A GROOM preparing for his dream wedding after winning a Northern Echo competition has admitted that his trip to choose his suit didn’t quite go to plan.

Bride-to-be Julie Bond sent fiancé Darren Hird to menswear shop Affleck and Moffat, in Duke Street, Darlington, to pick out his suit for their big day on June 7, with strict instructions to avoid wearing black.

Although Mr Hird successfully chose a grey suit, he will have to go back and try again after Ms Bond decided a black suit on the mannequin behind him looked better than the one he was wearing in a picture he showed her.

The couple, from Darlington, won the most votes in The Northern Echo's Win a Wedding competition and are preparing to tie the knot at a civil ceremony at The Croft Hotel, near Darlington.

Mr Hird was joined at Affleck and Moffat by his son Rhys, 18, who will act as best man, his father-in-law John Priest and Ms Bond’s son, Harrison, ten, who will be a page boy.

Mr Hird said: “Julie told me not to pick black because that was for a funeral, so I found a grey suit and then she decided she liked the black one after all. So that was my input to the wedding and it was wrong.

“It won’t be long until the wedding now – hopefully if I don’t make any more decisions it will all be fine.”