Meet the first Milton Keynes couple to get married since lockdown

Karen Havens and Steven Bridgman tied the knot at the city's Register Office on Tuesday, surrounding by a small number of family members.

The Wolverton couple had originally booked their wedding before lockdown and set the date for August 4.

But when the coronavirus crisis struck, they were forced to cancel and had resigned themselves to postponing the big day.

"As you can imagine, we were upset, but we started to look at other dates either later this year or next year," said 35-year-old Karen

"Then on July 21 I got a phone call asking if we still wanted to get married as they were allowing small wedding to go ahead with two witnesses," she said.

She and River Island warehouse worker Steven had to sign a waiver to give a shorter notice period than the usual two weeks. And on Monday last week, with just eight days' notice, they received the go-ahead for their original date of August 4.

The delighted pair took their vows on Tuesday, with Karen's dad and Steven's mum as witnesses.

"At the end of our marriage vows the registrar said that we will hold a another title - as the first marriage since lockdown at Milton Keynes. It made it very special," said Karen, who works in McDonald's.

The couple had been together 18 years and have two children, Kirsty-Louise, who is 16, and Jamie, who is 13.

Karen jokes that they might never have got round to marrying had Liverpool football! club not done so well at the start of the season.

"We are massive football fans, supporting Liverpool, and at the beginning of our 18 year relationship Steven said that if Liverpool won the premiership league we could get married!" she said.

"So come January, when Liverpool had more or less wrapped up their first league title in 30 years, we decided to organise a wedding just in case!"

The couple have thanked MK registry office and their family who helped make their day special.