By Emma Morley

Last updated at 11:13, Friday, 19 September 2008

How much do you know about the person you are going to marry? Do you know their favourite colour, shoe size or the name of their first pet?

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The three lucky finalists in the Live the Dream Wedding Event ring competition will be put to the test at the event on September 28 when they take part in Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Each couple will be asked three questions about each other and the couple answering the most questions correctly or who answers them the quickest will win a pair of wedding rings worth up to £1,000 from Jopson’s Jewellers in Carlisle.

Readers of Cumbrian Weddings were asked to write in with an amusing or interesting fact about their partner and three entries were chosen by a panel of judges.

Louise Hill caught the attention of the judges with her description of fiancé Arran Barker’s birthplace.

“He is the real angel of the north,” she said. “He was born between Gateshead and Newcastle on the Tyne Bridge. The ambulance had to come to a stop halfway across during birth.”

Louise and Arran, both 23, got engaged in June and have just bought their first house together. Nursery nurse Louise currently lives with her parents in Newtown near Irthington while Arran, an electrical engineer, lives with his parents in Annan. They are renovating the house in Carlisle before they move into it.

The couple, who met while studying at Carlisle College six years ago, are hoping to get married in 2010 and are looking forward to attending the Live the Dream Wedding Event to get some ideas.

Melanie MacPake, from Carlisle, impressed judges with an amusing fact about her fiancé Mark Milne’s life before they met.

She said: “While a student he had many strange odd jobs to earn money, including life modelling – which was suggested by his uncle who was a lecturer at Cumbria Institute of the Arts at the time – grave digging and cutting lawns for old ladies.

“When he worked as a grave digger he had the unpleasant experience of putting his spade through a grave. I think that put him off the job.”

The couple, who are both 34, have been together almost six years. They met through mutual friends.

Mark, who is a senior graphic designer at Cumbria County Council, has not officially proposed but they have been talking about getting married for a while.

Melanie, who also works at Cumbria County Council, said: “I entered the competition to spur Mark on to talk about getting married.

“We bought a house three years ago which needed renovating and intended to get married as well, but then I became pregnant with our two-year-old daughter Evie.

“We have been to a lot of our friends’ weddings and decided that we don’t want to have a big wedding and spend a lot of money. It will be very low key.”

They have the board game ‘Mr and Mrs’ and have been practising for the competition.

Lisa Bell’s winning comment was an interesting fact about fiancé David Stubbs.

“He was the bass player in the band Adelphi and they released a single in 2004,” said Lisa, of Carlisle. “It out-sold Britney Spears in a local music chart for three weeks running.”

Lisa, 27, met warehouse supervisor David, 40, at Solfest two years ago and they got engaged on August 2 this year.

They will be getting married on August 1 next year at Carlisle Register Office.

“It will be a small wedding,” said Lisa, who works at Beacon Hill School in Aspatria. “We hope to go to Jamaica for our honeymoon.”

n Knowing Me, Knowing You will be held in the Patterson Suite at the Live the Dream Wedding Event at 4pm.

First published at 21:33, Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk