When Matt Bray and Danielle Rowe finally get married, the party will be one to remember.

The couple from Bligh Way in Strood first got together when they were teenagers, but split up aged 17 and 16 - only to get back together 16 years later in 2017 and get engaged.

It looked like a fairytale ending but, as they say, 'the course of true love never did run smooth' - especially not when there's a global pandemic causing havoc with the wedding industry.

Having had to postpone their celebrations first in August, Matt and Danielle rescheduled their celebrations for February at Lordswood Bowling Centre but they say they are now aiming to get married in 2022 after the venue decided to close its function room.

"Hopefully it's third time lucky," said Matt. "Our hope in general was that it was going ahead and we'd be able to have all our guests. Because of Covid we moved to February and we were hoping the limitations on numbers of people would be lifted by then. We weren't sure whether that would happen.

"We just want it to go ahead - Danielle wants to get married yesterday! She said could we not get married in a small ceremony and throw a big party later but that's not a proper wedding."

And after Matt explained their back story, it seems clear the wedding would deserve a big celebration.

"I'm just hoping we can be back to normal and we can have the wedding we both want."

"We were together when we were 15 but then we split up after she fell pregnant with our son," he said. "She was 16, I was 17 and we split up.

"Then we got back together just over three years ago. She's the mother of my first child but it didn't work out because we were so young.

"We've got back together after so many years but it's like I've never been away.

"It's been really nice. Me and my oldest son have got a close bond which we never had before."

Along with eldest son Dwayne, 19, Matt has two other children - Ben, 12 and Katie, seven - and is looking forward to the future with fiancée Danielle.

"We just want to get married and live like we are now," he added. "I'm just hoping we can be back to normal and we can have the wedding we both want."

Lordswood Bowling Centre explained they planned to turn their function room into a restaurant, in an effort to take staff off furlough and help them earn money.

They said Mr Bray informed them he had already planned to move the wedding to 2022 when they phoned him to cancel the event.

The couple have been repaid their deposit in full.

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