A solicitor and a joiner found wedded bliss after knowing each other for more than 10 years.

Rachael Williams, a solicitor from Bolton, first met her husband, joiner Phil Worthington, when she was 17.

However, Mr Worthington was on the cusp of moving to Greece so the relationship never took off.

Eight years ago the pair bumped into one another again and have been ‘inseparable ever since’.

Mrs Worthington, 29, said: “The timing had never been right between us. Then we bumped into each other on a night out eight years ago.

“I knew his friends from through the years and wasn’t thinking about getting into a relationship, but we just decided to see each other again and we’ve been inseparable since.

“On paper we are very different - we have complete polar opposites jobs - but in reality it just works."

The couple took their relationship to the next step during a romantic holiday in the Philippines.

“We were in the Philippines and we’d had a couple of manic days,” Mrs Worthington said.

“On the third day, we rented a scooter and discovered a beach with nobody there, just us.

“I was sunbathing, he went off, came back and said I need to show you something, but I refused to move.

“When I did, he’d written ‘will you marry me?’ in the sand.

‘I wasn’t expecting it at all. I’d never been one of those people bothered about getting married, but it was a lovely surprise.”

The pair had planned to marry in April but were forced to cancel the wedding due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mrs Worthington said: “We’d put so much effort into the wedding and at the time it felt a bit like the end of the world.

“It made us realise how lucky we are to be surrounded by loved ones – who were all amazing about it.

“When it was cancelled, we decided to re-book it for August. It was obviously more intimate than we’d planned but you get to the point where you just want the wedding done so we scaled it back a lot.”

The pair said ‘I do’ at Broadoaks Country House in Windermere in front of 30 of their nearest and dearest.

Mrs Worthington said: “Even though it wasn’t the day we planned it ended up perfect anyway. It was nice having it a lot smaller – we got to spend real time with everyone who was there.

“It was such an emotional day and everyone was even more emotional because of the past year. The whole day couldn’t have been any better.

“We had the wedding outside which was amazing - we got the lawn games going and made drink tokens if people won. It was so nice being with people and sharing the day with our friends and family.”