Couple tie the knot 30 years after saying 'I do'

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 10:52

THEY called it puppy love when two Stobhill Primary pupils got "married" at the tender age of five. When they finally sealed the deal almost 30 years later, however, everyone knew how these young hearts really felt.

Joy MacKay first said "I do" to Callum McDonald in 1980, when their elder siblings encouraged them to play wedding.

The "bride" wore her mother's net curtain and her best Gorebridge Gala Day posy for the ceremony, held at the local swing park.

The pair had a happy "marriage" playing games of "kiss, cuddle or torture" – where Joy disappointingly always opted for "cuddle" until finally accepting Callum's first kiss in the last years of primary school.

Joy, who grew up three doors down from Callum on Lady Brae Place, was whisked away by her father aged 11 when he got a new job in Fife and they didn't see each other for the next 22 years.

However, in August 2008 Callum, 33, a church volunteer, spotted her name on website Friends Reunited and arranged to hook up – and last month they finally tied the knot for real.

Joy, 34, an occupational therapist who now lives in Falkirk, said: "I'd actually told my friend to phone me within half an hour of meeting Callum to give me an escape hatch in case it was a total disaster, but in the end I wished I hadn't because it was like no time had passed at all.

"He hadn't changed a bit – apart from becoming a baldy biker. When I went home afterwards and told my little sister she joked that we would probably end up getting married."

Their first wedding was presided over by Callum's elder brother Scott wearing his best wizard outfit and wielding his own children's illustrated Bible. Joy's sister Angela was wedding planner.

Callum said: "I think we were the bane of our elder siblings' life back then because our parents always insisted they let us play with them, so I think they decided to torture us one day by making us get married.

"I remember being really embarrassed having to walk hand-in-hand from my front door all the way down to the swing park, especially since all my mates were playing on the swings.

"I had to relive all the embarrassment when we actually did get married because our family set up a slide show."

The couple got "re-married" at Struthers Memorial Church in Falkirk on October 17, with Scott as best man and Angela once again taking wedding planner duties.

After the wedding, the couple decided to stage a re-enactment of their original ceremony all those years ago in the same field in Gorebridge.

Despite their newly-sealed nuptuals, Callum still fares little better in their games of "kiss, cuddle or torture".

"I'll always opt for cuddle," Joy added. "Callum has always given brilliant hugs."