FORMER Preston College lecturer Simon Jones has quietly 'Thai-ed' the knot.

His bride, Rung, 25, from Thailand, the youngest of eight children, the others all boys, currently works as a chef in a restaurant in the East Midlands and has lived in this country for two years.

Simon, who was a Liberal Democrat councillor in South Ribble and has represented Clayton-le-Woods East for the past 10 years, met her just a few yards from his own home in Clayton Brook last Autumn and romance soon blossomed.

He called on a resident married to a Thai woman and Rung was their guest.

Coun Jones, 44, who worked at Preston College for 12 years until starting his business in 1994, had previously served as chairman of the local parish council and stood for Parliament twice, most recently in Chorley in the 1997 General Election. He runs a successful mobile recording and consultancy business, Moving Music.

"I have known Rung for several months and we got engaged a few weeks ago. We couldn't decide whether to get married in Thailand or England. In the end we decided to do both!

"So we had a very quiet ceremony in Chorley, with just three guests. We did it by special licence, with just a weekend to plan. It meant some traditions, such as a best man, were discarded. Instead things were spontaneous. The reception was a pub lunch in the Lord Nelson."

He added:" We have literally hundreds of friends and well wishers here in the North West and it would have been impossible to invite them all to the small premises of the register office, even with unlimited time.

"We do plan to have a celebration event soon in Clayton and in a year or two's time we will have the full oriental works in Thailand. I am really looking forward to that and meeting Rung's family."

"We have not had a honeymoon as yet. In fact by the day after our wedding we were both back at work, hundreds of miles apart.

"We hope to get a good holiday in the summer and are also planning a celebration for many more of our friends here in the North West."

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