Darts professional Nathan Aspinall has banned the sport from his wedding this weekend, even though he has invited around 20 fellow players, including world champion Luke Humphries.
The world number 15 will marry his long-term partner Kirsty, mother of their two children, at Cheshire's Peckforton Castle on Saturday. The couple have agreed that no darts will be played at the event, although Nathan acknowledges the sport has funded the celebration.
No darts on the big day
"I don't play darts when I'm supposed to play darts, so I won't be playing darts when I don't have to!" he joked. "My missus has to put up with a lot of darts talk - that's our life. And one of the main rules was there's no darts involved at all. So we'll keep it that way."
He added: "I'll probably say in my speech that the darts paid for this wedding. But that's about it. That's about as far as we're going to go."
Nathan admits it is "nervy times" ahead of the nuptials, but he will not be sporting any facial hair for the occasion. Kirsty was left "raging" when he grew a beard in 2024 and vowed to keep it until he won a major tournament. He confirmed: "My facial hair is gone. My missus hated it and she didn't come anywhere near me for four months so subsequently, I have needs, so I got rid of it!"
Luke Littler won't attend
Several players will attend the big day. "It's gonna be amazing - there's a lot of darts lads there. There's a reason I booked it when I did - it's the first week in August so it's after the match play, before Australia so everyone who's gonna be coming, ie the darts lot, are gonna be off.
"So [Luke] Humphries is coming but [Luke] Littler has buggered me off - he's gone to Florida with the family. But the people that I want there are all coming, probably apart from Luke. It's gonna be amazing - there are probably about 20 lads there from the darts and obviously all their friends and family. It's gonna be an amazing day. It's cost me a fortune - that's why I've got to keep playing!"
Dancefloor moves and a stag do with the Lionesses
Nathan is excited to show off some dance moves, as the castle hosted Destiny's Child stars including Kelly Rowland during Ciara's wedding to Russell Wilson in 2016. He said: "Apparently Beyonce was there a few years ago…. I can shift a few moves!"
He also claims he drank the Lionesses "under the table" during an impromptu hen and stag do meet-up. Nathan bumped into England footballer Ella Toone while wearing a wedding dress at Manchester airport on his way to Ibiza for his stag do. The Lionesses had made the Manchester United player wear their rivals' kit as a prank.
Confirming they outperformed the footballers boozing, he said "hands down the darts lot" drank more. "They were brilliant. I was in a wedding dress, she was in a City kit. We got chatting, and realised they were going to Ibiza. So on our Jet2 flight was me and all the darts lads, and all the Lionesses - the people that are in the middle must have been going 'what the hell is going on here?'"
The two groups met up in O Beach, and Nathan - whose party included throwers Chris Dobey, Ross Smith and Joe Cullen - says the drinks were flowing between them all. "They were literally about two beds down from us so we spent a lot of time with them. I must give Mary Earps a shout out - she was amazing. I spent about an hour with Mary, she was a lovely woman - it was dead fun."
Asked who drank who under the table, he laughs: "There is no one that can compete with the darts lot. I had a few mates come that were big into rugby, and they were like: 'We thought rugby players could drink - you guys are something else.' So, hands down the darts lot."
Return to the sport
Nathan's first return to the sport after his stag do and a golfing holiday in Majorca was to play with celebrities at the PDC Presents The Hyde Park Darts Championship last month, where he advised darts novice AJ Odudu to "have a drink" to help with her aim. He explained: "It calms your nerves a little bit. Obviously, when we're playing big tournaments, we can't, but when we do these type of fun events, we have a couple of beers, it relaxes you. Because it's a bit out of our comfort zone as well - being mic'd up, we don't normally do that. We're normally quite in our shell. Get a couple of wines down!"
He adds: "Obviously, there's a lot of ability that's involved, but when you get to the level that we're at, it's all between the ears."
