AN overweight groom shed the pounds to make sure he was in top shape for his wedding day, and celebrated with a memorable first dance with his new bride.

Tom Welham, 29, lost 25 per cent of his body weight in just four months to get ready to marry his fiance Abby Howlett.

The couple, who live in Mile End, Colchester, tied the knot in Warwickshire surrounded by family and friends, many of whom had not seen Tom since he started his weight-loss mission earlier this year.

In May, the Gazette wrote about the couple after Tom’s romantic proposal on the big screen at Firstsite.

A few weeks later, he signed up to Cambridge Weight Plan with the help of Colchester-based trainer Hannah Jarvis.

At his heaviest Tom weighted 21st7lb and was wearing size XXL clothes.

He lost 13 pounds in the first week and lost 4st in total in four months.

Tom, a media lecturer at Colchester Institute, said: “When it came to the wedding I thought ‘crikey, wedding photos. You’ve got to keep them for the rest of your life. You want to look good in them.’ “There were jokes that people would think she was marrying a different man.”

The diet overhaul saw him swap pork pies, chips, takeaway pizzas and fizzy drinks for cereal, salads and water.

Tom met Abby,a 28-year-old teaching assistant, on a dating website three-and-a-half-years ago.

During the reception the couple had a number of surprises up their sleeves for guests, including a memorable first dance.

Tom said: “I’ve always known I wanted to do something fun. Our guests were expecting something a bit unusual.”

To throw people off, the newlyweds began with a traditional first dance to Elton John’s Your Song.

Then the music turned into a mashup of cheesy classics including Whigfield’s Saturday night, Steps’ 5,6,7,8 and DJ Casper’s Cha Cha Slide.

Tom said: “It was a surprise but people weren’t suprised by it.

“Speaking to some of the guests, they said it got to about one minute of the Elton John song and they thought ‘Is this it?’”

“The day was absolutely fantastic.”