Would you renew your vows? women who married the same man twice
Meet three couples who are loved up enough to renew their wedding vows...
Amazingly, almost a fifth of British couples renew their vows, with over-fifties splashing out around £1,000 on their celebrations. So what drives a couple to retie the knot? Milestone anniversaries are the main reason but for many, it’s because they didn’t have their dream wedding first time around. With Nadiya Hussain, Emma Willis and Jamie Oliver queuing up to share their love with the world, Lisa Glassock finds out why three couples took the plunge again...
Steve and I met when I was 20 and working at the Prince of Wales pub in Bethnal Green, east London, where Steve was our resident DJ. He was (and still is) the most handsome man I have ever set eyes on, and he had all the chat. We started dating at the end of the summer in 1982 and by Christmas we were engaged. Back then you didn’t wait around once you’d found the one.
We were saving to go away when Steve (romantic that he is) asked if we should just forget about the holiday and get married instead. I didn’t have to be asked twice – no one had ever made me smile so much as Steve!
The following September, we were married in front of 40 of our closest friends and family. The church was beautiful – everything we’d both imagined. Afterwards we held the reception buffet at my mum and dad’s house, and booked a pub for an evening knees-up.
Five years ago, Steve came up with the idea of celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in Las Vegas with our son George, who was turning 21, and his girlfriend. We’d always wanted to go and this seemed like the ideal opportunity for some family fun. I can’t quite think of the words to express what a mindblowing experience it was, walking down the aisle on the arm of the tallest Elvis you could imagine, to the dulcet tones of Can’t Help Falling in Love.
From the moment we climbed into the enormous stretch limo outside our hotel, my giggles began to build up. Inside the Graceland Wedding Chapel it was a conveyor belt of weddings, an endless stream of excited couples queuing up to collect their bouquets and buttonholes to take their turn with the King! The vows nearly tipped us both over the edge – I promised to not step on Steve’s blue suede shoes, if he
‘36 years together and we’re still laughing!’ “i was walked down the aisle on elvis’s arm!”
didn’t take me to Heartbreak Hotel. The whole afternoon was hilarious.
Steve and I are only little – I’m 5ft and Steve is 5ft 5in, whereas our Elvis was well over 6ft – we looked like children next to a huge caricature in our renewal photos, as we were no higher than his waist. He tried crouching, but that looked even worse. Neither of us could get our breath for laughing as the limo drove us back for our stay at the Bellagio Hotel on the Vegas Strip.
It’s always been like that with Steve and me – our relationship is built on laughter. Not a day goes by, even after 36 years of marriage, that he doesn’t make me smile. Often, all it takes is a look and we’re laughing like teenagers. >>
“From the moment we climbed into the limo, my giggles began to build up”
As a little girl I’d dream about my perfect dress, a handsome prince waiting at the altar while I walked down the aisle on my dad’s arm, and Mum mopped up tears of happiness in the pews.
When I met Mark at a local nightclub on a girls’ night out, he whisked me across the dance floor and took my number down on an empty cigarette packet. I knew I had found my prince and I could almost see my dream wedding unfolding before my eyes.
I was 22 and Mark was 23, so as far as we were concerned we both had all the time in the world. We had high hopes and dreams for our future together, including the perfect wedding. We bounced between one another’s flats and focused on saving for a home of our own.
No one could describe the devastation I felt when my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I had always been a daddy’s girl and he really was my everything. We knew he wasn’t going to get better but we didn’t know when the cancer would defeat him. Every minute, hour and day was a blessing – as a family, we were making sure that every second counted.
When Mark proposed out of the blue, clutching a bunch of supermarket flowers on bended knee outside a local Tesco, we both knew why. Exactly six weeks later, I walked down the aisle nervously clutching my dad’s arm. Most brides are emotional wrecks on their wedding day, but triple that and you still wouldn’t come close to the emotional roller coaster I was riding. Mark and I had kept things small with only very close friends and family invited, so we were surprised and elated when the church was packed to bursting with friends and family. Dad was one of 12, and everyone who knew him wanted to share in his magical moment.
My world collapsed when Dad passed away 11 days later, but before he died he made me promise to have the wedding I’d always talked about. That was why, almost exactly a year later, Mark and I walked down the aisle to declare our love for
‘We rushed the Wedding so dad could Walk me Down the aisle’ “When mark proposed out of the blue, we both knew why”
“there was no time for nerves – we had just days to prepare”
Andrea, 60, is a midwife, and Jim Brewis, 58, is a manufacturer of juggling equipment. Thirty-four years ago, on Valentine’s Day, I became Mrs Brewis after six weeks of courting – I just knew he was the one!
We met in 1985 at a dance venue called The Sunday Club, and Jim swept me off my feet. After a few short weeks, we had fallen head over heels in love and decided to marry – I was 26 and Jim was 24. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner it had to be then. But because it fell on a Thursday, most of our friends were working – our registry office wedding was very small and intimate, with only close friends and family. There was no time for wedding nerves. Jim and I had just days to prepare – thank goodness family and friends helped out. I borrowed my wedding dress from a colleague at the hospital where I worked as a midwife, and friends rallied round for accessories and flowers. As a surprise, my mum catered the buffet for our reception party at their home, and my sister made the cake. The preparations were frantic, but it only seemed to make the whole experience more memorable.
The following Saturday, Jim and I held a big reception for all our friends and family at the hospital social club. I wanted the photos to look like we’d held the wedding and larger reception on the same day, so everyone who’d been there on Valentine’s Day wore the same outfit on the Saturday. I laugh about it now, but it seemed really important to me at the time. We were saving for a place of our own and living in my rented flat, so remarkably we didn’t open our wedding gifts until the following year when we bought our first home. We’re as in love now as we were then, so for our 25th wedding anniversary, I thought a vow renewal would be a wonderful way to celebrate our amazing life together. I was excited about doing all the things I hadn’t done before – choosing my vows (which wasn’t an option the first time around), wearing my dream dress, walking down the aisle of a beautiful local church. Jim, by contrast, was so nervous. He didn’t need to be – the day was perfect. My hospital chaplain, Christine, blessed our vows, a friend’s husband played the organ, and another friend sang as I walked down the aisle on the arm of our son, Calum.
Some people aren’t lucky enough to have the wedding of their dreams once, but I’ve managed it twice!