See how other local couples celebrated their big day with wedding stories and ideas from Your Cheshire & Merseyside Wedding Real Weddings features.
Despite meeting at a festival in Wales aged just 16 and 17, Abbie and Greg didn't really start getting to know each other until Greg sent Abbie a Facebook message a few months later. After a few dates at the beach, the pair realised they wanted to be together. "Greg says he was first attracted to my smile, while I loved how he could make me laugh until my stomach hurt – in fact he still does every day," Abbie tells us.
In 2017, Greg surprised Abbie with a trip to Iceland for her 21st birthday, and while there they decided to take a Northern Lights tour in the hopes they'd be kind enough to show themselves. However, by the time it reached 1am and the Northern Lights still hadn't materialised, Abbie decided it was time to call it a night and try again another day. But, Greg suggested they take just one last picture. He set up the camera on a timer, and as the flash went off he got down on one knee and asked Abbie to marry him. "It was the best feeling in the world and The Northern Lights appeared five seconds later. I couldn't have asked for a better proposal," Abbie shares.
The perfect match of Steph and Pete
Steph and Pete both felt an instant attraction when they met at work. Steph remembers, "Pete had to conduct my induction, and neither of us concentrated much!" Two months later, the pair started dating and have been together ever since.
Pete proposed on New Year's Eve 2019. The duo were spending the night at their best friend's house as they do every year, and as the clock struck midnight, Pete popped the question. Not only was it complete surprise for Steph, but even their assembled friends had no idea of his plan.
Laura and Neil met through mutual friends and from the moment they started chatting it was clear they had a lot in common – it even turned out that they'd actually been living around the corner from each other for the past two-and-a-half years. Neil won Laura over with his cooking and prepared her a chicken pesto pasta dish on one of their first dates. "We don't know what would have happened if he hadn't made me that meal," Laura laughs.
Kim and Edward met while they were both working at Liverpool's Arena and Convention Centre. So, their paths naturally crossed day-to-day and they gradually got to know each other. One day Edward invited Kim to a work night out with a few colleagues from his team. However when she arrived, much to her surprise, herself and Edward were the only two to have turned up. It was then she discovered that in fact there never was a work night out planned, it was merely a ruse devised by Edward to ask her out on a date. "While devious isn't a characteristic most would look for in a husband, Ed does have many other qualities," Kim assures us. "He's kind, funny and perfect to me," she explains.
Niki and Jonny met on an evening out with friends in Liverpool. They exchanged numbers, but due to the long hours they both worked in the NHS they only managed to keep in touch via social media at first. But before long they discovered a shared sense of humour and outlook. "Jonny always made me laugh and smile whenever I was feeling down," Niki says. So, despite living some distance apart they began dating and further town the line Jonny moved in with Niki and her son Jakub, who'd really taken to him.
Natalie and Adam became firm friends after meeting at a birthday party in their teens and started dating several years later. Adam proposed during a trip to Belfast, where they were on a pilgrimage around the various Game of Thrones filming locations. After walking miles in the wind and rain to find the very spot where Jon Snow bonded with Drogon on the cliffs of Fairhead, Adam presented Natalie with an official HBO dragon ring and popped the question. Natalie explains, "He knew I wanted to choose my own ring should we ever get engaged, so this was perfect. We were soaked and freezing but felt like we were the only two people in the world."
While Emma and Joe originally met through a mutual friend, they didn't start dating until a year later when they bumped into each other on a night out. Joe proposed during a country walk at Entwistle Reservoir in Lancashire early one Sunday morning. "He took me completely by surprise – I hadn't even done my make-up!" Emma says.
Hannah met Mike on a night out with friends and thought he was good looking as soon as she clapped eyes on him. "We got chatting after too many double vodka and Diet Cokes and ended up exchanging numbers. The rest is history," she tells us. "Mike and I are polar opposites in personality, but we just seem to work well together," she continues. The pair began to discuss the topic of marriage in earnest around six years later and within a couple of months were looking for engagement rings. "I chose the ring so that Mike could go back later to buy it once he'd decided how and when to propose," she explains. He opted for Ladies Day at Aintree races, already one of Hannah's favourite annual events. The first race came and went and Hannah was determined to quickly get some food before the next. "Kudos to Mike for instead persuading me to have our photo taken on the balcony of our stand overlooking the winning post," she says. It was here that he popped the question. "It was the best win I had that day," Hannah laughs.
Jen was 20 minutes late for her first date with Peter. "The fact that he was so chilled out about my lack of organisation made me like him right from the start," she says. "I'm the ideas person, he's the planner – we bring out the best in each other," she continues. They'd already chatted over Tinder, so by the time they met up, there was a spark and a connection. Jen remembers, "It was like there was no one else in the room."
Taking place just days before Christmas 2019, Karen and Dave's twilight wedding at Merseyside Maritime Museum combined traditional festive elements with a colourful peacock theme and party atmosphere. Karen and Dave met at school and after dating for over a year in their late teens, they went their separate ways. However, they stayed in touch over the years and after meeting up again in their mid-thirties, rekindled their romance. The couple welcomed their son, Oscar, a few years later and family life became the priority, although the couple were keen to get married one day. Last summer, 31 years after they had initially met, Karen and Dave got engaged and decided to do it.
Opposites attract for Lizzie and Rich
Lizzie found Rich's shyness intriguing when she met him back in 2010, and suspected they might be complete opposites. "Once I got to know him, I loved his kindness and light-hearted humour," she says. Rich, on the other hand told us, "I was initially attracted by Lizzie's beauty, but knew there was so much more to her. We have so much fun together."
Hayley and Jack met at their local pub: "Our close friends were dating at the time, so they got us talking," Hayley explains. She'd not long turned 18 so it was one of her first legal drinks! Not long after Jack asked her for a date and that's when they really started to click. "Jack has a great sense of humour, he's very witty. We still laugh constantly and are best friends as well as husband and wife."
Louise and Alex said "I do" at Nunsmere Hall on 5th May, 2019. Louise and Alex met at their university's freshers' week, but it wasn't until their second year that Alex managed to gather the courage to ask Louise for a coffee. We now cycle forward a decade, when the pair were enjoying an idyllic cottage holiday in Cumbria. Louise sets the scene: "It was 1st December and the weather was chilly, but we enjoyed some stunning scenery, crisp walks and typically, some beer." But, while all of this was going on, Louise had no idea of the plan that Alex was about to set in motion, one evening at sunset. "I was oblivious, and apparently, he'd spoken to friends about it and had even bought the ring well in advance. He waited for the perfect moment to propose – I was totally caught off guard," she remembers.