides swapped details and became friends on the internet.

Emma said: “From the pictures on her profile page I could see Lisa had her hen do at the same place as me!”

They both went to Madisons Entertainment Restaurant in Main Road, Biggin Hill, for a three-course-meal and dance.

Office manager Lisa said: “I was emailing Emma saying it will be so funny to look back on, to tell our children in the future.”

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