BATHED in late summer sunshine, the happy couple read their vows, exchanged rings and were pronounced man and wife.
It was a traditional English wedding in every respect. Except one.
For Dan and Anna Cooper were sharing their special day with some very unusual guests.
The Newcastle couple provided Monkey World’s very first wedding on Saturday, with the backdrop for their ceremony the park’s chimpanzee enclosure.
After the short service, the newlyweds substituted the usual confetti for tossing edible flower garlands and heart-shaped ice lollies to the chimps.
They then headed off around the park for the wedding photos on one of the park’s swiftly customised buggies.
Dan and Anna have visited the park on many occasions and said they could think of no better place to hold their wedding.
“We have been down here so many times, bringing nieces and nephews,” said Anna.
“It is an amazing place and to be able to share it with so many great people here has been fantastic.”
The park’s Watering Hole café was transformed with white and lilac décor to house the reception, while guests were free to wander through the 65-acre park throughout the day. The party then rolled on to the Springfield Country Hotel for the evening.
Monkey World already has a number of other wedding bookings lined up, ranging from full ceremonies to renewals.
Shelley Fletcher, the Wool attraction’s operations manager, said the first wedding fulfilled a wish of the park’s founder, Jim Cronin, who died in 2007.
“It was something Jim always wanted to do,” she said.
“I am just over the moon we’ve finally been able to achieve it.”
Dan and Anna are now due to jet off on their honeymoon to Vietnam, where they intend to visit the Dao Tien rescue centre in Cat Tien National Park, with whom Monkey World works closely.
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