Valentines Wedding Renewal Service So Important For Couple Hit By Bad Luck
For Chris Fletcher, her wedding day should have been the happiest of her life, full of happy memories. Little was she to know as new husband Dave slipped the ring on her finger that a rare allergy was about to strike.
Now, the couple are set to renew their wedding vows with a new ring on the Sunday after Valentine’s Day (February 19) during a Celebration of Marriage will take place at St Giles Church, Durham, where couples will be given the opportunity to renew their vows and have their marriage blessed by the Bishop of Jarrow, The Right Reverend Mark Bryant.
The couple’s story of bad luck begins in May 2011 when Dave, now 51, and Chris, now 48, who had been together for two years, were married at the Church.
Chris said: “It rained in the morning, which is supposed to be lucky, but the sun came out in the afternoon for the service. It was a really lovely day.
“In the days after the service, my finger started to get itchy but I assumed I had been bitten by a mosquito when we were on honeymoon in Crete. It kept itching and I went to the pharmacist who said he thought I had got some soap trapped behind it but I was not going to take the ring off. All Dave’s love for me was in that ring. I was determined to keep wearing it.
“We tried everything but it eventually got so bad that the pharmacist said he thought I was allergic to the nickel in the white gold in the ring and I had to take it off. I was absolutely devastated. That ring meant so much to me.”
The jeweller who sold the ring agreed to exchange it and Chris chose an 18-carat gold one and the couple agreed to renew their vows last year, at the same church, after talking to the vicar Rev Canon Dr Alan Bartlett. But even that did not go smoothly.
Chris said: “The new ring did not have Dave’s promise in it so it was really important that we renewed our vows but an hour or so before the event, Dave was doing some DIY and sliced through his thumb. At the time the ceremony was supposed to take place, we were in A and E!
“Time passed, then it was Christmas, and we still had not had my ring blessed, which was when we heard that the Bishop of Jarrow would be taking couple’s renewed vows at the Church.
“This is really important to me. It had taken all our lives to find each other and to have the ring blessed again by the Bishop will mean a lot. It means it will carry all those promises that Dave made on our wedding day.”
The service is open to all married couples and their families who were married at St Giles and for those who live in the Gilesgate area, no matter where they were married. Those taking part are being asked to bring a photograph of their wedding day and share it with others after the service over a glass of sparkling wine.
The Bishop of Jarrow said: “It will be a wonderful opportunity for people to come and
renew their marriage vows and asks God's blessing on their marriage and I am very much looking forward to being there"