Our Story
Our Story
Freddy and David (that's us!!) met in a bar in the middle of Soho in February, 2017. We hit it off immediately, and, after an initial night of dancing at Heaven, started dating.
It was a slow, sweet start to a beautiful relationship. On one of our first dates they went to go see La La Land in a small cinema in Picadilly circus (a soundtrack which Freddy still listens to very frequently!) The Rum Kitchen in Carnaby Street became one of our favourite haunts, and we spent many a happy hour there eating jerk chicken and sipping on rum cocktails.
One evening, during a date at the Breakfast Club in Islington, David accidentally referred to Freddy as his boyfriend, and the label stuck!
That same year, David moved out of London (technically) to live with Hannah and Kieron (and their menagerie) in Elstree and Borehamwood, and Freddy became a frequent visitor and a fast friend to them. Kieron and Freddy bonded especially over their love for household projects and DIY.
A slight diversion, but it was one of the most interesting things I (David) have encountered - on 3rd June 2017, on the exact day I turned 25, after returning back from another friends wedding, I saw a vehicle crashed outside of Borough Market. No police were on the scene yet - it turned out I had missed a terrorist incident on my exact route home by about two minutes. Thankfully, Freddy wasn't with me - he was helping out with the Backstage society at Bath to host their summer function. He did drop everything to offer all the emotional support he could to David over the phone!
Over the summer we went to London Pride, soapbox racing at Ally Pally, and a trip to Alton Towers. Freddy helped David build his first computer (which I still have to this day!), a skill he's been honing since he was 11.
For Halloween, we went as Mario and Luigi which was a cute costume, but in retrospect was not the best choice for a make-out session.
In what's probably our oldest tradition now, this was our first year attending the Ally Pally fireworks on November 4th - proceeded by an awesome laser show.
Also in December ever year is the Bath Backstage "Older Gits" (or "Old Gits", as it was known back then) party - Freddy brought David along, his first foray amongst the hyperactive madness that makes up the Backstage contingent!
The last image here is when we went to go to an immersive "Great Gatsby" themed play in London, which was fun - although having not read the books, and with a multi-room disjointed structure, the plot was a little hard to follow. A lot of fun though!
New Years Day was spent, as it is most years, with Freddy's backstage friends - this year we rode the model train at Knaphill.
Just less than a year into the relationship, David was introduced to another of Freddy's annual traditions with the Backstage crew - renting a holiday cottage cottaging. Done in late January (the cheapest time of year to do so), a large holiday home is rented, and it is a chance for the entire gang to regress to their teenage selves and shoot each other with Nerf guns. This years cottage was in Herefordshire - a tremendous place, and the house had tons of tactical vantage points. The highlight was probably Shaun's million-course cheese platter (I stopped counting after a while).
In February we were honoured to attend the Jolly Little wedding - a wonderful experience and a great opportunity for Freddy to show me around his second home - Bath.
June saw another great Pride party - and Freddy marched with the UBS contingent, which was a lot of fun. David still keeps a polaroid of that day in his backpack to this day.
The celebration of the birth of Georgia Dunnicliffe was another fantastic insight into the minds of the Backstage gang - highlights included makeshift bridge competitions and "How far can we carry Freddy in this bathtub."
In September, we went to Ian and Libby's wedding - a fantastic celebration of one of Freddy's closest friends.
October saw yet another wedding for one of David's co-workers - luckily, a local London affair so we didn't have far to travel!
November saw us go to our second Ally Pally fireworks, and then afterwards to the brand-new board-game cafe/decommissioned London bus (a perfect blend of gaming and transport) that had just opened up in Wood Green. A neat idea - though the reality of playing board games on a bus proved slightly too phyisically restricting than was expected!
The Halloween party that year actually took place the day after the fireworks show, on Nov 3 - a more queer-appropriate coupling was donned!
After taking Freddy to his work's Christmas party in Chichester for the second year, (and with a little help from a co-worker), David finally plucked up the courage to tell Freddy that he loved him too, a sentiment Freddy had been eagerly anticipating for a year!
On the 8th of December, David and Freddy went to see Nightwish for the first time at the O2 Arena, somewhere David had not been since they tore down the old Millenium Dome exhibits.
