Picture the scene. Our protagonist — plucky software developer by day, inept socialite by night — despairs of ever finding a serious girlfriend, let alone a partner to spend the rest of his life with. “Can anybody,” he wonders aloud, “find me somebody to love?” Turning to his trusty keyboard, he types the address of the one website that can save him…

And so it was in 2002 that I joined the dating agency Dateline. And amazingly enough, it actually worked! The internet: is there anything it cannot do?

At first Paula and I kept in touch through emails and over the ‘phone, before finally meeting in person on the August Bank Holiday. Things just snowballed from there, and I proposed on Valentine’s Day 2005 (what a romantic). After a very hectic few months of preparation, we got married on 31st July 2005.

The venue for our wedding was Soughton Hall in Wales. The place is beautiful, both inside and out. Best of all, we had it to ourselves for the duration of the wedding and the following morning, with many of our guests staying overnight. I honestly don’t believe we could have picked a better venue. Everyone had a fantastic time, which I think comes across in our photos (our photographers, Susan and Nigel, also deserve a special mention for taking such great shots and making everybody feel at ease).

After the wedding it was time to ‘jet off’ on honeymoon to the sunny climes of, erm, Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare country), where we stayed at the picturesque Alveston Manor hotel in the heart of the town. We had the bridal suite: four-poster bed, separate lounge with TV, the works. It was great!

Thankfully, the weather was pretty good for the majority of the time, so we spent an enjoyable week relaxing and exploring, taking in such touristy places as Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, villages in the Cotswalds, and the mighty Warwick Castle. As an added bonus, we got to see a trebuchet firing some cannonballs: what honeymooning couple could ask for more?!