A couple from north Wales have decided to mark their wedding a little differently to the usual by celebrating their nuptials at a Coldplay concert in Cardiff. Neil and Lliwen Rylance from Tregarth near Bangor in Gwynedd decided to get married in Bath on Tuesday before heading over the bridge back to Wales and watch one of their favourite bands perform at the Principality Stadium.
This week, Coldplay are set to put out an impressive show with two support acts in the Welsh capital for two nights - you can follow our live updates from the first performance here. The band, known for their hit singles such as Yellow, Viva La Vida and Paradise, will be taking to the stage at the Principality Stadium on Tuesday, June 6 and Wednesday, June 7.
For the happy couple however, the band's concert on the Tuesday evening will simultaneously mark the end of a very special day and the beginning of their lives as a married couple. The pair first met five years ago, before getting engaged in November of last year.
Read more: Coldplay in Cardiff 2023: When are Coldplay on stage and when do the stadium gates open?
After Coldplay announced their tour dates for 2023, the couple decided to book tickets and make the most of their trip down south. “We discussed and decided we’d have a bit of a road trip," Neil explained. "We'd have two nights in the Cotswolds and then two nights just outside of Bath.
"But then we thought, why don’t we get married in Bath? We thought that Bath was such a lovely place to get married, we have close friends - Donna and Paul, who live just outside Bristol who can be our witnesses, and we wouldn't be too far from Cardiff.
“We decided because we had been married before, rather than have the big wedding and all of that, we thought we’d keep it quiet. Everyone’s been asking us: 'when are you getting married?' and so on. We’ve just decided we’ll keep it quiet and get in contact with everybody once we’ve married."
Neil added: "Originally, we wanted to get married on the Monday and then go watch Coldplay on the Tuesday. But when we contacted the registry office, they couldn’t fit us in on Monday - they could only fit us in on Tuesday. But we thought, let’s do it - let’s get married and what better wedding band to book than Coldplay?"
Ahead of Tuesday's concert, Neil explained that the couple would be heading to the stadium in their wedding gear, with a bouquet of flowers and a handful of badges to share with some of the audience. "We are going there in our full wedding gear and we’ll have a fantastic time," Neil said.
"Chris Martin is a big supporter of a thing called Love Button - an organisation that promotes love and kindness. What I’ve done is ordered 200 of these Love Button badges and we’re going to hand them out to people that we see inside and outside the stadium and just spread the love.
"I’ll be there in my wedding suit and Lliwen will be there in her wedding dress and with her flowers. The idea is she’s going to throw her bouquet into the crowd."
Prior to their big day, Neil said that he was "over the moon" about marrying Lliwen and marking the occasion in such a unique and special way. He said: "When you’re about 53 and Lliwen is 46, I think we’ve had lives before and they have brought us our lovely children and all of that. But now, this is the start of living a whole new life in the lifetime we’ve got left. We’re celebrating with 70,000 other people. To refer to one of Coldplay’s songs, it's an Adventure of a Lifetime."
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