GUESTS at the first civil marriage ceremony to take place at Ilkley's Winter Gardens will be entertained by magician Craig Kidd .

With dancer Caroline Dixon , Mr Kidd is a regular at weddings and cabaret, performing magic tricks, fire eating, illusions and the

traditional sawing his assistant in half.

Huddersfield local authority officer Mark Ayres, 44, will marry his fiancee Lesley Marshall, 37, of Gordon Street, Ilkley, on Saturday.

The ceremony will take place at 4.00pm in front of about 300 guests and the reception will follow straight on at the same venue.

Mr Ayres said: "We think it is a lovely building and we wanted to have a large wedding with lots of guests and we wanted to do it all in the same place."

The couple were not put off their plans by people who thought that the building was run down and in need of extensive refurbishment. "We like the building and that is the most important thing for us," said Mr Ayres.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.