A MARRIED At First Sight couple who were matched on the show but were never shown on TV have finally married in real life.
Paul Todd and Ally Acklan were supposed to tie the knot on the E4 reality show in 2020 and had already done six weeks of filming, before they were told that their wedding wasn’t going ahead.
Paul asked to be put in touch with the woman MAFS’ experts had matched him with to explore a potential relationship away from the cameras.
Fast forward four years on and the couple said ‘I do’ last month at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, followed by a night of partying at a coastal hotel with about 60 guests.
They were also joined Married At First Sight matchmaker Paul Carrick Brunson and other show experts.
“The experts are a huge support in our life and that’s why we invited them all to the wedding. Without them, we wouldn’t have our daughter, or our love,” Ally shared with the Mirror.
“Paul won’t admit this, but he had tears in his eyes during our vows. He is not one of those teary kind of guys, so that was beautiful.”
Ally, who welcomed daughter Penelope in 2021 with Paul, said she ditched her original MAFS wedding gown for an Asos dress.
“I was going to wear my original Married At First Sight dress, but because I had a baby, even though I’ve lost a lot of weight recently, it was still too tight,” she said.
“So I just got a cheap one off Asos. My new husband keeps telling me, ‘Darling, you looked lovely.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I looked alright.'”.
She looked stunning in a white frilly tiered gown and veil, while Paul opted for a blue plaid suit with a waistcoat and bowtie.
The pair posed for loved-up snaps as newlyweds on a carousel and surrounded by their loved ones, before releasing colourful smoke bombs to celebrate their special day.
The pair had both signed up for the 2020 series of the show but the Covid-19 lockdown saw their wedding called off, joining thousands of other disappointed couples in the UK.
Ally signed up after catching a snippet of MAFS on Gogglebox, while Paul spotted an ad on Facebook for the show and both thought they’d give it a go after failed romances.
Rather than meeting for the first time at the altar, Paul and Ally met each other via a video call that ended up lasting 90 minutes.
“Two days before our wedding day, production called up and said it wasn’t going ahead,” Paul told OK!.
“I thought I was never going to meet Ally so I begged the experts to put me in touch with her or else I was going to message every single Ally on Instagram until I found her.”
“The funny thing is, it was never awkward,” Paul said. “The experts had been so reassuring that I knew Ally was the right person for me and I was the right person for her.
“We’d already bought into the idea of each other before we’d even met. It was really natural.”
The pair decided to move in together during lockdown, with Ally travelling three and a half hours to Weston-Super-Mare to meet her man.
“I only packed two weeks worth of clothes because I didn’t know how long I’d be there for,” she told OK!. “Three years later and I’m yet to move out.”
“It felt like it was right immediately. Don’t ask me why, but I had a strong intuition that MAFS would help me find a match.”
The pair, who self-style as MAFS’ “unseen couple”, found out they were expecting a baby in October 2020 and got engaged a few months later.
Now raising their little girl Penelope together and happier than ever.
Last September, the couple said they their ceremony would be different to the one producers had planned for the show.
At the time, they shared: “This time, we’re much more in control of our wedding,
Paul said. “Before we were given a pamphlet with colour schemes and decor choices but now we have control of everything. It’s a hindrance and a blessing
“It would be nice to just rock up somewhere, get married and have the rest of the day planned out for us but it’s good to not have the pressure of the cameras.”
