THE COUPLE who plan to be the first to marry at Ilkley's Winter Gardens are determined it will be a magic occasion.

To make sure, Mark Ayers and his fiancee Lesley Gordon will hire a magician to perform at the reception.

The local government officer from Huddersfield said that Bradford Council had now been granted a wedding licence for the Winter Gardens so the ceremony can go ahead as planned on January 7.

Mr Ayers, 44, is to marry teacher Lesley Marshall, 37, of Gordon Street, Ilkley, after meeting around a year ago.

They are both big fans of the Winter Gardens and thought it would be a great idea to have the wedding and the reception all in one place.

Previously the only non-official secular building in Ilkley to hold a wedding ceremony licence in Ilkley was the Craiglands Hotel, on Cowpasture Road.

The Council-owned Glenmoor Centre held one briefly but it was allowed to lapse when the building was put up for sale.

Mr Ayers said: "We think the Winter Gardens is a lovely building and that is the most important thing for us. We want to have a large wedding with lots of guest and we wanted to do the whole thing in one place."

As part of the wedding reception ceremony guest will enjoy a show by magician Craig Kidd.

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