Wedding bells will soon be ringing for a couple thanks to This Is Essex partner paper the Echo.

Cheryl James, 45, will marry Gary Raynham, 43, on October 21 - after meeting through Matchmakers in January last year.

The couple, who now live together at Orchard Avenue, Hockley, plan to tie the knot at Southend register office.

Cheryl said their relationship hadn't been short of the odd amazing coincidence.

She said: "My aunt and uncle used to own some land at Little Wheatley's Chase in Rayleigh and they had a bungalow built on there which they lived in before they died.

"Gary's mum and dad now live in exactly the same bungalow, and my aunt was always telling me to find a nice man, so maybe she was watching down on me."

Gary's advert was only the second Cheryl had answered. She didn't meet the man from the first advert she answered, and she said she was still apprehensive when she called Gary.

She said: "We spoke on the phone for about a week before I said I would meet him, and it all clicked when we did meet."

The pair have six children between them from previous marriages.

Gary has two boys, John, 13 and Mark, 19, and a daughter Lisa, 18, and Cheryl has Sam, 18, Ben, 14, and Tommy, 13.

Cheryl said she had already picked a page boy.

"All the children get on so well, but I am a registered child minder and the child I have looked after the longest is going to be the page boy."

Wedding bells - Cheryl James and Gary Raynham

Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

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