A mechanic who said he would only marry his partner when a MILLION people joined a Facebook group has agreed to set a date – despite it having only 58,000 followers.
Paul Mapplethorpe, 38 was dubbed Britain’s most unromantic lover after he refused to tie the knot with his fiancee of 10 years until she hit the milestone.
His partner Kelly Coxhead, 31, the mother of his four children, pleaded with him to reduce the challenge but he would not back down and claimed it would be “easy”.
But after being ridiculed on the site he has now agreed to her dream wedding on 11/11/11, even though the page was joined by 58,000.
Kelly’s group ‘I NEED 1 MILLION PEOPLE TO JOIN FOR PAUL TO MARRY ME C’MON GUYS HELP ME lol’, gained more than 26,000 fans in a week.
Its description read: “we been together 10 years and i think its about time he got off his stubborn arse and married me…..lol he just informed me that i need to get 1 million people to join…..lol so come on join prove to him that i can do it….hahaha.”
Delighted Kelly, who lives in Swindon with Paul and their four children, said she could not believe he had changed his mind.
She said: “I don’t know what clinched it for him, I don’t care. We had spoken about it and we are over the moon. It’s just brilliant. It’s great news.
“A lot of people are still emailing us and a lot of people are still wanting to know what’s happening.
“The group was just set up as a family and friends’ joke and then it went mental. We’ve made the decision now and I hope I’ll have time to get everything ready.
“I don’t think we’ll have a honeymoon but my ideal honeymoon would be to take the kids to Butlins. I don’t want anything fancy.”
She added that she had been asked to stream the wedding on the internet, but she did not think it would happen.
Paul, a mechanic, said the group had been deleted by Facebook for violating terms of use but the couple were trying to get it reinstated.
He said: “When Facebook deleted the group someone set up another and it’s already got 11,000 friends on it, so we’ll stick with that.
“We were going to get married anyway, it was just a bit of fun.
“It went worldwide – people from all over were wishing us luck and everything else.
“It was Kelly’s idea, she wanted an easy date to remember – 11/11/11 – it was just off the top of her head, a kind of spur of the moment thing.”
Kelly and Paul plan to have their three daughters as bridesmaids, with the eldest also acting as a witness as well as their son Jack.