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Aisle be the bridesmaid, says Mick

5/ 1/2003

AN OVERHEARD remark in a pub led to a 'sex-change' adventure for one saloon bar 'regular'.

For Mick Darton thought he'd heard pub landlady Angela Rowlands, 43, discussing marriage plans with her partner Carl Hadfield, 40.

"But we hadn't been talking about anything of the sort," said Angela, who runs The Oval in Kennedy Avenue, Upton Priory. "Mick simply jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"But when he said 'I could be your bridesmaid' it was too good to resist.

"So I told him I could think of no-one I'd rather have as my bridesmaid and we pretended he'd heard us correctly and we really were getting wed.

"After that he had to take it seriously, so he had to be fitted for a frock and he had to have his legs shaved etc.

"He even attended the dress rehearsal where we had a bloke in a dodgy vicar costume turn up.

"Up until just before the dress rehearsal, Angela and Carl let Mick think it was all going ahead for real and that he'd have to wave goodbye to his 'butch' past."

But they did eventually let him in on the secret that it was all a big laugh and the mock-wedding was really a fun charity evening designed to raise funds for the East Cheshire Hospice... or was it?

Because with all the talk of romance in the air at The Oval, some real romance has been quietly brewing.

And now Angela and Carl really are planning to get married!

Though they haven't set a date yet, nor decided on a gender policy for bridesmaids and matron of honour.