THERE is an archway of meat cleavers when butcher Ashley Peacock and Claire Casey tie the knot in Coronation Street.

The pair become the latest couple to get hitched in what soap insiders say will be one of the weddings of the year.

Blushing bride Claire, played by actress Julia Haworth, marries Ashley in a fairytale Christmas Day white wedding.

It is set to cement Corrie's position as number one soap.

Julia, aged 25, kept her dress under wraps under a thick winter coat when rehearsals began in a bid to keep prying eyes from seeing it.

Co-stars Samia Ghadie and Bury actresses Jenni McAlpine and Nikki Sanderson also looked sensational as bridesmaids Maria Sutherland, Fiz Brown and Candice Stowe.

Little Stephen Collins - who plays Ashley's son Joshua Peacock - stole the show in his page boy "Spider-man" costume as he held hands with Julia outside a church in Prestwich.

In the soap, besotted Ashley - whose first wife Maxine was murdered by Richard Hillman - puts his tragic past behind him to prove his love for Claire Casey.

He begins to plan for the impending nuptials and shocks the bride-to-be with news there may be a Christmas wedding on the cards.

But the wedding ceremony itself proves to be a knock-out affair when the organist faints just as Claire is about to walk down the aisle. Best man Fred Elliott - played by John Savident - gets one of the congregation to step in.

But when Claire heads up to the altar, she discovers the only tune the replacement organist can play is not the Wedding March - but Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday.