James and Rox got engaged in January 2010. He’s a 6ft 3in Brummie, and she’s a Yorkshire lass who tops out at 5ft 2in on a good day. They were together for eight whole years before James proposed, so either Rox has the patience of a saint, or he was well worth the wait. Sadly, it’s the former. James will be representing the boys every week up until the big day next August.

For better or worse, weddings are becoming increasingly secular these days. This is down to a variety of contributing factors, such as the prevalence of civil ceremony venues, the fact that our generation seems sadly lacking in any kind of spiritualism, and also the emergence of the inexpensive beachfront wedding.

Rox and I are some way off being deeply religious, but neither of us are card-carrying atheists either, so we quite fancied getting married in church. There’s something about a religious ceremony that adds gravity to the occasion in our opinion, but we completely understand that not everyone shares our viewpoint. In fact, we have a few friends and family that might spontaneously combust on contact with holy ground next August, but that’s a risk we’re willing to take.

Unless you’re in line for the throne, it’s unlikely that you’ll be getting hitched at Westminster Abbey. So for us peasants, you commonly choose a church from within your parish. Of course, if you want to make things really difficult for yourself, you can do what Rox and I did – pick a venue in the middle of nowhere and then try and find a church nearby. We fell in love with Walcot Hall in Shropshire, and lucked-out that there’s a C of E church within walking distance. What we didn’t know was that because we don’t live in that particular parish, we’d have to attend regular church services for six consecutive months in order to become eligible for marriage there. We live more than two hours away from the church, so we’ve racked up some serious mileage this summer.

But this is a small price to pay for our dream venue, and it’s surrounded by glorious English countryside so we always make a good day of it. Rox and I were up there again last weekend. We’re the youngest people in the church by about 40 years, but the congregation have been incredibly inviting from day one. We’re absolute strangers to them, but they always welcome us like old friends.

Even if the church was filled with fire and brimstone bible-bashers, I’d still look forward to going every month though just to hear Rox brutally murdering the hymns. To look at Rox, with her big brown eyes and her cherub-like features, you’d think she had the voice of an angel. Unfortunately, the voice doesn’t match the face. She’s like the reverse Susan Boyle. Granted, I can’t claim to be anywhere near pitch-perfect myself, but I occasionally hit the right note. Rox uncannily manages to miss every single note from start to finish, causing us both to convulse with suppressed giggles throughout. If she ever auditioned for X Factor, she’d definitely make the bloopers show.

Sadly, the congregation is only about 30-strong each month. Part of the church has stood for 1000 years, so it’s sad to see such a depleted audience. If only a few of the elderly folk were as tone deaf as Rox, church would be far more enjoyable.

W Day: 263 days and counting

Catch up on James’ first week of wedding planning here…

Week two here…

Week three here…

Or week four here…