FOR Charmaine and Matt Williams, getting married at St Mary’s Church, Portchester, was like a dream come true.

Matt and Charmaine Williams on their wedding day at St Mary's Church, Portchester

The venue, inside the walls of Portchester Castle, offered a spiritual and beautiful setting like no other.

And Charmaine, 34, who lives in Southsea, went to two wedding fairs at St Mary’s before her big day. The intimate events gave her a chance to look at wedding cars, jewellery and hats as well as view the work of photographers, florists and hairstylists.

So she’d recommend visiting the church’s 2012 fair – which happens from 10.30am to 3.30pm on Saturday 3 March. It’s free of charge and features everything you need for a wedding, as well as home-made refreshments and live music.

It’s the third successive year that the church has organised a fair. It’s the second most popular church in Portsmouth’s Anglican diocese for weddings – only St Mary’s, Alverstoke, in Gosport hosts more. And the emphasis will once again be on local exhibitors and helping couples to keep wedding costs down.

“The wedding fairs were lovely,” said Charmaine. “I was interested in a particular hairdresser who I knew would be there. Everyone there was wonderful – and when we went back the second year they remembered us.

“It wasn’t as big as some of the major wedding fairs – and that made it more personal. It didn’t feel like people were plying for business. At the bigger fairs you can feel bamboozled. It felt relaxed and wasn’t pressured. We were able to look at the stalls, talk to the exhibitors and then have a cup of tea at the tearoom.”

She took her mother, grandmother, two aunts, three cousins and her maid of honour to the St Mary’s fair – and came away with plenty of ideas and a hairdresser for her wedding.

Architects Charmaine and Matt, 35, tied the knot in July last year. And the couple, who attend services at St Jude’s, Southsea, and St Mary’s, Portchester, took a helicopter from a nearby field to their reception venue in the New Forest.

Charmaine said: “From the first time I went to St Mary’s, I thought the church was magical. It is a very spiritual place.

“It is a beautiful church. You can’t help feeling a connection to God there. It is intimate enough not to be overwhelming. And the staff couldn’t have been more helpful.”