England cricketer David Willey married singer Carolynne Good in a beautiful ceremony exclusively covered by HELLO! magazine back in November 2016. Leeds-born Carolynne was supported on the day by her good friend and bridesmaid, actress Lucy-Jo Hudson, who attended with her husband Coronation Street's Alan Halsall. Close friend, actress Natalie Anderson also attended the wedding celebrations.
“It was perfect,” said Carolynne, who made a picture-perfect bride in an ivory Ellis Bridals gown with a full skirt, sweeping train and glittering diamante belt. “I thought I would get really emotional in the car on the way to the church with my dad. But I was just dancing to the radio, I was so giddy. I almost ran up the aisle and my dad had to pull me back.”
Carolynne on Fame Academy
“When I got to the end of the aisle, I was so happy to see him,” recalled Carolynne, who has been in the public eye for years – she reached the final of Fame Academy in 2003 and subsequently made it to the Judges’ Houses stage and then to the finals of The X Factor in two consecutive years, performing under the name of Carolynne Poole. The bride walked up the aisle to the sound of Katherine Jenkins’s rendition of Jerusalem. “It always gives me goosebumps when I hear it,” she told us.
Yorkshire County Cricket Club star David, 26, said he was overcome with emotion when his bride made her entrance at Adel Parish Church in Leeds in a beautiful Ellis Bridals gown. "I was blown away," he said. "I was just an emotional wreck. She looked stunning. It was the best day of my life."
The couple exchanged traditional vows as well as ones they wrote themselves. “David had given me these little gifts throughout the day – he’d had his promises to me printed on handkerchiefs to read from. “Both of us are very traditional and although it’s a fun day, those vows are important to us.”
Her bridesmaids, her sister Jacqueline, Lucy-Jo and friends Jessica Francis, Clair Outar and Victoria Bailey, wore silver fishtail gowns by Lipsy London. Her niece Gracie-Jane, four, was flower girl. “She’s like a mini Carolynne in personality,” said David, who wore a TM Lewin suit and Jeffery West shoes for his big day. “She’d been constantly practising her slow walk down the aisle.” Their ushers, meanwhile, included David’s famous father Peter, a former English cricketer turned umpire.
The couple began dating 16 months prior to their wedding, after Carolynne went to watch her England cricket star friend Jonny Bairstow play in a match with David. “I knew almost immediately that he was The One,” she beamed of her husband-to-be. “Meeting David, it was like suddenly the missing piece of me was found. We’d not long been dating and it was my birthday, so he’d taken me out for a meal and bought me some flowers. I remember feeling as if I’d known him forever.”
After the ceremony, guests headed to the reception at Wood Hall Hotel & Spa in Wetherby, a luxury retreat set in 100 acres of Yorkshire countryside.
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“It has a real home-from-home feel,” said Carolynne. The reception was decorated with the couple’s chosen romantic autumn theme, with the help of their “fairy godmother”- wedding planner Julie Arnold from Entertainment Today. Tables featured centrepieces made from driftwood wrapped with flowers and grapevine leaves designed by Verdure Floral Design. Carolynne also had autumnal colours in her bouquet.
In a fun touch, the couple had arranged a “Tinder table”. “We stuck all our single guests on the same table in the hope they’d hit it off,” laughed Carolynne.
The wedding celebrations then continued until 5am. “It was like a big house party,” she recalled. “We partied hard. Everyone was like, ‘Mind your dress,’ and I was saying, ‘Oh it doesn’t matter, it’s only for one day.’ But I looked at it the next morning and thought, ‘Oh gosh.’ “I wanted her to take the dress on our mini-moon so we could hang it up and just stare at it every day,” said David. “I want to do it all again.” Their mini-moon was a few days in a log cabin in the Scottish Borders and came ahead of a busy few months for the couple.
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As for family plans, Carolynne said: “We would absolutely love children. Unfortunately we found out a few months before the wedding that we wouldn’t be able to conceive naturally, so when the time is right for us we’ll start the IVF process and hopefully we’ll have the family we dream of. The news made the lead up to the wedding a lot more emotional for obvious reasons, but has also confirmed just how much we love one another.”