Louie Spence helps Accrington couple plan dream day (From This Is Lancashire)

Louie Spence helps Accrington couple plan dream day

4:00pm Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in News By Jessica Cree, Education reporter

AN Accrington couple enlisted the help of secret celebrity wedding planners to organise their big day.

Ex-glamour model Toni Ainsworth and her fiancé Andy Todd took part in the Channel 5 show Celebrity Wedding Planners, letting choreographer and TV personality Louie Spence and Benidorm barman Jack Canuso loose to plan the day of their dreams.

Hoping for a glitzy, glamorous day filled with circus acts, dancers and jugglers, the couple, who met in a pub three years ago, were shocked to find out who would be in charge of the most important moment of their lives.

The celebrity pair, who blew their budget of £13,000, decided on a classy, elegant day for the couple, including a slim line, graceful dress for Toni, exactly the opposite of what the bride-to-be had hoped for.

Toni, a former Hollins Technology College pupil, said: “I could have cried because it was not what I expected at all.”

The bride, known as Tacky Toni to friends and family, added: “I would never in a million years have tried a dress on like that. It was elegant, but Toni and elegant do not go together.”

But after persuasion from the celebrities, Toni came round to the idea and fell in love with her more demure outfit. After visiting potential venues including Samlesbury Hall, it was decided the ceremony would be held at the Ashton Memorial, in Lancaster, with the reception at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, where the newlyweds got their request of a huge party.

Toni said: “It was just phenomenal, it was the best day of my life.

“I am lucky to have Andy. I kissed quite a few frogs to get my prince.”