It’s ‘match of the day’ for Cathy and Karl

Cathy McColgan from Coleraine and fiance Karl Smith from Bushmills will tie the knot on Wednesday, June 25.

The football mad couple have even tied the red, white and black of their beloved team into their big day.

Cathy takes up the story: “Anyone who knows myself and ‘Spud’ (as Karl is known) know that we are huge United fans.

“We talked about getting married locally, and then the idea for Old Trafford came about.

“We now have 65 friends and family coming along to celebrate with us.

“The bridesmaids will be in red and black and the men’s ties will be in team colours and they will be wearing United cuff links.

“The flowers will co-ordinate and we’ll have a cake with a Manchester United theme too.”

Cathy didn’t give away any secrets about her dress - so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Amongst the guests at Old Trafford, there will be Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton fans who are threatening to wear their club colours!

Cathy joked: “I know of a few who have told me that they will be wearing their club colours under their suits, many have even joked about wearing socks and boxer shorts with the crest of their team, it’s all a bit of a laugh - but that’s all part of the fun.”

Karl’s first trip to the sacred ground of Old Trafford was organised by his wife-to-be Cathy, and as Cathy tells, he was pushed as a youngster to support United’s big rivals Liverpool.

“Karl’s late father and brother are big Liverpool fans, they wanted him to follow suit, but Karl being Karl he decided he’d support United, just to annoy his family.

“Since we got together five years ago, we’ve made many trips over to matches - and win, lose or draw we’ll keep supporting our team.”

The excited couple visited their wedding venue last month, as they took in United’s tie with Swansea.

“After the Swansea game we met the wedding coordinator and got a sample of the menu that our guests will be having at our reception.

“Everything is really starting to fall into place now. I’m really excited about it all.

And, as season ticket holders the couple have been given permission to get some official wedding pictures taken on their seats and at the back of the goals at their special wedding venue.