This happy couple are engaged a week after meeting - and it started with a text!

Dial a bride -- Maurice and Marilyn met texting Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL 7CNTB2

Champagne corks were today popping for a Southend man who was celebrating his engagement to a woman he met just one week ago -- via a text dating agency.

Maurice Weal, 58, who lives above the Liberty Belle pub in Marine Parade, and 55-year-old Marilyn Richardson, of Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, began to text each other, met and have now decided to marry.

Published Tuesday, February 19, 2002