February saw the birth of Artemis Capocci-Hunt and the not-unrelated moving out of David to a new place in Higham's Park, a convenient 30 min cycle (or 90 min walk) to Freddy's house. Freddy was very excited to see the nearby signal crossing still in action. David was excited he lived only a 60-second walk from the Greenwich Meridian Line - basically on the brink between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.
In April, Freddy and David set out (with some of David's work friends) to conquer Snowdonia - a fantastially brilliant climb on a picture perfect day. David then proceeeded to conquer Scafell Pike the following month (this time without Freddy) on an excruciating 40-mile hike - but the final challenge of Ben Nevis remains unconquered to this day!
The wedding of Alix and James was a great celebration for the Backstage crew, and their marriage remains a hearty inspiration for us to this day.
June saw a great birthday for David of a VR arcade and a home-made smarties cake baked by Freddy! Later in the month, Ollie and Emily joined us for our first escape-room experience which featured a make-your-own-cocktail segment - and a slide as well! Massive fun.
At the end of June, Freddy introduced David to his annual Yurting trip - a weekend spent in the heart of Cornwall, in a small campsite in the middle of Bodmin Moor (a place we still go to every year!). In typical David fashion, Freddy had to rescue him after he got trapped digging too big of a hole in the sand at the beach one day.
July saw our first trip to Ireland - so close to the UK, it's a wonder it took us this long to go! Highlights included walking along the cliffs of Moher, and listening to an amazing live band in a Galway pub. Unfortunately Freddy had injured his leg a couple weeks previously, so in a rare twist it was David who was doing the brunt of the exercise that trip!
August saw us return to Alton Towers for a nice weekend. We also tried out Secret Cinema for the first time - Casino Royale. David made it to the final table with all the actors before the film started playing...
On our third Ally Pally fireworks show, we were joined by Freddy's sister Bea, and his friends Adam and Stacey, and we went back to the Board Game Bus for a second year in a row!
Even though it's on our doorstop, we had never been up the Shard. That changed in November when Freddy took David to the observation deck (and we took a few photos for a client that was based there as well.) We also went to go see a recording of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue with Freddy's granny.
I can't believe the pandemic was so long ago! It wasn't until March that the first lockdowns started - luckily we were both living by ourselves and were within walking distance, so we decided to bubble with one another!
David dyed his hair orange and kept it for the first time that year!
Since so few things were open at this time, our highlights were going out and doing walks and bike rides wherever we could.
In July we went to the Peak District for an outdoor climbing weekend - although Freddy at this point had yet to discover his love of climbing, and went off to do solo walks across the beautiful hilly countryside.
The annual Yurting trip still went ahead this year - it was outdoors, camping in our own tents, and the risk of infection felt very low - but we did go and visit the Eden project together, something David had long wanted to go and see but never had the chance.
A second climbing trip in Castleton happened in August, with David's friend Jon and his brother Ed.
One skill we started to hone during the lockdown was haircutting - we both were responsile for cutting each other's hair. I can't say I got particularly good at it, personally.
In October, we went to see a very socially-distanced gig at Ally Pally.
Christmastime was spent with Freddy's family - Boris Johnson's announcement of a Christmas lockdown came too late for us, we were already there! So we hunkered down for the rest of the year with our new "inmates", though we did enjoy seeing a particularly festive display of Danvey's nipples during a drunken New Years Zoom call.
We had started going to a bridge club in 2019 - one of Freddy's favourite hobbies that David had eventually convinced him to teach. In February 2021 came our first joint bridge win - 1st place in the (early) Easter tournament!
2021 continued to be another year of minimal indoor adventues, and we continued to go on walks and bike rides whenever we could. On 23rd April, for Freddy's 30th birthday, David took him to the London Zoo - one of the only places which was still operating at the time. In the evening we had Zoom call with all of Freddy's friends - plus, entertainment put on by our local comedy club - the Bill Murray.
In the summer, we took a ride on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire steam railway with Freddy's mum Helen; a beautifully sunny day out where we discovered the TeaInk card shop which we have used several times since.
Towards the end of May, we took once more to the Peak District - although we were pushed to do indoor climbing one day due to terrible weather. The weather and lockdown both surely had an effect on the local populace for that evening the local pub was packed full of people who couldn't be older than 16. Peak District!
