And it all started with a chance meeting when both were on holiday in Ibiza.

Paul, 32, who works as a machine operator, and Maxine, 29, were both on vacation with their respective group of friends.

They met on the second night of Maxine's stay. She said: "We arranged to meet when I got home. We have been inseparable from the moment we met."

That meeting saw Bradford man Paul travel to meet Maxine, from Hartlepool.

She said: "He never went back home."

By the end of their first year together, the couple were celebrating the birth of their first child Chelsea who is now eight, and the couple had also moved into their own home.

A second child, Rhys aged two, later followed and both played key roles in the couple's big day at Holy Trinity Church in Davison Drive, Hartlepool.

Maxine, an office manager, recalled how Paul proposed on the first anniversary of their first meeting. It all happened at a romantic evening meal.

She said: "I was seven months pregnant at the time and he got down on one knee. He told me that we had already agreed to spend the rest of our lives together and he wanted to take it one step further, and he put a ring on my finger."

Maxine said her reply was "an immediate yes".

"We were both in tears. I was shocked. I knew he was going to ask me but I thought he was going to wait until after we had Chelsea."

The wonderful surprise proposal led to a dream wedding – again on the anniversary of that first meeting.

Maxine described her big day as "brilliant".

"It had rained for three weeks solid before the wedding but on the day I got married it was sunshine all the way."

The wedding saw the couple walk down the aisle to Songbird by All Angels.

Best man was Paul's best friend Lee Coulter while the bridesmaids were Paul's sister Karen Aveyard, Maxine's best friend Tracey Skinner and Maxine and Paul's daughter Chelsea.

Their son Rhys was page boy and the couple had a reception at the Hillcarter Hotel where they enjoyed their first dance to the Ronan Keating song I Promise.

A honeymoon in Spain rounded off the perfect wedding.

Photographs courtesy of Michael Gant, Rainbow Photography.

See more pictures in the Hartlepool Mail