Wedding planner 'never expected' to be able to marry

A wedding planner is now arranging her own big day, thanks to a change in the law, which came into effect at midnight.

Shadia Thannon (right) manages a hotel in Newcastle, which hosts weddings. She will marry her partner Catherine Martin there in July, becoming one of the first same-sex couples in the North East to marry.

They had been planning a civil partnership, until the change in the law in England and Wales last summer made marriage legal for same-sex couples:

"For us it's really important, it means our relationship is seen equally in the eyes of the law. That's something neither of us really ever expected to happen," Catherine said.