June saw the wedding of Lou and Jon, a wedding we were thrilled to attend at the last minute when better friends of Lou's pulled out. (I'm joking - we were honoured to be a part of their special day, it was such a wonderful time!)
In July, for some reason, we had decided to join the rest of the Backstage crew for back half of the Cotswold way - a 45 mile hike over two days from Stroud to Bath.
July also saw Laura and John, with their newborn Maggie, come to visit the UK for the first time since Maggie's birth.
In August, we went to the Isle of Skye - David's first ever foray into Scotland - for another climbing/hiking weekend. Unlike the rumours I had heard, the weather was fantastic the whole way through!
September 11 saw one of the most memorable evenings of our relationship - Matthew Nutt's 40th birthday party which took place in a huge airplace hangar with a Concorde in, and a sitdown meal and a ceilidh to boot. I think this was our very first ceilidh together and we've loved them ever since!
Early October saw Jon's 30th birthday in Milton Keynes - skiing, climbing, VR arcade, casino and restaurant meant a hell of a day!
On October 15th was Heather and David's wedding at Clearwell Castle - a beautiful day and a wonderful celebration of two of our closest friends.
November saw us return to Ally Pally for the fireworks display, we took Jon with us. Later on that month, Freddy invited David for the first time to the Tiverton light switch-on - the annual Dunn tradition of switching on their talk-of-the-town Christmas lights which light up the whole village. David and Freddy took over control of the catering - hot chocolates and bacon baps all round!
Christmas was once again spent with Freddy's family - including, for the first time, Freddy's new niece, Maggie!
February saw the 30th birthday of Alyssa up in Leeds, followed shortly by the 3rd birthday of Artemis, both colourful affairs.
In March was David and Freddy's first trip to Paris - crazy how long it took given how quick it is to get to from London! The highlights were the super rich, creamy beef stews, and the Nintendo-3Ds-guided walk around the Louvre.
Now out of lockdown, Freddy hosted a big bash for his 31st birthday - a long weekend down in Devon, riding on the Paignton Steam Railway!
May saw the wedding of Richie and Helen on a beautiful day in Chiddingfold; another ceilidh down!
June saw David's 30th birthday - white water rafting, board games, escape rooms and karaoke made for a really fun day out!
Soon after we took our summer holiday and travelled back to Ireland again - this time, to visit Cork, kiss the Blarney stone and see the Ring of Kerry. Unfortunately the weather was too choppy to go and visit Puffin Island but we still had an absolute blast! At the time, car rentals were going through the roof - and we found that renting a white van for the week was actually much cheaper than renting a car!
The end of June also saw us going to a Dadi Freyr gig, and the RHCP also came to London to perform! Unfortunately, Freddy was suffering the horrible effects of a concussion after a DIY job went badly; the lingering effects lasted for well over a year.
Although Freddy couldn't make it to Pride, or the peak district for a climbing weekend, we still managed to go yurting that year in our usual campsite, and a quiet weekend trip to the peaceful, bird-inhabited Ramsey Island, off the coast of Wales.
In November we went to see a play staring our friend Chris called How to Make a Better Tulip - and David met one of the cast of the Brittas Empire, Jill Greenacre.
Christmastime again was spent in Stroud - and Maggie and her parents came back for her second year in a row!
Lynton was the destination for this year's Cottaging trip, the first one organised by Freddy himself. Although the venue itself was stunning, the relentless teasing of the miscalculated milk portions was so extreme it caused Freddy a permament lactose intolerance!
March saw the 30th birthday of Libby, and the theme was - come as the 90's. We weren't the only ones to turn up rocking the Pokemon look!
Towards the end of March, we both had a spare week of holiday time to take. Looking at a weather map, we decided to go to the only place it wasn't going to rain heavily that week - Inverness! The sleeper train up was an exciting (and somewhat cramped) experience. The weather stayed true to it's word and was beautifully sunny for nearly the whole week we were there, and it was invigorating to have a week walking around in the Scottish countryside.
In April, we took a long-time-coming trip to Swanage with Jon and Helena for a climbing weekend - by this time, Freddy had long since given into the climbing bug (though climbing outdoors was still a whole different kettle of fish).
