THE love story of the year ended in ceremonial bliss for childhood sweethearts Martyn Dring and Pauline Playle yesterday .After a 26 year wait Mr Dring finally saw his dream come true when Miss Playle became his wife as they tied the knot at Sudbury Registry Office.

THE love story of the year ended in ceremonial bliss for childhood sweethearts Martyn Dring and Pauline Playle yesterday .

After a 26 year wait Mr Dring finally saw his dream come true when Miss Playle became his wife as they tied the knot at Sudbury Registry Office.

As reported by the EADT earlier this year Mr Dring, 45, asked Miss Playle, 44, to marry him every single day for a year before she finally accepted his proposal on his birthday on June 11.

Mr Dring was shocked when he tuned into BBC Radio Suffolk's Mark Murphy's Breakfast Show to hear Miss Playle agree to marry him live on air.

Yesterday's wedding marked a fairytale end to a love story spanning nearly three decades. The couple's love-struck teenage years were long behind them when the pair met by chance for the first time in more than a decade last summer.

Their story began 26 years earlier when the pair became close friends when they lived in Great Cornard. Although at the time they were not involved, both admit secretly fancying each other.

Eight years later they became neighbours in Maldon Court, Great Cornard, but each was in a relationship.

They lost touch 10 years ago when they married other people. Both went on to marry a second time and now have nine children between them, aged between four and 25.

In March last year the couple met in Sudbury and were amazed to discover their parents lived opposite each other in Glemsford.

A relationship soon blossomed and Mr Dring moved into Miss Playle's home in Beatty Road, Sudbury.

Almost immediately Mr Dring bought her a 24-carat gold ring studded with diamonds and a ruby.

He finally slipped the ring onto her finger on his birthday, which he described as his "best present ever".

Yesterday as the newly weds came out of the registry office – the bride in a flowing, full-length white dress and the groom in a dapper dark suit donned with a white and red carnations– they could hardly contain their joy.

Mr Dring said: "I am a very happy man, it has been a very long wait but it has definitely been worth it. This is the happiest day of my life and I can't wait to get on with married life."

The glowing bride said: "It has been a long time coming, but I am over the moon the finally be Mrs Dring. It feels absolutely lovely to be Martyn's wife."

The couple will later travel to Scotland for their honeymoon.