Golden moment as couple celebrate 50th anniversary by recreating wedding photos

Alan and Christine Knott, who both grew up in Halifax, got married in 1969, and returned to the town recently with their daughter Jo as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.

“We had always wanted to see Halifax, where we grew up, where we played as children, where we went to school,” said husband Alan, 71.

“So I said ‘why don’t we go there over our anniversary weekend and recreate our wedding photos.

“We looked through our old photos to see which ones were best to recreate, and we took our albums.

“We recreated a picture with my sister on the day too so that she was involved.

“Jo was blown away by it all. She was really enthusiastic about it and really excited, especially to be at the church.

“We took her to the Acapulco where we met, and to the old cinema where we had our first date watching an Elvis film.

“Then we drove to my old school and then my parents’ house, then Chris’ old school. It was brilliant.”

The couple, who now live in Scotland, also have a son Jeffrey, and three grandchildren.

“It was fantastic,” said Christine, 71, of their visit. “I’ve never known anyone do it before, and we just thought ‘it’s brilliant’.

“We couldn’t have done anything better for our golden wedding.

“It was certainly a big jog down memory lane. We even went to the Plummet Line where we had our wedding reception, although that has changed a bit!

“Seeing the church was very emotional, although it’s a bit overgrown now.

“As soon as we got there we felt like it was yesterday. It was a superb experience.”

Alan joined the Army aged 15 and was posted to Germany before being based in Catterick, meeting Christine on one of his weekend trips back home.

He stayed in the Army for 32 years, travelling all over the world including to Cyprus and Germany.

Chris worked at a garage in Ripponden and the Mackintosh factory in the ‘tin box’ department.

“It’s been wonderful, brilliant. It doesn’t seem like 50 years, it’s gone very quickly,” said Christine.

“Every anniversary I’ve bought Chris a rose for every year we’ve been together - one red rose after the first year, two after the second year and so on,” said Alan.

“For our 25th anniversary I changed it to a white rose, and then every year after that, added a red rose, then two and so on.

“And for our 50th, I bought her 50 red roses. Although I should have just bought two white ones really!”

“He turned up at my room where we were staying with them - it was absolutely out of this world,” Christine added.

“Very emotional. It took two of us to lift them all!

“We’ve spent anniversaries in different places like Canada or the USA, and he’s never missed out once. He’s an old romantic.”