It started as a few questions about college homework and the rest, as they say, is history – and art!

The art and history students have now been together for 10 years and tied the knot over the Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday weekend at the beginning of June.

Here the new Mr and Mrs Rowland, who are both 28 and live in Gorse Covert, tell us their wedding story, in their own words.

When and how did you meet?

Declan: We met at Priestley College where we both studied art and history in the same class.

What did you think of each other when you first met?

Charlotte: Every week Dec would message me and ask about the art homework. I thought he just had short term memory problems because it was the same homework every week. I didn’t realise it was his way of trying to make conversation! After months of art homework conversations, I realised there was more than just friendship and we went on our first date to Ask Italian, where Dec was so hungover that he could barely eat his food! We’ve now been together for 10 years.

Where and when did you get engaged?

Declan: I proposed to Charlotte in August 2019 at Montgomery Castle in Wales during a week away. We had been together for eight years at this point so Charlotte had her suspicions that a proposal might not be too far away. We had recently moved into our first house together and I used the excuse that money was tight to try and throw Charlotte off the scent so that the proposal could be a surprise. Only our parents and my best man knew beforehand to keep it a surprise.

What was the date of the wedding and reception?

Charlotte: The wedding was on June 2. We didn’t originally intend it to be on the Queen’s Platinum jubilee but we just got very lucky when she made it a bank holiday.

What was location of the wedding and reception?

Charlotte: The wedding and reception were held at Owen House Wedding Barn in Mobberley.

Making an entrance

How were you feeling on the morning of your wedding?

Declan: I felt relaxed until the day guests began to arrive and then the nerves crept in and everything went very quickly.

Charlotte: I felt weirdly calm and didn’t really believe it was my wedding day. It all felt so calm and organised that it was like it wasn’t really happening, especially after waiting three years to get married. I think the Prosecco helped too!

How would you describe your wedding?

Charlotte: It was a beautiful day surrounded by our loved ones in a gorgeous, relaxed venue. We decided to have a travel themed wedding, celebrating places we had been to on holiday.

How many guests did you have?

Declan: We had 75 day guests and 55 additional evening guests.

A day to remember

What did your guests eat?

Declan: We hired Hyacinth Vintage Ice Cream van after the ceremony to entertain our guests while we had photos taken. Then, we had roast vine tomato soup to start, roast chicken with roast potatoes and veg for main and warming sticky toffee pudding served in a kilner jar for dessert.

Did you have a first dance?

Declan: ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ by Toploader. It is Charlotte’s favourite song of all time. This was performed by our evening band Hipster. We had a classical version of ‘Feel So Close To You’ by Calvin Harris for Charlotte to walk down the aisle to, as this was our song when we first got together. We were also both were introduced to the guests as Mr and Mrs with the original version.

Did you have speeches? How did they go?

Charlotte: We had four speeches - the father of the bride (Frank), the groom (Dec), the maid of honour (Amanda, my sister) and the best man (Jack). Frank’s speech set the bar high with props and lots of funny stories about us both. He should be a stand-up comedian!

Emotional speeches at the wedding breakfast

What are your favourite memories of the day?

Charlotte: One of the most special parts of our day was that my gran Irene Jones could attend. She turned 100 in November and it was her goal to make it to the big day. Seeing her with her wheelchair all decorated in the wedding colours was the most special moment and filled everyone with happy tears.

A day full of love

Tell us a little bit about your outfits on the day

Charlotte: I’d visited four bridal shops but found the perfect one at Bethany Hannah that had both my mum and sister in tears.

Declan: The ushers wanted to have tweed waistcoats to match my full tweed suit. They wore floral ties to bring out the sage green colour, which matched the bridesmaids’ dresses.

Did you go on honeymoon?

Charlotte: We went to a little lodge in Hereford for our mini moon. When we were booking, we were unsure of the Covid situation and whether we would be able to fly abroad. I’m a teacher so restricted to school holidays and we wanted a little break straight after the wedding. We are going to Bali for a few weeks in summer.

The happy couple dancing the night away

Why did you want to get married?

Charlotte: Both of us share a love of creativity and doing things our own way. This was shown in the vows we wrote for the ceremony. We didn’t hear them until the ceremony itself but they were similar about how we embraced each other’s uniqueness and will always support each other.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your day or your relationship?

Charlotte: Everything went very smoothly thanks to the hard work and organisation of our bridal party. Lots of family members worked hard in our three-year engagement, helping us to prepare for the big day and we made lots of things ourselves. Some of our favourite things were made by our family. My, mum put together a memory ladder of loved ones who have sadly passed away using a ladder made by my grandad. My dad made a shovel decoration from my grandad’s shed. My sister Amanda made all the wedding favour keyrings from sea glass at a holiday cottage in Scotland.

Just the two of us

Photo credit: HelenplusDavid

If you want to appear in our Wedding Day feature, email heidi.summerfield@newsquest.co.uk