Valentine's Day: Northamptonshire couple together for more than 30 years after meeting through our newspaper

A married couple from Roade are celebrating 31 years of being together after meeting through a dating advertisement in The Chronicle and Echo in 1991.

It is, nowadays, very commonplace for couples to meet through dating apps and websites.

Michelle, 50, and David Elliott, 55, from Roade - on the other hand - communicated to each other for the first time through letters after they both responded to a dating advertisement in this newspaper more than 30 years ago.

Michelle, who was a 20-year-old factory worker at the time, said: "I wasn't really looking for a relationship because I was a country girl and a big girl. I didn't think anyone would be interested.

"My friend said, come on, lets do it for a laugh and I wrote to ten different boys. Only one of them responded and that was David - oh, actually, another one did but he didn't turn up."

Michelle exchanged letters with David, a 25-year-old fork lift operator, for a couple of months before Michelle's friend from school encouraged her to give him a ring and get to know his personality better.

They were both working at the time and Michelle's friend dialed David's number before passing the phone over to Michelle.

The duo chatted away for a little while and then arranged to meet each other in person for the very first time at the Queen Victoria pub in Gayton.

Michelle, on meeting her husband for the first time, said: "I never really had a serious boyfriend before so I thought he looked okay to me. He was cute.

"I was quite shy and Dave was shy as well. He was engaged before he met me but that was broken off. He seemed very nice, down to earth and we chatted. It went really well and, as you say, the rest is history."

The lovebirds continued to date for two more years before getting engaged in a not so conventionally romantic destination.

Michelle, laughing, said: "We got engaged outside Argos when it used to be in Abington Street. We went to look for rings and then we came out and he said, do you want to marry me and I said yes.

"He got a lot more romantic when he got older," she joked.

The couple got married at St Mary's Church in Roade in 1993. One year later, their daughter Lisa was born - she is now 28-years-old.

Michelle now works in retail and David still works in the same field of warehouse work. They love to go out for meals together and go to the cinema as well as the theatre.

Michelle says that David's love for his family is one of the things she loves the most about him.

She said: "He is kind, caring, very thoughtful of others. His parents are only up the road from us and he sees them every Friday. He is very family oriented just like I am.

"He makes me feel special. Being a big girl in them days, I thought nobody's going to want me. I miss him when he's not here. He went away a couple of years ago with his parents and I hated every minute of it. I get so used to him being here.

"We spend a lot of time with my mum because she is on he own and we visit David's parents as well. I like to read and he likes his sports. We were complete opposites when we first met but as our relationship went on, I grew to love watching sports too."

David, when he was asked what he loves the most about his wife, said: "She has a kind heart and she's down to earth. She is very kind natured, always wants to help others."

Their daughter, Lisa, who got engaged during the Christmas period last year, has followed in her parent's footsteps. She met her fiancé Darren on the dating app, 'Plenty of Fish', and - just like her parents - Lisa dated Darren for two years before he popped the question.

Darren was able to get 'H' (Ian Watkins) from the popular band, Steps, to ask the question on his behalf. This went down a treat because Michelle said that Lisa is 'Steps mad.'

Did you meet your partner in Northamptonshire? Are you celebrating a wedding anniversary this year? Send a picture of you and your partner along with the story of how you met to [email protected].