'We had a feeling': Lucky Leeds bride and groom get married just four hours before coronavirus lockdown after 'mad scramble' to tie knot

Jamie Speight, 31, got married to Natalie Speight, 29, at 4.30pm on Monday March 23 - just four hours before Boris Johnson's address to the nation.

Jamie, an IT Technician from Colton, and Natalie, a care coordinator, were originally due to marry on April 4 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary church on Harrogate Road.

However - due to concerns about coronavirus - the wedding was in doubt and the couple did 'not know what was going to happen'.

Quick-thinking Jamie contacted the church and reception venue to try and rearrange the date and bring the wedding forward.

On March 18, the couple discovered Catholic churches had restricted the number of people attending to 8 and were forced to whittle down their 170 guestlist to just immediate family.

Jamie told the Yorkshire Evening Post they had 'a feeling' lockdown was imminent.

He said: "Up until a few weeks ago, the wedding was all still going ahead with no issues.

"On the 18th March we found out that Catholic churches had restricted the number of people down to 8, this was the Brides mother and father, the grooms mother and father and the 2 witnesses only.

"Again we called the church and asked if we were still okay to have the wedding on the 4th, this was on the basis that the country didn’t get put into lockdown.

"On Friday evening the 20th March we contacted the church and asked if the wedding could be brought forward, they couldn’t give us an answer so we had to call back on Saturday.

"I called the church myself and had confirmation that the wedding could go ahead on the Monday afternoon at 4pm.

"It was then a mad scramble to get everything organised two weeks earlier than we were meant to."

Despite the rush to get the wedding organised, Jamie said the pair were able to celebrate by cutting the cake and loved the ceremony.

He added: "We still had a traditional catholic wedding and a small party at my mother and father in laws and took photos and cut the cake as you would normally."