LIKE mother, like daughter. A proud couple watched their daughter marry her fiance at the same spot as they tied the knot almost exactly 31 years earlier.

And some of the same staff at the Gibbon Bridge Hotel in Chipping were on duty for both occasions.

Fiona Ward, 28, married Nick Street, 28, a captain in the Royal Artillery, in the grounds of the Green Lane hotel.

Three decades earlier, parents Helen, 58, a housewife, and John Ward, 62, a retired solicitor, married in the same part of the grounds.

The younger couple married in a bridal bandstand on the same spot as a marquee was specially erected for her parents to give their hands in marriage.

Despite the time gap, four members of staff, including hotel owner Janet Simpson, were on duty for both mum and daughter’s special day.

Helen Ward said she was delighted that her daughter chose to celebrate at the same venue she and her husband had done.

She said: “The hotel was a big part of Fiona’s Christmas as Janet would organise a Christmas party there every year and we would go as a family.

“They were fantastic and the rooms were beautiful.

“It was great to go back there and see how much the hotel has changed since myself and John married there.

“We hoped that Fiona and Nick would choose the Gibbon Bridge because it holds such special memories for us but we did not want to influence them in any way.

“After they visited other hotel wedding venues, Fiona told us they had decided to choose the hotel as the perfect venue and we were very pleased.”