A FAMILY will celebrate a double wedding anniversary today.

Sisters Valerie Singleton and Lynn Swan were not only married on the same day 50 years ago but also in the same church at the same time.

When Valerie and Lynn decided they would marry their sweethearts in 1968 their father, Stanley Winrow, came up with a plan.

“We were talking about getting married within six months of each other and he said ‘why don’t you just get wed together?’” explains Valerie, who married Graham on the day sister Lynn tied the knot with Jim.

The sisters, who have always been extremely close, decided it was a great idea and the wedding went ahead on March 16, 1968.

Both girls were walked down the aisle at Melbourne Road Methodist Church in Bolton by their father, one on each arm, and wore identical dresses and their grooms matching suits. After the ceremony the party descended on The Sunnyside Hotel in Daubhill for the reception.