Army couple’s dreams become a reality as they get the house, the wedding and the baby all at once

Millie and Anthony Randall were married at Portsmouth Registry Office on January 3, 2023, alongside 45 of their close family and friends, after only six weeks of planning their special day.

Millie, 22, says: ‘I was anxious when I was walking in, but it was lovely to see each other, and try not to cry!’

‘I felt very nervous,’ adds 23-year-old Anthony. ‘We had it in the afternoon so the morning seemed to drag because you were waiting around, with everyone trying to force beer down you to chill the nerves!’

Anthony, a soldier in the Royal Tank Regiment, was given leave from the Army over Christmas and, not knowing when they would next have an opportunity, the couple decided to start organising their wedding in the short time they had.

‘With him away for so long, we didn’t know if we would have another big chunk of time to book and plan a wedding. We could pick a date and then he could be gone,’ says Millie.

‘Originally we were going to book it for just me and him at the registry office, and they only had the bigger rooms available so decided to invite a few people. From there it just escalated and we ended up having a lovely wedding,’ she adds.

Millie, who has lived in Gosport all her life, and Manchester-born Anthony decided that it may well be now or never.

After getting engaged on the rooftop of the Hilton Hotel in Manchester, over Christmas 2021, Anthony was soon called up and the couple were separated for 10 months.

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‘All that time you’re supposed to be celebrating and planning, all of that was taken away from us,’ remembers Millie. ‘So when he did get back, we said: “Right, let’s just do it!”

‘A lot of his army friends also had the same time off, we didn’t know whether we’d get the opportunity again. It was perfect. It went by so quickly, but it was a lovely, lovely day,’ she adds.

‘When we got there, I was stood in front of everybody waiting for Millie to come through, everybody watching you, you don’t know where to look or what to do,’ recalls Anthony.

‘It was really good but it seemed to go extremely fast. If I could do it again I would, only with Millie of course.’

And if planning the wedding wasn’t enough, two weeks before their big day, the couple discovered they were going to have a baby.

‘She couldn’t drink on the wedding day which she was quite annoyed about,’ laughs Anthony. ‘We’re really excited.’

‘It made the day a lot more special, when your partner’s away, you have endless phone calls and texts about everything you wish you could have and it seems like it's never going to happen,’ says Millie.

‘He always promised me everything would fall into place; as soon as he was home, it did, it felt really surreal.’

Still back and forth from her family home in Gosport, Millie is now 12 weeks pregnant, and the couple have moved to their new home at the Army Barracks in Tidworth, Wiltshire.

‘The house, the wedding and the baby, it all came at once for us,’ Millie gushes.

With Anthony’s rest and recuperation – known as R&R – now over, he was deployed at the weekend and the couple hope to be back together by April, to begin planning for the baby.

‘I think we’ll end up taking ourselves on honeymoon in a few years time as it’s a bit much at the moment, and hard to plan with his job. That’s the thing when you marry a soldier!’