Freddy's birthday this year saw us going to the Bressingham steam railway museum, a fun day after an annoying interaction with the evil Balloons Over Britain saga (don't ask!). This was also where David won Ducky for Freddy as a prize after a successful run at the coconut shy, a permanent addition to the household!
David's 31st birthday saw a new tradition take hold - a visit to the UK Games Expo in Birmingham, the UK's biggest annual board gaming convention.
Luckily this year, it fell on the day before David's birthday - important, because David and Leah had discovered they shared the same birthday. In 2022, Leah sacrificed her big day to come to David's 30th - and this year, we travelled up to Horsforth so David could repay the favour at Leah's 30th birthday, a costume party (of course!) Another use for the Pokemon costumes!
Only the following week saw the wedding of Quinn and Shreya, two of our best friends. Freddy spent most of the evening in his role as best man teaching all of Shreya's Indian bridesmaids how to dance to classic European songs - the Macarena, Superman and Oops Upside Your Head, amongst others.
In July was the wedding of Matt and Tanya - yet another ceilidh for the books, and a bouncy castle to boot!
The next wedding was in September (great month for weddings!) for Martin and Amy. Martin's stag do was a Magic The Gathering themed gaming night, where we finally got Freddy to play a game!
After a mere 6-and-a-half years of being together, David decided it was time to bite the bullet and move in with Freddy. Well, we'd been living together unofficially for over a year anyway but it was time for David to give up his lease in Higham's Park.
October was our first "big" holiday since before the pandemic began - Alyssa, Leah, Sara, Mark and us flew to Tenerife to ride one of the world-famous waterparks - Siam Park. The resort was fantastic - all-inclusive cocktails are the only way to go - and the scenery was great too; we travelled to the top of the volcano and were transported to a bizzare, fascinating, almost alien barren landscape.We also got the record time on the escape room in town, and walked away with a free bottle of Prosecco!
October also saw David's first proper gig with Ready Singer One at EGX - a nerve-wracking but fun experience!
Halloween was spent in Northampton at Heather and David's new place, where David's rented costume (or, more specifically, the codpiece of the costume) took first place in the costume contest!
November again saw us go back to Tiverton to put up the Christmas lights together at the Dunn's house - joined by various members of Backstage.
It turns out Guys and Dolls were doing a revival in the West End with a brand new dynamic stage system - after viewing it once, Freddy was entranced and immediately booked a second viewing so he could take David along with him!
One of the greatest honours of our lives was to attend the Indian leg of Quinn and Shreya's wedding - and, along with a few other Backstagers, Matt and Sian organised a trip for us to have a one-week sightseeing tour around India before the main wedding in Hyderabad. I could fill a whole page of images on here, but will just list the highlights - seeing the Taj Mahal, visiting the monkey temple, the Red Palace, the rickety rickshaw rides through the Dehli markets, Ranthambore forest, and the gigantic golden Statue of Equality. The wedding ceremony itself was also stunning - beautiful, colourful and energetic in a way we'd never experienced before. The bridesmaids got revenge on Freddy for last year and taught him a modern Indian dance which we then all performed in front of the whole crowd!
In March, we went to see the Return Of The King in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall with our friends Katie and Alexei.
Another celebration with Shreya in March to celebrate her becoming an official British citizen!
We had a rocking time at the end of March in Padworth to celebrate Harriet and Pandora's wedding.
In April we went to Berlin to visit Laura and Jon for the first time, and meet their newborn Rowan.
And a trip to Tiverton in May saw us meeting the newly-born Millie Dunn as well.
Freddy joined David on his trip to the UK Games Expo this June, and we both participated in the Star Realms tournament - David managed to win a free copy of Smash! for getting through to the national semi-finals!
The yurting holiday this year saw us go to Healeys (the home of Rattler Cider) where we got drunker than we should have!
August was a hell of a month - it started with Alyssa and Leah's wedding, whose incredible venue and themeing have stayed fully cemented in my mind ever since! I got serious Hogwarts vibes as I was exploring their place - it even came with an Astronomy tower!
