Golden couple enjoy honeymoon – fifty years on

A romantic couple from the Black Country celebrated 50 years of marriage by returning to the church where they tied the knot to renew their vows - and have now jetted off on honeymooon five decades late.

The outfits and the hairstyles of the bride and groom may have changed but Edie and Jim Usher proved they are still as in love as ever.

The pair renewed their vows at St Mary's Church in Bushbury, Wolverhampton, where they had first said "I do" on October 15 1960, and have now flown away for a three-week trip to Dubai, Australia and Singapore.

Their holiday plans had been grounded after the couple's first wedding because Mr Usher, now 68, was a senior aircraftsman with the RAF and had to return to his base in Northern Ireland straight after the service.

He said: "We have kept putting it off ever since and the Golden Wedding seemed the perfect opportunity to have the honeymoon.

"I have always wanted to go to Australia and Singapore and needed 50 years to save up for it.

"I decided to ask Edie to retake our wedding vows at the church where we married because, I know this sounds a bit cheesy, but we are still very much in love and it is something we both liked the family see us do."

The ceremony took place on Saturday, the day after their Golden Wedding anniversary, before the couple threw a party for 200 people at the Goodyear Pavilion, off Stafford Road.

Guests were asked not to bring presents but to make charity donations instead with the money going to Breast Cancer Care and the Singleton Hospital, Swansea where their son David, 48, was successfully treated for throat cancer.

The couple, from Ashmore Park, have three children, eight grandchildren, two step grandchildren, one great grandson and a step great granddaughter.

Mr Usher worked for Goodyear for 23 years before retiring as an area manager aged 58 and now works part time at the pharmacy at New Cross Hospital where his wife spent 33 years as an auxiliary nurse.