A COMMUNITY turned out for a special ‘wedding’ ceremony at the weekend in support of their village pub.

John Savory and his partner Janie Brewster, who live in Frosterley, County Durham, unofficially tied the not on Saturday outside their beloved village pub.

The pair – who have been together for the last five years – decided to celebrate their love in a handfasting ceremony to symbolise the binding of two lives.

They originally planned to marry at Gretna Green, in Scotland, but were convinced by friends and family who also wanted to celebrate the day to stay local.

After seeing the toll the pandemic has taken on businesses and being business owners themselves, they wanted to put money back into the community.

Instead of making grand wedding plans the couple invited residents to come along to their ceremony on Frosterley green, opposite The Frosterley Inn pub.

Miss Brewster, who runs All Cuts barbers, in Newton Aycliffe said: “Everyone was had a year-and-a-half or rubbish and we just wanted to cheer the whole village up. Residents have been more excited than we’ve been and it's lovely to see people who haven’t been out since Covid.

“The Frosterley Inn pub was taken over days before we went into the first lockdown so they have been closed a lot and we just thought it would do the business good. There’s so many people here and hopefully they’ll come back to the pub.”

The pub said it was thrilled to celebrate the day with the couple.

A spokesperson said: “We would like to thank John and Janie for having their special day at the Frosterley Inn and what an amazing day it was.

"It was great to see all the locals and John and Janie’s family and friends come together. We would also like to thank everyone who donated to Jake Richardson racing who John and Janie sponsor and you can find him on Facebook and support him in his racing career.

“It was great to wake up this morning and see the amount of feedback and photos posted on Facebook and how it looked like everyone enjoyed the day.”

Mr Savory and Miss Brewster asked for no wedding presents but asked anyone who wanted to make a contribution to donate to County Durham go-kart driver Jake Richardson.

The couple said they plan to get married legally in a registry office in the near future.