Our Story

How did we go from Stephanie Whittingham, 16 year old A level student and Martin Briggs 18 year old undergraduate, to Mr and Mrs Briggs?

Like with most teenagers, I was keen to find employment as soon as I was old enough. My parents were believers and tough love, as soon as I was old enough to work - money for luxuries such as clothes, nights out with friends,CDs etc...stopped. If I wanted it I had to find a job to earn the money to pay for it.

I applied for around 10 part time jobs, and finally got one working at JJB Sports at a local retail park, I began work on October 15th 2004. Upon arriving for my very first shift at the shop, I was taken into the staffroom, where I met a colleague of mine for the first time, Martin Briggs. I immediately thought he was hot, but obviously being a shy teenage girl, I didn't do anything about it. Plus he was a cool university student, what would he want with a sixth form girl like me? Oh, and something else, I had a boyfriend of 2 years.

We quickly became good friends, good enough that our manager at the shop soon stopped us from working the same shifts as we rarely got anything done. On the odd occasion we would be working the same shift, we would sneak hugs in the stockroom, try and have conversations while passing each other in the shop and grab lunch together at the local MacDonalds if we had the chance.

We would spend days off together, I would go round to his student house and we attend his student parties (with my boyfriend...) and the relationship blossomed. We did, at one point, share a quick drunken kiss during one of these parties, but nothing more happened, apart from obvious flirting at every opportunity.

Then something terrible happened, Martin got a girlfriend. I was heartbroken, but had no right to be, I had a boyfriend the whole time we were friends! To cut a long story short and to cut out details about people, who would not take to kindly to me degrading them on an internet blog, his girlfriend did not like me, I could not stand her. Martin was gradually banned from speaking to me, I gradually stopped speaking to him. During one staff night out Martin got drunk and then, again without too many details, shouted a few hurtful things in my directions. We remained friends but that was a turning point of our friendship, we gradually drifted apart after 2 years of being really good friends.

I even got into a new relationship during this time. My first boyfriend, who I was with when I first met Martin, was, to put it lightly, horrible. He was abusive and aggressive and everything wrong with a man, the complete polar opposite to Martin. The relationship dissolved and I developed a relationship with someone who I had been friends with since primary school. My new boyfriend had heard all about Martin, he knew how I felt about him from conversations I'd had with friends prior to us being a couple, understandably, he was not at all keen for me to continue the very strained relationship with Martin that I now had. Within a few weeks I had left my job at JJB, accepted a place at a university 50 miles away and moved away.

Me and Martin didn't speak or even have contact anymore, and didn't during my whole 3 years at university. (Authors note; Throughout my 3 years at Uni, whenever I referred to Martin in conversation, he was always "you know Martin, love of my life, Martin...")

Anyway, fast forward 4 years to 2010 and I begin my post graduate degree in education, and Martins brother (who also worked at JJB with us) added me on Facebook one day, out of the blue. Obviously, the next logical step for me was to see if Martin was on facebook, and what he was up to. I found him and added him a few days later (my friend request wasn't officially accepted for WEEKS, he denies it, but I know he wasn't allowed to add me because of a certain someone...)

After we became Facebook friends I found that he was still with the same girlfriend I'd known all those years ago, and it never occurred to me that anything more than friendship would come out of this. We sent a few wall posts back and fourth, and I found out Martin wasn't happy in his relationship but more to the point, we just chatted like friends. Messages gradually got longer and longer until we were messaging each other a couple of times a day, and these were ESSAYS. Then it was the exchange of phone numbers and odd texts here and there. At this stage Martin was in line for a job with a Police force in the south of the UK, close to his girlfriend, which meant any hope of 'more than friends' at this point was truly dashed. He got the job.

One week I hadn't heard from Martin in 3 days, this was odd as we talked daily. Out of the blue, whilst I was teaching a lesson, a little message popped up on my phone screen "Martin Briggs has sent you a facebook message" upon reading it, I found out he had split up with his girlfriend.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and Martin informed me he was coming to Manchester (my city!) to visit his uncle, and did I want to meet up? I said yes, but to be honest, I wasn't 100% sure I would actually go until I was there. The night before we met up I went out for my best friends birthday, drank too much and woke up with an horrendous hang over. I couldn't meet Martin looking and feeling like this. What about if we had changed? What about if he was still expecting 18 year old Steph, 22 year old Steph was very different!? I remember honestly spending around 2 hours doing my hair and make up, and my friend telling me if I didn't go and meet him she would kill me when she got home. So off to the bus stop I went.

I was nervous all the way to the city centre (where we were meeting at the Christmas Marker, under a giant inflatable santa) but when we finally saw each other, things just slipped back to how they used to be. We went for a drink, talked, walked around the city, and even went to his Uncles together so we could spend more time together. Martin said "Oh, I don't want to leave just yet" so I obviously offered him my spare room, he could stay there and get the train back the next day? We informed his parents, his Mum told me sternly to look after him (I should have seen that as a warning sign) and off we went to my house together so could go for more drinks.

Fast forwarded a good couple of hours and many many drinks and we're back in my kitchen, I can't quite remember why, but we were in there. I needed the loo but Martin asked for a hug first....and that was our very first, proper, kiss.

The rest, as they say, is history. Martin left to go home the next day, and laster 24 hours before getting the train back to mine. We spent every weekend together, as well as holidays. He had already accepted his job down south with the police, and although we had only been together a couple of months, I decided I would look for jobs down south too! Luckily I found one, and 6 months later we were packing up and moving into our first flat together. People said we were moving too quickly, were we bothered? No. We had known each other for 6 years, and there was no doubt our relationship was different to others.

6 months later, one our first anniversary, Martin woke me up at 3am, and proposed to me, whilst I was half asleep in bed. (I said if he ever did anything sickeningly romantic I would kill him) we got married 10 months later on October 26th, 2011, one month after our miscarriage. Did people still say we were rushing, yes? Did we care, nope.

We actually started TTC before we were married, in June 2010, after being together only 10 months, I came off the pill. Well, to be more truthful I ran out of pills while we were away, and Martin said "If it happens, it happens..." and that was it.

People may be shocked at that, I was only 22, we just had jobs, but it felt right, it still feels right for us. It's a good job we did start when we did, other wise we wouldn't be where we are now. 3 years later, facing our first IVF cycle.