Just got engaged recently? Reckon you’d be brave enough to hand the wedding planning reins over to an amateur to sort out on your behalf?
Well, it sounds like you could be exactly what the BBC‘s looking for.
Casting directors behind one of the broadcaster’s newest smash-hit reality competition shows, Ultimate Wedding Planner, are currently planning for the next series of the show – which is set to hit our screens in 2024 – and are calling on engaged couples from Greater Manchester to put themselves forward for taking part.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the series, Ultimate Wedding Planner sees eight aspiring wedding planners battle it out to become the best of the best.
Six of Britain’s bravest couples agree to let them take control of the biggest day of their lives.
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Manc fiancés brave enough to have their wedding planned by amateurs wanted for new series / Credit: BBC
Working to a budget, and under the watchful eye of the three celebrity judges, Fred Sirieix, Sara Davies, and Raj Somaiya, the aspiring planners have to upscale the design and guest experience for six real-life weddings.
They’re tasked with everything from organising table designs, floral centrepieces, aisle runners, menus, and bespoke themed installation builds, to arranging firework displays, acrobatics, dance troops, and even light displays.
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Each episode, the aspiring planners have just three days to make the couples’ wildest dreams become a reality, and ultimately, “supersize their wedding day to transform it from ordinary to extraordinary”.
So, if you’re getting married in the UK next year, the BBC wants to hear from you.
Those who are ready to hand over control, and are keen for their wedding to be considered, are urged to get in touch with the BBC to register their interest.
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At the moment, with a second series of the show only potentially in the works and still yet to be confirmed, the BBC wants interested couples to know that subject to having registered their interest, an online application form to complete for consideration will be sent out in due course.
Blue Planet III live in concert is coming to Manchester next year
Daisy Jackson
The spectacular Blue Planet III will come to Manchester live in concert next year, bringing the hit BBC nature documentary to life with a live orchestra.
The new arena tour will pull together the most breathtaking footage beneath the waves from across the series, curated for a giant Ultra HD LED screen.
Blue Planet III will hit screens later this year, narrated once again by the legendary Sir David Attenborough.
Filmed across four years, it will take audiences everywhere from tropical coral reefs to the darkest depths of the ocean.
When the Blue Planet III Live In Concert show arrives in Manchester, it will be hosted by series executive producer Elizabeth White, who’ll share incredible stories and behind-the-scenes insights from the making of the series.
The score once again comes from Academy Award-winner Hans Zimmer, with Thom Lukas and Laurentia Editha for Bleeding Fingers Music, performed live by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
The companion live concert is preparing to take audiences even deeper into the underwater world on an epic audio-visual scale.
Specially curated footage from Blue Planet III will be shown on a state-of-the-art 200 sq metre Ultra HD LED screen – one of the largest of its kind used for an orchestral touring screen show and approximately the size of a tennis court.
Blue Planet III live in concert is coming to Manchester next year. Credit: BBC Studios
The brand-new Blue Planet III Live in Concert will kick off here in Manchester before heading to Birmingham, Glasgow, and London.
Executive Producer Elizabeth White says: “Making Blue Planet III has taken us to places we never imagined we’d film. But there’s something about bringing that footage into a concert arena full of people, with the score performed live all around you, that will be truly special.
“This tour is our chance to share the series on a completely different scale, and I can’t wait to be there live, revealing the extraordinary stories behind what audiences are seeing on screen.”
Hans Zimmer says: “There’s nothing like experiencing this score live with an orchestra, especially when it’s paired with the extraordinary visuals of the life underwater. Thom, Laurentia and I are ecstatic that audiences will be able to enjoy our score in this way.”
Blue Planet III Live in Concert will be at the AO Arena in Manchester on Friday 21 May 2027 – general release tickets start from £40 and go on sale from 11am on Friday 16 October HERE.
Molly-Mae Hague revisits first Manchester flat, now on the market for £185k
Daisy Jackson
Molly-Mae Hague’s first Manchester flat is now on the market for £185k – and the star herself has paid a visit to her old digs.
Those who have been following Molly-Mae since before she shot to serious fame on Love Island will have recognised the backdrop of her recent TikTok video.
The 27-year-old reality TV star and businesswoman posed around the one-bedroom flat, dancing to Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘House Tour’.
The apartment is where she lived just before entering Love Island, and where she and now-fiance Tommy Fury lived briefly when they left the show.
And now that exact flat where she really launched her social media career has been listed for sale, at £185,000.
The corner apartment stands on the 17th floor of Islington Wharf, overlooking New Islington tram stop and right on the doorstep of Ancoats.
Her former landlord, who arranged for Molly-Mae to have one look around her old flat before it’s sold, said that she was a ‘lovely, polite and down-to-earth young woman, and an excellent tenant who looked after the apartment extremely well.’
The one bedroom apartment has double-aspect floor-to-ceiling windows which look across Manchester on one side, and out towards the Pennines on the other.
It’s listed for sale with no chain and the option to include existing furnishings (which seems to include the same couch Molly-Mae had at the time).
The flat also has a kitchen/living space, a communal garden, superfast broadband, and is within walking distance of Manchester Piccadilly.
Emily Sergeant -
27th September 2023 
