A PAIR of childhood sweethearts headed to Cornwall for a secret intimate wedding after more than 30 years apart.

Now living in Sharpness, Lesley Yeomans and Phill Jenkins first met in Wotton under Edge when they were just ten years old.

“We were childhood sweethearts,” said Lesley.

“We used to hang out together when we were 10, Phill’s nan used to live by my mum in Cotswold Gardens in Wotton.

“Then he broke my heart and moved to Berlin when we were 15 and 16.”

Lesley and Phill didn’t see each other for over 30 years.

“But then someone put a random comment on Facebook a while ago,” said Lesley.

“We both commented and got chatting. We got on really well, and found we both had broken relationships.

“When we met up again, it was like we were never apart, there were no awkward silences.

“So after 30 plus years we are together again.”

Lesley and Phill got engaged a year ago and were planning a May wedding.

“We had party booked for June,” said Lesley.

“The plan was to send invites out to the party when we were on our honeymoon, then everyone would know by the time the deed was done.

“But then Covid hit.

“We were hoping it would go away by May, but it didn’t. Then things started to be lifted, but no offices were open and as you can imagine they had a backlog.”

They wanted to get married in Cornwall and eventually managed to get a slot at Helston Registry for August 14.

This all happened in July, which gave the couple just a month to make arrangements.

Lesley got in touch with Berkeley wedding shop, Veils, to see if they could turn her dress order around in four weeks.

“I rang Veils of Berkeley to say ‘quick, you have a month’,” said Lesley.

“They were brilliant and got me straight in for my fitting.”

The couple wanted to keep the wedding a secret from all but Lesley’s three children and her mum until after the event.

So the staff at Veils mentioned it to no-one and even arranged a covert meeting with Lesley to hand over the dress.

The small service went ahead as planned, with Lesley’s children - Bethany-Mae, Merrick and Evie - all attending. And a small teddy made from Lesley’s late father’s cardigan came along too.

“The teddy bear was made out of my dad’s cardy,” said Lesley.

“He passed away in 2014, but we were so close, so it just made it feel like he was still a part of it all.”

The evening of the wedding Lesley phoned close family to let them know they had a new in-law, and she surprised her friends with the news, accompanied by a picture of a bottle of fizz with two glasses, on Facebook.