Day was all they had dreamed of

“I had never experienced anything like it,” said Gemma, a trainee teacher, “my bridesmaids made me walk round the car park in my PJs to calm me down.

“But as the ceremony drew closer, I was as calm as I’d ever been.”

The Blackpool couple tied the knot at The Villa, Wrea Green, surrounded by their friends and family.

Gemma’s friend Cherish, who is also Luke’s sister, introduced the couple when they were teenagers.

It was a few years later, at Cherish’s 21st birthday that they began talking.

“I was with someone else at the time,” said Gemma, “he chased me for a year, coming out whenever I was there, eventually I gave in and we got together.

“He proposed on my birthday in 2017 in the comfort of her own home. He’d gift wrapped my ring like any other gift and started singing Bruno mars “Want to Marry You”, out of tune may I add, as I opened it.”

Their wedding day was everything they had imagined from the flowers to the cake, from dress to make up.

Gemma, 27, said: “He cried, which was a surprise to me as I’m usually the emotional one, and it was special that my friend made it all the way from New Zealand.”

Gemma’s grandad Ernie, who is 84, was there despite suffering ill health and he even won best dressed in a little competition they did and did a swirl in the speeches.

“My dad Paul did a presentation and Luke had all best men make speeches and he did a one hour speech!

“He was getting abuse from the guests as our wedding ran one hour over with all the evening guests waiting outside.

“But all in all it was perfect! I can’t thank our musician Alex birtwell enough, an incredible singer!

“Our friend Lizzie even got on stage rapping to the spice girls - it was a comical wedding to say the least but everyone who mattered was there and that was the most important thing to us.

Luke, 31, a national recruitment tutor, said: “Our wedding day is a seminal moment in ours lives and ours was truly memorable.”

They enjoyed a minimoon in Tenerife and plan Las Vegas for a honeymoon.