Happy couple’s journey from 192 bus aisle to dream wedding
NEWLYWEDS ENJOY SPECIAL DAY WORTH £19,000 AFTER WINNING M.E.N. COMPETITION
A COUPLE have thanked the M.E.N. for their dream wedding... years after they got engaged on the 192 bus.
Katie Picken, 27, and Nick Greenwood, 30, had been trying to save enough money to pay for their big day after getting hitched on the back of a single-decker bus.
But thanks to the Win A Wedding contest – run by the M.E.N. and the Manchester Marriott Victoria and Albert Hotel – they were able to celebrate with loved ones on a dream day worth more than £19,000.
The couple, who have three children, decided to tie the knot years ago, after Nick popped the question while they were sat on the bus as it prepared to leave Stockport bus station.
But life got in the way – with bills and other family expenditure eating up their budget.
When Katie and Nick saw the M.E.N.’s competition, they enlisted relatives and friends to help collect around 500 tokens from the paper during June and July.
Katie said: “I’ve always wanted a big wedding but because we’ve got three boys together, and we had the boys first, it was never going to happen. We could never afford the wedding I wanted. If we hadn’t won we were going to do it ourselves, it would have been a really cheap town hall thing with just a few witnesses. I can’t even put it into words, I can’t thank everybody enough.”
The couple have three boys together, Morgan, seven, Freddie, six, and twoyear-old Noah.
Katie said that losing Nick’s mum, Dilys, to cancer in 2014 was the turning point that made him push for a big wedding as ‘life’s too short.’
Nick has proposed to Katie a year after they met in 2009 on the way back from collecting a wedding ring in Stockport.
Katie said: “We were sat on the bus on the way home and he said ‘you’d better put it on then.’ It wasn’t a romantic thing, it was on the 192 bus!”
The couple met while working together to help adults with learning disabilities in Levenshulme, and while it was love at first sight for Katie, Nick wasn’t as enthusiastic.
She said: “He came in my door one day and I just knew. I just knew that he was going to be mine. At the time he said no – it took me from June to December for him to say yes.
“You can call it begging if you want. At the time he didn’t want to settle down as he’d just came out of a relationship.”
Now the couple live together in Hyde and they’ll be jetting off for a five-night mini honeymoon in Tenerife having tied the knot on Saturday.
The wedding took place at the Manchester Marriott Victoria and Albert Hotel with 50 day and 100 evening guests.
The package the couple won included photography and film from Gray Weddings, a wedding dress from Sense and Sensibility and a wedding cake courtesy of Slattery’s.
They also received flowers from Venus Flowers, suits from Best Man Hire and hair and make-up from The Dollz.