Weekend trip ends in Gretna marriage

ROMANTIC Tony Prince from Telscombe Cliffs shocked his partner of 26 years when a surprise weekend getaway ended up in a tiny but well-known place called Gretna Green.

Tony, a councillor and former mayor of Telscombe Cliffs, married long-term partner Shirley within less than half an hour of popping the question.

He explained: We drove into the car park, went to the famous blacksmiths there and I said will you marry me.

She wondered what the hell I was talking about and began babbling away so I said you ve got 25 minutes to make your mind up .

The marriage took place in front of just a tiny handful of people, including the couple s children, Antonia, 13, and Daniel, 11, the vicar, and two witnesses.

We dragged the witnesses in off the street, Tony explained. They were a really nice couple from the Shetland Isles, we must phone and thank them actually.

Shirley, 49, had no idea of the stunt Tony was to pull on her but the weekend before his preparations were already in progress.

He said: We went to Brighton and I said to her that we were going away somewhere posh and that she would need a posh frock. It turned out it was to be her wedding dress.

Unhappy

Tony, 59, first met Shirley when they lived in the same street. We lived next door-but-one to each other and were both in unhappy marriages. One day I just jumped in my car, drove along two houses to pick her up. She packed her bags and we left together.

But the couple had to endure living in a grotty and horrible rented room in a friend s flat for six months before they decided that enough was enough and moved abroad, first to Muscat then Bahrain, before moving back to Sussex, where Tony now works as a building services engineer, and Shirley is in media and marketing at Lewes Tertiary College.

Their fairytale weekend came back to earth with a bump when they both returned to work on Monday just one day after marrying in Gretna Green, but Tony believes that married life is even better than he could of anticipated.

You would imagine it doesn t feel any different after 26 years but it does, I don t know how to explain it.