Fifty-five couples representing over 2,000 years of marriage attended a very special ceremony at St Mary’s Church in Falmouth when they all renewed their vows.

The event was held as part of national marriage week and was appropriately staged on Valentine’s Day. A notice had been placed in the church inviting couples to get involved in the celebration of the sacrament of marriage.

Only around 16 couples had signed up the week before the big day, but when Saturday rolled around 55 couples turned up – all keen to take part and renew their marriage vows. This took place during a special mass conducted by parish priest, Father Jon Bielawksi, assisted by Father Anthony Gorman.

Among those choosing to re-affirm their love for each other were three couples who have been married for over 60 years, eight who have celebrated their golden wedding anniversaries, 12 who have been married 40 years; five with 30 years behind them; three who have reached their silver anniversaries and a further nine who reached the ten year milestone.

After the service and vow renewal everyone was invited across to the church hall where the honour of cutting the celebratory cake was given to Alf and Dot Waddingham who have been married for a little over 70 years. As well as cake, participants were offered a glass of bubbly and tucked into a buffet.

John Pinhay, who helped organise the event, said: “It was such an uplifting occasion and I could not believe the feedback we were getting. We had a notice up in church for three weeks leading up to it and people were putting down their names, the date of their anniversary and the number of years. It was all quite exciting and then people ended up putting wedding photographs on the board so each time we went in there was someone else’s photograph.”

John’s wife Pat added: “We held it on a Saturday so people in the parish who worked could also come along and join in. So many couples were so emotional on the day because it meant so much.”