The end of August saw us invited to yet another of our friends weddings - Tom and Giada got married in Lecco, off the coast of Lake Como - a stunning backdrop to a beautiful wedding.
It was here, in this beautiful place that David took Freddy up to the top of a nearby mountain the following morning, and after a gentle walk through a nature reserve, he could take it no longer and dropped to his knees and proposed. Freddy said yes before David had even finished the question, and then pulled out his own ring and returned the proposal with one in kind. Later on, David showed Freddy a video he'd made of the journey he took to forge Freddy's engagement ring from a piece of an old boiler tube from the Flying Scotsman, and they went out for a celebration meal with Alyssa, Leah, Mark, Sara and Mark's mum Debbie. It was a magical day.
We decided to turn the Italy trip into a week-long excursion, and ended up visiting Milan, Como, Bellinzona and Geneva, visiting castles, coasts, cathedrals, and colliders.
The fantastic summer was followed by Lawrance and Chris' wedding in October.
On October 10th, the fantastic Stroma performed at the London Scottish House. We knew that we wanted a ceilidh for the wedding, and the fact that David's friend Jordan from Ready Singer One was in a ceilidh band (and that they were also focused on non-gendered calling) sealed the deal for us!
Nov 2nd saw us attend a Divali celebration at the Quinn's, although David completely forgot to bring along his kurta!
Our usual December played out - Older Gits celebration, Christmas in Stroud (featuring Rowan for the first time!), and we also went to see a gobsmackingly-amazing pantomime in London starring Maggie and Lawrence. We also started touring round wedding venues during the holidays - and it helped that most of them were open to us looking around as there weren't many weddings happening in the dead of winter.
We found Elmore Court in January! Although we'd originally planned to get married in May 2026, the only availability was in September - which we were both happy with.
January saw us return to Rousdon for cottaging, and Freddy and David (along with Quinn and Shreya) took on the challenge of cooking an Indian feast for the whole crew.
March and April saw David and Freddy apart for nearly a month as different holidays took them to the far north and south of western Europe. David thought it would be an interesting time, now that Freddy was a way, to see if he'd look good as a skinhead.
We had a few house-viewings in the spring, we also went to visit Alyssa and Leah and go to the Forbidden Corner, a fever-dream reimagination of David Bowie's Labyrinth, something David was absoluetly entranced by.
Shreya's birthday was celebrated by none-other than a board-gaming session!
It was shortly followed by Colin's 40th birthday party at Europa Park - a wildly immersive theme park containing over a dozen areas all representing a different European country. This was the first official journey organised by Foxtel Travel Inc.
Whilst there were some highlights in the summer (Chris' BBQ, Ian's housewarming, the UKGE, and Choirblast) - and especially Mark and Sara's wedding, a beautiful affair in Gosfield Hall, the summer was marred by a set of difficult circumstances - an eviction, a death, coming out, a physical AND mental health crisis crippled us both for quite a while. Nevertheless, we pushed through with the help of friends and family and we still made it to Yurting and even to Stroud to enjoy a visit from Freddy's sister.
September 5th - our -1 anniversary (our "reversary"!) Freddy took David to ride an old decomissioned tube carriage travelling up the metropolitan. David took Freddy to ride on the iconic Mail Rail tracks. We both then finished off the evening at Niche, our new favourite gluten-free restaurant in Islington.
For the first time, Freddy joined David and Alyssa to see Ayreon perform in Tilburg, a tri-annual tradition of attending the very-limited show which only comes around once every three years for three days only.
November saw WSOE2 hosted by the Fishers in Basingstoke, both Freddy and David managed to take home a prize medal!
Christmas saw us once again hosted by the Pitels (with both Rowan and Maggie in attendance). For New Years, we visited James and Alix's new digs in deepest Salisbury.
We're not far into 2026, there's not too much to tell! But the highlight so far has definitely been Pixie's 40th birthday / cottaging adventure up in a Scottish manor! What a beautiful setting, even though it was probably a little wetter and blackout-ier that we'd anticipated!
But we still have so much to look forward to this year - in April we're off to Slovakia for Pixie's wedding, in May we're back to Scotland - Aviemore - for a summer bash at Kirsty's house, and we have a few stag do's to get through...
And I think there's something interesting happening in September, right?
See you on board!
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