Dorset's Monkey World hosts its first wedding

Description:

Monkey World Wedding !

In late summer sunshine, the pioneering couple read their vows, exchanged rings and were pronounced man and wife. A traditional English wedding in every respect. Except one.

Because Dan and Anna Cooper were sharing their special day with some very unusual guests.

The couple from Newcastle undertook Monkey World's very first wedding last Saturday, with the chimpanzee enclosure as a backdrop for their ceremony. After a short service, the bride and groom substituted the usual confetti for tossing edible flower garlands and heart-shaped ice lollies to the chimps. They then headed off around the park for the wedding photos on one of the park’s  buggies.

The happy couple have visited the park on many occasions and said they could think of no better place to hold their wedding.

The park’s Watering Hole café was transformed with white and lilac décor to house the reception, while guests were free to wander through the 65-acre park throughout the day. The party then moved on to the Springfield Country Hotel for the evenings festivities.

Monkey World already has a number of other wedding bookings lined up, ranging from full ceremonies to renewals. Shelley Fletcher, the Wool attraction’s operations manager, said the first wedding fulfilled a wish of the park’s founder, Jim Cronin, who died in 2007.

Dan and Anna are off on their honeymoon to Vietnam, where they intend to visit the Dao Tien rescue centre in Cat Tien National Park, with whom Monkey World works closely.