A COUPLE preparing for their clairvoyant wedding are predicting the event will be a first.

John Anthony Pattinson, 38, a medium, and his future wife, Vera Smith, 43, will marry at a civil service in Spennymoor Spiritualist Church, County Durham, on Saturday, April 27.

Friends and family of the couple, of Linden Road, West Cornforth, are invited to celebrate the union with a clairvoyant service afterwards.

John proposed to Vera just before they were going on holiday to Austria.

"When we were in the hotel room, my spiritual guide gave me the idea to have that type of service," he said.

"We have looked into it and we believe we are the first couple in the country to have this type of wedding."

They chose the venue because that is where they first met when John was taking a service and Vera was in the congregation.

After a friendship that spanned several years, romance blossomed last year and John declared his love on Saltburn seafront, producing a ring and a bottle of champagne.

They have chosen close friends, John's cousin Keith Pattinson and his wife Margaret, to be best man and matron-of-honour. And Vera's 16-year-old nephew, Paul Bateman, will give her away.

North-East mediums Paul and Gillian Nuttall will lead the clairvoyant service and Nora Shaw, who trained John to be a medium, will act as minister