THEY may have all gone through it before, but for 20 Darwen couples retaking their wedding vows was an emotional experience which hardly left a dry eye in the house.

The old adage that everyone cries at weddings came true for almost everyone in the congregation at the unique ceremony.

They got together for a celebration of weddings and marriage to mark two churches, Belgrave and Duckworth Street Congregational Church, combining at their new venue of the Central United Reformed Church in Duckworth Street.

Jane and Herbert Douglas were the longest married couple, celebrating their 60th anniversary on July 11 this year.

Jane, 81, and Herbert, 82, who now live in Arlington Road, Darwen, were married during the Second World War in 1942.

It meant Herbert had to get special leave from the East Lancashire Regiment for the wedding, while Jane was unable to buy a wedding dress, due to rationing.

Rationing also affected the food, although they were able to have a wedding cake, as a friend of theirs was in the confectionery trade.

Jane said: "It was a small family occasion although, because of the war, there were people who couldn't come. My own brother missed the service and arrived just after. It was quite austere, due to rationing and there were quite a few things we couldn't have. The couple met when Jane came in as a customer to the grocers' where Herbert worked, and they courted for three years.

Herbert said: "We had friends who knew each other, and then this beautiful girl kept coming into the shop and that's how it started."

Their 59 years contrasted with the couple there who got married the most recently - Damien Curson, 28, and his wife Gillian, also 28, of Leonard's Close, Lower Darwen, who got married in October 1999.

They were at the service with their baby son Rhys Edward, aged four and a half weeks, and Damien's parents, Sheila and Geoff Curson of Turncroft Road, Darwen, who were going through the vows committal together too.

The service was conducted by Rev Tamas Sugar. He said: "It is very important to do this because if you look at the statistics you can find that weddings and the institution of marriage is in a big crisis.

"I think it is commitment that people today don't really like, but the example of these people who have agreed to come back and celebrate their married life, shows that it is not really true. There is an important meaning in weddings and marriage."

Church elder, Jean Yates, said: "I think a lot of people did shed a tear or two. There were certainly plenty of hankies out."