Heidi met her future boyfriend in college when he texted her asking how to use the washing machine in the apartment she used to live in. As soon as she saw Ed, she knew he was the one she was going to marry.
Ed and Heidi dated for a few years before he proposed to her. Of course, she said yes! Heidi's mother, however, didn't approve of her future son-in-law. She had an odd feeling about him. But it wasn't until she saw an old family photo that she realized that her daughter might be in danger.
An Unexpected Message
Ed was a new tenant in the apartment Heidi once lived in. One day, she got an unexpected Facebook message from him asking for help.
“Ed didn’t know how to use the washing machine in the student flat,” Heidi said in an interview. He found a post with my name on it, realized I had lived there the year before, and decided I could help.” She tried to explain over a Facebook message, but Ed asked to meet in person to show him.
Attractive Young Man
Heidi later admitted that she agreed to go to Ed's house “basically because he was hot." She showed him how the machine worked, and they chatted for a little bit.
But just as Heidi was about to leave, Ed suddenly stopped her and asked her out. Even though she liked the guy, Heidi was a little surprised. “I thought he was gorgeous, I thought he was actually amazing,” she recalled.
Perfect Match
"All I can remember thinking is 'wow, he is hot." However, she quickly learned she was attracted to more than just Ed's looks. He was beautiful inside and out.
“We hit it off pretty much instantly," she recalled. But little did she know, her crush wasn't who she thought he was.
Planning Their Lives Together
It wasn't long before Ed asked Heidi to be his girlfriend, and the couple began planning their future together. After graduating from college, they both moved to London and rented an apartment together.
Now, it was time for their mothers to meet, so they notified them of a date and time. They reserved a table at their favorite restaurant and called Heidi's mother, Kay, and Ed's mother, Fiona. But would their mothers get along?
Similar Lives
Fortunately, Kay and Fiona hit it off immediately as they started talking about their funny stories from the past. The two mothers quickly realized how similar their families were to one another.
The couple interrupted their mothers' bonding at the end of the dinner to inform them about their wedding plans. Fiona could barely contain her excitement. Her son was finally getting married! Kay, however, looked a little bit worried. She had a strange feeling about her daughter's fiance.
One Last Story
Before leaving the restaurant, Kay decided to share one last story about their family vacation with Fiona: when her daughter got her first boyfriend.
She explained that when her daughter was six, they went to Turkey. She had met a boy on her vacation and would not leave his side. They had spent the entire vacation holding hands. Kay said she had also gone to Turkey with her son around the same time but couldn't remember the exact date. "What a coincidence!" Kay said. She knew Fiona and Ed were hiding something from them. What just happened?
Old Photo Albums
When Kay got home, she pulled out her old photo albums. She knew she needed to get to the bottom of this mystery.
She scanned through the dusty pages and found what she was looking for: an album with the title Dumbet July 1997. She found the photo of Heidi and her boyfriend in Turkey from about 20 years ago. It was Ed! The same man she was going to marry in a few months.
The Same Boy
Kay was confident that this cute little blond boy was the same Ed her daughter was dating. She immediately texted Fiona a photo of Heidi and her boyfriend.
Fiona couldn't believe what she was looking at. This boy was her son, Ed! "I was screaming. It was just unreal. Of course, I sent it to Fiona," Kay recalled.
Amazing News
Fiona was equally surprised by this amazing discovery. “When Kay sent me the photo of a little boy called Ed, I shrieked, ‘oh my goodness, that’s Ed!’ It was unbelievable,” she recalled.
Heidi's mother went on to explain that “during that two-week holiday, Ed and Heidi held hands most of the time.” It was time to tell their children and see how they would react.
In Shock
“When my mum found the first photo of us, she sent it to me, and I was stunned. I actually had to lie down!” Heidi recalled.
As for her future husband, he “Was amazed too. We couldn’t believe it!” Unfortunately, both Heidi and Ed couldn't remember their vacation because they were too little.
Meant To Be
“Loads more photographs came out. None of us had any idea whatsoever that Heidi and Ed had met before university,” Fiona told Daily Mail.
It was clear to everyone that Heidi and Ed were childhood sweethearts. The two families found five more photos of them together in Turkey. “We sent it around to our family and friends, and everyone was amazed,” Heidi said.
It Was Fate
Heidi and Ed knew that it was fate that had brought them together. Heidi later told Daily Mail that she “didn’t believe in fate before finding that out, but there’s no arguing with it – we are clearly destined to be together.”
Her mother thought that perhaps there was a “subconscious realization that they had shared that time together when they met as adults.”
The Big Day
The couple decided to use these childhood photos of them on holiday in their wedding invitations. They knew how surprised and happy their guests would be.
Heidi and Ed got married in Derbyshire. After the wedding day, Ed's mother recalled that during the vacation, “it was not just Heidi and Ed who met on that holiday, but all of us.”
Family
It turns out that the couple's siblings had all met in Turkey, too. Some photographs showed their brothers and sisters hanging out together.
After Heidi and Ed's wedding, the two families went on a holiday together and had a blast. The pair had been married for four years but still can't believe the incredible story behind their first meeting. "We had been together for four years when we found out, so it's mad to think that we might have never known. It's crazy to think we could have gotten married, shared our lives together, but never found out about this," Heidi said. "People keep telling us it must be fate and that it's like the plot of a movie."