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Wayne + Coleena

Wayne Rooney has never been remotely as showy as his England teammates. So true to form, while footballing colleagues appear to have developed quite a penchant for spectacular weddings, the footballer and his fiancee Coleen McLoughlin are opting for a far more modest affair.

The 20-year-old Manchester United star has set a date for his wedding next summer and it will take place in a small church just yards from the houses where both he and Coleen grew up.

Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, a quaint Catholic church in Croxteth, Liverpool, is the chosen venue.

Coleen, 20, took Catholic mass there as a youngster and grew up in a house just a few yards away.

Wayne was born at the local hospital and grew up in a terraced house on the very same street as the church.

The pair romanced each other as teenagers playing on the neighbourhood streets and indeed, Wayne even proposed to Coleen on the forecourt of the local petrol station.

Wayne's parents also grew up in the surrounding streets. His parents were not in fact married when he was born in October 1985 and two addresses are provided on his birth certificate - that of his mother Jeanette and his father, Wayne Snr.

As an infant, Wayne lived between both addresses — which are within a few hundred yards of the church before the family moved into number 75 Stonebridge Lane in Croxteth, where Wayne grew up.

Coleen's mother Colette and father Tony were living on Carr Lane East — which adjoins Stonebridge Lane — when Coleen was born and that is where she grew up.

The couple still have dozens of friends and relatives who live in the neighbourhood so the wedding on June 16 is sure to be an emotional affair.

Now, of course, Wayne and Coleen reside in a six-bedroomed house with a swimming pool near Manchester, but the very fact that they have chosen a Croxteth church for their wedding shows their hearts will forever remain there.

In contrast to the lavish, ceremonies of other England footballers and their WAG partners, Rooney and his model-turned-fashion-designer fiancee are set on a decidedly low-key, traditional function.

Shunning the usual celebrity paraphernalia of horse drawn carriages, Cinderella-style gowns and elaborate five-tiered wedding cakes, the couple have planned a refreshingly simple day.

And although a lucrative magazine deal is also in the pipeline, that too is markedly different.

So, unlike the couple's good friends, the Beckhams and Ashley Cole and Cheryl Tweedy, who married last week, the pair are insisting that the £2 million magazine deal goes straight to charity.

Instead of using the cash to pay for a no-expense spared honeymoon, the money will be given to the Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool.

"Wayne and Coleen have been planning their dream day for years," said a source close to the couple. "But they were adamant that they should stay true to their Liverpool, working class roots with a small, personal ceremony.

"They are not interested in outdoing anybody else, the day is all about Wayne and Coleen — not their celebrity friends. The charity donation was mainly Coleen's idea because Wayne was initially sceptical about a magazine deal due to the tacky, celebrity connotations. But now he's chuffed with it.

"A honeymoon destination hasn't been confirmed but it's sure to be somewhere quiet and exotic, and somewhere they can really escape."

Although tensions between the two families have been well documented, both the Rooneys and McLoughlins have been invited to the ceremony and reception.

Two years ago, at Coleen's 18th birthday part, Rooney's uncle Eugene and father Wayne snr — two former boxers — allegedly traded blows with Miss McLoughlin's father and his three friends.

Since then, however, a period of détente appears to have prevailed, and the families are on good speaking terms.

The wedding is the first realistic opportunity the couple have had to marry.

This summer was ruled out, with Rooney on World Cup duty, while the winter is also a no-go, given the relentless nature of the Premiership.