Tenants of the Hexham pub 'The Victorian Tap', Simone and Gary Willis knew it was love at first sight when they saw each other on a dating website.

Simone said: "In 2017, Gary was taking a break from running pubs due to a family illness and I was working for the Inland Revenue.

" My daughter set me up on a dating app to encourage me to get back out there after my divorce.

"We hit it off straight away with many things in common, especially pubs as we both had pub management in our work history."

"After 12 months we knew it was serious and Gary proposed on a country walk with our dogs Abbie & Oscar."

With wedding bells on the horizon, the couple made another life changing decision..

"In October 2019 Gary convinced me a return to pub management as our future career path and we took a real ale pub in Rugby," Simone said.

"Sadly COVID hit and so we were self employed then became caretakers.

"It was in July 2021 we decided to go for our own tenancy and here we are at The Victorian Tap, it felt now was the right time to try to get hitched again as we lost our previous planned wedding day due to COVID."

The couple got married at Hexham House on Apirl 4, which the pair instantly loved which was precipitated by friends and family.

"We chose Hexham House for our ceremony as we love the beautiful grounds and I was blown away with the bridal suite above the registry office, " Simone said.

"In fact all our family booked rooms so we could all be at the venue together."

Later on in the day, Gary and Simone were joined by 56 guests for their wedding breakfast at Bouchon, which was next door to Hexham house.

Gary said: "The food was delicious and Gregg and the team were spot on and the service was top notch.

"Bouchon does not open on Monday usually, so we were so grateful to them all as its Simone's favourite restaurant and she desperately wanted her day there."

After the meal, the wedding guests headed back to the Victorian Tap for Champagne and speeches and enjoy Simone's handmade 3 tiers cake.

In the evening, Simone and Gary welcomed 30 guests extra guests to a private party where they danced to two bands play favourite music all night long.

The couple's celebrations have not ended, as they have big plans for their honeymoon.

Gary said:"Our proper honeymoon is to be next year in Nashville,Memphis ,New Orleans due to pub commitments with new refurb of B&B.

We had booked for a mini moon in a few Yorkshire market towns over 5 nights , sadly we only had 1 night in Ripon as Simone had COVID symptoms ."