WOODLANDS HOTEL, 9th August 2025
A rugby night out brought Dewsbury couple Tom and Chloe together in matrimony.
Tom and Chloe met on a night out back in November 2018; ‘We both play tag rugby and they have a Christmas night out where all the leagues come together in the Brotherhood bar in Leeds’, Tom says.
Having never met before that day, the pair hit it off and stayed out til the early hours. ‘Chloe lost her keys and phone and went home in my jacket, so we met up a few days later to exchange it’, Tom says. The relationship blossomed, with the pair welcoming son Ted into the world a few years later before their engagement in November 2023.
The Engagement
It was on a family holiday to Lanzarote, on a walk along the seafront where it would happen. ‘Chloe loves taking photos so I found the right spot and said for her to get a photo of us there’, Tom says. After stopping a random couple passing by to take the photo, Tom spun round on one knee and proposed to Chloe. ‘She was holding our son Ted so it’s lucky she didn’t drop him’, Tom laughed.
Chloe said yes straight away and the planning began! The couple went looking for venues and quickly booked the Woodlands Hotel in Gildersome. ‘We went there and it was everything we wanted, a big old house with lovely gardens, it ticked every box’, Tom says. The couple also liked the fact you could book a package with everything included as they didn’t want a blank canvas; ‘It was less for us to sort,’ Tom says.
When shopping for his suit, Tom admitted he was lazy about getting organised. Tom first visited the Skopes outlet store in Batley after researching suits online with Chloe.
‘Chloe’s sister got married two months after us and they got their suits first, we were at their house looking through the Skopes catalogue’, Tom says.
The groomswear fitting was organised through the White Rose Skopes store; ‘The female staff member there was so funny, she had eight men to dress and gave good banter while keeping us all moving and getting us sorted. She kept us organised’, Tom says.
‘Some groomsmen couldn’t make it to each fitting, so she arranged different times for them and kept us all in the loop. One of the groomsmen lost more weight than he’d thought so they managed to source him a suit from a different store, there was no issue and no extra charge, everything was included’, Tom says.
With a summer wedding, Tom wanted light colours to match, so opted for a stone coloured suit.
The Wedding Day
The night before the wedding, Chloe and Tom stayed separate. Chloe went out for a meal with her bridesmaids, mum and Tom’s mum too.
While Tom stayed at his parents’ house with his groomsmen, which followed a trip to a rugby match and a boozy night. ‘I’m not a nervous person but the morning of our wedding, I was nervous, queasy and a bit hungover all rolled into one’, Tom says.
Chloe and her bridesmaids arrived to the venue early for hair and makeup prep.
After agreeing not to do presents on their wedding morning, the pair ended up giving each other something special anyway.
Tom’s grandad had passed away the year before the wedding; Chloe had gotten iron on photo stickers to put inside his tie as a surprise. Tom went down a jokey route by getting Chloe a pair of white crocs, complete with Jibbitz ‘Just Married’ charms.
In Tom’s words, the ceremony was ‘AMAZING’.
‘Chloe did the Tiktok trend where she got our son Ted to do a voiceover before she came in saying “Daddy not long now mummy’s coming!”, which completely got me’, Tom says.
With 120 day guests watching, they all melted into the background as Tom and Chloe said their I Do’s.
Following the ceremony and photos, speeches were given by Tom’s dad
and best man, as well as the bride who said, ‘No man’s talking for me on my wedding day’.
The happy couple also paid for all their guests to have a fireball shot, after a funny memory of Tom’s grandad mistaking it for Chinese whisky after his sister brought it back from her travels.
Guests then enjoyed their meal, which led into party time. The happy couple chose to forego a traditional wedding cake, instead opting for Colin and Connie miniature cakes with top hats and veils for guests and grab and eat.
As Chloe and Tom are big rugby fans, it had to make an appearance on their wedding day.
‘We had a rugby bag with all the stuff in for tag rugby, most of my mates spend all night playing and half the suits from Skopes have now got grass stains down the knees!’, Tom says.
Tom explained how in the years that their son Ted was born, just before they’d got engaged, they went to 6 or 7 weddings in the space of a year, ‘We cherry picked things we liked and realised we didn’t need loads of stuff going on, everyone was happy and dancing’.
All they needed was a box of love heart glasses and foam flashing glow sticks for people to use. It was all fun and games until Tom’s best man got hit with a glow stick and got a nosebleed. However, aside from that, their wedding day went without a hitch, ‘People say you’re that busy on your day, things can pass by you, but because our venue were so great, we weren’t worried about timings, we could enjoy the day and spend more time in the moment.’ Tom says.
For their honeymoon, the happy couple spent ten luxurious nights in Bali - dream destination, while their son Ted had the sleepover of a lifetime at all his grandparents and aunties.
List of Suppliers
- Photographer - Stephanie Donaldson
- Videographer - Lewis Hurley
- Suits - Skopes
- Dress - Ava Rose (Silsden)
- Venue - Woodlands Hotel, Gildersome
- Rings - Beaverbrooks