IT'S a bride's privilege to be late but Doreen Palmer was so keen to make sure nothing went wrong that she was at the church a good 25 minutes before the service.

In fact, she was there before most of the guests and long before the groom, Joe Upton.

But all passed off well as Skipton's oldest newlyweds celebrated their marriage this week.

Joe is 90 next week while Doreen celebrated her 84th birthday yesterday (Thursday).

Both have been married before but were widowed. Their romance blossomed when they found themselves side by side at a wedding last year and Doreen finally popped the question earlier this year.

Their engagement was reported in the Craven Herald and followed up by BBC, who were waiting at the New Church, Braithwaite, to film the ceremony for their Look North programme.

Both were born in Skipton, Doreen living on Waller Hill and Joe on Bennett Street, and Doreen admits she always had a twinkle in her eye for the tall young man she occasionally saw in town.

He worked as a projectionist at the Premier Cinema and reckons he was the first person to show "talkies" when they came to Skipton.

She and first husband John Palmer ran an off-licence in Silsden and later in Somerset while Joe, after his war service, which included the battle of El Alamein and the Italian campaign with the Royal Engineers, settled down to a number of jobs in Skipton.

Married to Margaret for more than 50 years, he worked for the Yorkshire Electricity Board, bringing electricity to the Dales and later joined Skipton Rural District Council before retiring as caretaker at Granville Street in 1977.

A stalwart of Broughton Road Bowls Club, where he still enjoys playing snooker, Joe said he had been surprised at "all the fuss".

"When I went to collect my pension they were all talking about me, saying they'd seen it in the paper and wishing me well," said Mr Upton.

"I could barely get down the street without being stopped."

The couple left for a short honeymoon in Bruges - the first time Joe has been abroad since he had a gun and a Royal Engineers uniform - before they returned back to Skipton.