A BOLTON bride had her “greatest day” when pop star Gary Barlow serenaded her at her wedding.

The Take That star made a surprise appearance at the wedding of Natalie and Martin Purkis in the village of Aston Rowant in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Purkis, who is from Bolton but now lives in Andover in Hampshire with her new husband, is a lifelong fan of Mr Barlow.

The singer announced at the start of the year that he would sing at the weddings of three fans — but has gone on to do more.

In January, Mr Purkis contacted him on Twitter and he agreed to come along to the nuptials — meaning the groom had to keep the secret from his new bride for nine months.

Natalie and Martin have now flown off to Rome for their honeymoon, but close friend Debbie Archer from Sharples described the amazing moment when the Take That star turned up.

She said: “I was outside at the time and could hear a bit of activity, then the DJ turned the music off and it was all quiet.

“Then Gary came in and went straight over to Natalie and started singing Rule the World, it was amazing, he held her hand and she asked him if he was real — everyone was screaming.”

Ms Archer said her friend — who owns a life-size cardboard cut-out of the singing star — had believed her hopes of a wedding appearance had all but gone.

She said: “Gary had said he would only do three weddings this year and when we were on the hen do we found out he had done what she thought was the last one and she was gutted, the atmosphere dropped and she said “my dream is not going to come true.”

Little did she know that new hubby Martin had already confirmed that the star would appear after he decided to add to the number of weddings he would appear at.

Mrs Purkis, aged 33, a manager at parcel firm Doddle, later took to twitter to thank her hero after his impromptu gig, she tweeted: "I can not thank @GaryBarlow enough for finishing off mine and @mjpurkis wedding day perfectly. No words can ever be enough to thank you x".