Order of Service, 'The Civil Partnership of Chris & Mike, Wood Hall, Saturday 26th April 2008'.

Chris McDermott, from Rock Ferry on the Wirral, and Mike Atter, from Scunthorpe, celebrated a civil partnership on 26 April 2008 at Wood Hall in Yorkshire. Chris and Mike met during a dinner dance in Harrogate whilst they were both studying medical degrees at the University of Leeds. Though Mike had a girlfriend at the time and Chris had just come out of a relationship with a woman they began a relationship together soon after. After 14 years together they knew they wanted to get married. At Christmas 2007 Mike gave Chris a series of presents which spelt ‘marry me’. On 26 April 2008 they walked down the aisle together in complementary black and white suits in front of their family and friends and have remained together ever since. Their civil partnership at Wood Hall, Yorkshire was the first civil partnership that the venue had done and consequently the venue were not sure how to introduce them. They honeymooned in Florida. On 22 January 2015 they converted their civil partnership in to a marriage. Having already had a ceremony and seeing themselves as already married they did not have a ceremony, going to the registry office while on a break from work. “We both felt that we had had the celebration of marriage already and this was just sorting out the appropriate paperwork which was in fact backdated to the date of the civil partnership. A photo was taken and then we went back to work!” (Chris, speaking in 2016)