UK couple Daphne Thorp and David Barker got engaged in 1972 after knowing each other only four weeks. Their journey to the altar, though, has taken considerably longer.
After 42 years, Thorp, 81, and Barker, 71, will finally tie the knot in July on Thorp's 82nd birthday, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner reports.
So what took so long for the West Yorkshire couple to set a date?
It was partly because Thorp had been through a divorce and was wary of marriage.
"I was just scared, I think. I thought one marriage is enough," she explained to The Mirror.
The pair first met shortly after Thorp's divorce when she took up ballroom dancing as a hobby. The instructor told the class that if a woman asked a man to dance, he had to to say "yes". Thorp approached Barker and the two became dance partners, then lovers and not long after, fiancés.
But whenever Barker would bring up the wedding, Thorp would try to put it off, saying, “We will do it sometime."
It wasn't until Thorp had a heart attack around Christmastime last year that the couple decided it was time to get serious about the wedding. A couple of months later, Barker popped the question once again and Thorp, once again, said "yes".
“I picked her birthday as the day to get married so I won’t forget to buy her a card," Barker joked to The Huddersfield Daily Examiner. “But if truth be told, I still love her and it’s about time we did it.”
For more on this couple's sweet love story, head over to The Mirror.
A photo of David and Daphne from around the time they met.
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