PLANNING to whoo your loved one?

Having an owl swoop down to deliver the rings as you take your wedding vows is the stuff dreams are made of.

But Newton-le-Willows man Gareth Hughes, has made this dream come true for around 450 couples.

As featured recently in the Star, one of his owl deliveries was even shown on tv's Don't Tell the Bride as St Helens couple Nicole and Sean Hughes tied the knot.

When recession hit in 2009, birds of prey enthusiast Gareth was forced to leave the pub landlord business.

Partly inspired by Rio Ferdinand's wedding at a Cheshire castle in which an owl delivered the rings, he started his ring bearer service.

He said: "When I heard about Rio Ferdinand's wedding, I had a light bulb moment - I could do it as a mobile service, travelling the country."

The father-of-two had already been supplying birds to primary schools for educational talks, so this would be taking it a step further to generate an income.

He said: "I had started doing free shows at my wife Kirsty's school. When I lost my job, I built up the business and now we're making a good living."

Indeed, the family have recently bought new premises for their 70 birds, and now their children - daughter Carys, eight, and son Caden, six - are helping out.

Gareth said: "In the initial years, we were renting out spaces on various farms but we wanted somewhere we could keep all the birds together."

When they told the estate agent what they were looking for, she said she had the perfect thing - it was actually called 'Owl Barn'!

Stephen said: "It was made for us."

They moved their birds, which include owls, eagles, hawks, parrots and ravens, into the new barn in Bursough.

Stephen said: "I train the owls myself for the ring delivery.

"I train them from day one, getting them used to associating the white glove with food. So when they see it they fly to it whether there's food on it or not.

"We socialise the owls in schools to get them used to people and flying indoors.

"My wedding owls usually do their first wedding when they are around 15 weeks old."

Besides weddings, his owls also deliver messages at children's birthdays.

He added: "They say don't work with children or animals, but so far these birds have made 100 per cent successful deliveries."

"The biggest wedding we've done was at Blackpool Tower's ballroom - there were over 2,000 guests. Our owl did a full flight of the ballroom to big applause. I was delighted."

The Owl Ringbearer will be at Berrington Hall Wedding Fayre on the Rainford Bypass on Sunday (September 7).

Anybody who would like information about the owl delivery service can visit theowlringbearer.co.uk and information about the other birds can be found at hawksrus.com.