A couple who married this summer discovered they were childhood sweethearts after spotting each other together in long forgotten holiday photographs taken 20 years ago.
Heidi and Ed Savitt, 26, had no idea about their fateful meeting aged six until Heidi’s mother mentioned a ‘holiday romance’ with a little boy called Ed and dug out photos which, to everyone’s amazement, showed her future husband.
Communications Manager Heidi told MailOnline: ‘I didn’t believe in fate before finding that out but there’s no arguing with it – we’re clearly destined to be together!’
Heidi and Ed Savitt, 26, who married this summer(right) had no idea about their fateful meeting aged six until Heidi’s mother mentioned a ‘holiday romance’ with a little boy called Ed and dug out photos from 1997(left) which showed her husband
The couple tied the knot in August in the long gallery at Haddon Hall, a manor house in Derbyshire which dates back to the 12th century and was described by author Simon Jenkins as ‘the most perfect house to survive the Middle Ages’
Kay mentioned in passing over dinner that Heidi had a ‘holiday boyfriend’ who was also called Ed when she was six, and said the pair had played together for much of the two-week break, as these long-forgotten images from 1997 show
The couple, who live in London, met in 2011 at Newcastle University. Ed, owner of DropShot Coffee – a specialty coffee shop in Southfields – read Psychology and Business, while Heidi studied Economics and Management.
They first spoke when Ed moved into a student house where Heidi had previously lived and messaged her asking how to work the tumble drier after spotting her name on some post.
The pair soon started dating, and had been together for four years when they had dinner with their mothers in Wandsworth, south-west London.
Fiona Savitt soon got talking with Heidi’s mother, Kay Parker, about their shared love of sailing holidays.
Kay mentioned in passing that Heidi had a ‘holiday boyfriend’ who was also called Ed when she was six, and said the pair had played together and held each other’s hands for much of the two-week break.
Everyone thought it was a strange coincidence, and Fiona even smashed her wine glass in surprise, but the conversation quickly moved onto other topics.
However, when Kay was going through her attic two weeks later, she found a dusty photo album from a sailing holiday in Gumbet, Turkey.
One of the photos, dated July 1997, showed Heidi side by side with a little boy. To Kay’s amazement, she rubbed off the dust to find it was Ed, whose face was recognisable under his childhood bowl-style haircut.
They first spoke when Ed moved into a student house where Heidi had previously lived and messaged her asking how to work the tumble drier after spotting her name on some post. They are seen being driven away from Haddon Hall in a vintage car
The pair(pictured left in 2011) soon started dating, and had been together for four years when they had dinner with their mothers in Wandsworth, London. The wedding at Haddon Hall was followed by a champagne reception on the lawns
This photograph was taken after the wedding ceremony at Haddon Hall and shows, from left to right: Ed’s father, Jonathan Savitt with his wife, Fiona; Ed and Heidi; and Heidi’s parents, Keith and Kay
‘I was screaming, it was just unreal,’ Kay said. ‘Of course, I sent it to Fiona. Then loads more photographs came out.
‘None of us had any idea whatsoever that Heidi and Ed had met before university. But during that two-week holiday, they held hands most of the time.
‘Perhaps they just had a subconscious realisation they had shared that time together when they met as adults.’
The couple were ‘inseparable’ once they started going out and always knew they would end up getting married.
‘It’s crazy to think we could have got married, shared our lives together, but then never found out about this,’ Heidi said.
‘From the moment we started dating we were inseparable and knew we were going to be together forever.’
The couple married in August at Haddon Hall, a manor house in Derbyshire which dates back to the 12th century.
This was followed by a reception at grade-II listed Shiningford Farm, where hundreds of guests enjoyed a late-night dance under a tipi and a pool party the following day.
The wedding followed by a reception at grade-II listed Shiningford Farm, where hundreds of guests enjoyed a late-night dance under a tipi(pictured) and a pool party the following day
The couple(pictured at Newcastle University, left, and after their wedding) were ‘inseparable’ once they started going out and always knew they would end up getting married. ‘It’s crazy to think we could have never found out about this,’ Heidi said
Heidi (pictured with Ed during an evening out at university) said of her wedding in Derbyshire: ‘It was just so much fun to marry my best friend surrounded by all our family and friends’
Ed and Heidi are pictured outside Haddon Hall with the wedding guests of honour, many of whom couple both knew at university
This map shows the journey both the Savitts and Parkers took, from Sheffield and London – 200 miles apart – to the Mediterranean resort of Gumbet in Turkey where they met in 1997
‘It was just so much fun to marry my best friend surrounded by all our family and friends,’ Heidi said.
‘It absolutely blows my mind that we could have never found out that we first knew each other all those years ago.
Fiona said: ‘When Kay sent me the photo of a little boy called Ed I shrieked, ‘oh my goodness, that’s Ed!’ It was unbelievable.
‘We sent it around to all our family and friends and everyone was amazed. The phones didn’t stop ringing and everyone was liking it on Facebook.’
Kay and Keith Parker are now good friends with Fiona and Jonathan Savitt, and regularly go on holidays with each other.
The rest of the family are also close. Ed has two sisters, Emma, and Maddy, and a brother, Matt, and Heidi has two sisters, Hannah and Olivia.
‘It was not just Heidi and Ed who met on that holiday but all of us as well,’ Kay said. ‘It is just such a lovely, incredible story.’
Both the Savitt and Parker families are now close friends. Ed has two sisters, Emma, and Maddy, and a brother, Matt; and Heidi has two sisters, Hannah and Olivia. Pictured: Ed and Heidi in the grounds of Haddon Hall after the wedding ceremony
The terraced gardens at Haddon Hall, where Ed and Heidi are pictured after their wedding, are one of the jewels of the historic house, which sits right in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District
Heidi and Ed are lifted up on their friends’ shoulders as they celebrate late into the night in a tipi in the grounds of the grade-II listed Shingford Farm in Derbyshire