‘I unearthed my perfect partner on Muddy Matches’

Tuesday, July 06th, 2021

“We now have the muddy lifestyle we’ve always wanted” say Lindsey and Ash who met, then married, after bonding on Muddy Matches.

A mud loving couple from Suffolk have tied the knot in the latest Muddy Matches-inspired wedding, three years after arranging to meet for a casual coffee, near a cattle market car park.

When an open-minded Lindsey, then 29, matched with 70% muddy, divorcee Ash whilst country life dating with us in February 2016, it looked to have all the promising hallmarks of a meaningful muddy connection from day one.

Ash was brand new to the online dating scene when he took the initiative to message Lindsey, out of the blue, just 12 hours before Valentine’s Day.

She now admits he’s her ‘perfect partner’.

“I remember looking at his profile after he sent me a message and I found both to be so down to earth and very relatable.” 60% Muddy Lindsey tells us. She had grown up on a smallholding with pigs and ex battery hens and admitted to taking a ‘relaxed attitude’ into her muddy experience without being overly sure what to expect.

Inspired by friends who’d met their partners through Muddy Matches, and safe in the knowledge that ‘it can work once you get your head round the strangeness of it all’, they were soon into the thick of the common ground.

They bonded over a shared love of puppy love, shooting grounds and ‘slightly grumpy donkeys with attitude’. “I liked that there was already a common sense of interest and lifestyle. I had a photo on my profile of me with 5 Labradors and Ash messaged asking if they were all mine (they weren’t!) and what were my training tips.” Lindsey adds.

“It got a good conversation started on how naughty our labs were. It was great to start off with a baseline of having shared interest and lifestyles.”

And their chemistry fizzed further as they exchanged cooking disasters – including Lindsey’s runny custard cheesecake. It was no surprise then when Ash suggested a Great British Bad Bake Off, inspired by his own failed Mary Berry chocolate mousse cake – that the seeds of a date were planted.

A week on, and the mud lovers had agreed to meet for the first time, for an outdoor date, near the cattle market car park in Bury St Edmonds.

“It was really relaxed” Lindsey tells us. “It was a February afternoon, and we grabbed a coffee, had a walk, and chatted. We got engaged the following year, in August. Ash proposed during a walk in the middle of the woods.”

“I think the best muddy moment from the day was me arriving on a tractor and trailer!” Lindsey recalls.

3 years on and the pair are well set as husband and wife, married at the River Cottage ‘in a small, simple outdoor ceremony in the kitchen garden’ when weddings were the ‘old normal’ in May 2019.

Now they have also made the dream move into rural living with a house purchase – a now completed renovation project – out in the country.

“We ended up buying a falling down farmhouse with a couple of acres in the middle of nowhere. We did the renovation ourselves, fitting the arrival of our daughter -– a pre-wedding present in March 2018 -, and our wedding, in-between.

““. It’s one of the most romantic things we have done. We now have a family home we love and share with our daughter, 4 labs, 8 rescue chickens, and maybe some sheep in the near future.

We have the ‘muddy’ lifestyle we always wanted”