MOST couples decide to wait a while before tying the knot, but this pair have brought the phrase a “long engagement” to a whole new level.

Kim Farquhar and Stewart Jamison will today no doubt be in the throes of preparing for their wedding tomorrow at Bicester Register Office.

But hopefully everything should go smoothly seeing as the couple have had almost a decade since first getting engaged.

What’s more, they will be walking down the aisle exactly 22 years since they first met – and kissed – in the Royal Oak pub in Chinnor on August 28, 1993.

Mr Jamison, 45, said the couple never prioritised marriage because they focused on having a family.

He said: “When we got engaged we had already been together 12 years, but we didn’t want to rush into anything.

“We had just had Zak and we got our family home in Chinnor and we had had our four children close together.

“We were always working and we weren’t particularly religious so we never focused on it.”

The pair waited 12 years to get engaged but put off getting hitched until their youngest son Zak, 11, was old enough to be fully involved in the wedding .

It was on Miss Farquhar’s 30th birthday that Mr Jamison decided to ask her to be his wife.

Mr Jamison said he popped the question at the couple’s regular Indian restaurant in Watlington, where the staff were worried because the couple were talking rather than eating.

Childminder Miss Farquhar, who will turn 40 in September, added: “The children cried when we told them the news.

“There were a lot of tears because they were so happy we were getting married.

“ We’ve been together a long time and we know each other very well now so there won’t be any surprises.

“One thing I am looking forward to though is changing my name from Farquhar.”

Mr Jamison still remembers the night in 1993 when the couple got together.

He said: “There was just a real chemistry between us really. I was on my way to a party but I didn’t make it as I bumped into Kim instead.

“We had a bit of a kiss. Then I took her on a date to the Red Lion in Chalgrove.”

When the couple first moved in together Mr Jamison’s flat in Thame, Miss Farquhar offered to pay £150 towards Mr Jamison’s U’s season ticket.

Mr Jamison, a deputy manager at Natwest in Thame, said: “It was one of those things. We were living away from home and didn’t have that much money, so Kim said she would help towards the costs.”

Mr Jamison will spend his stag night tonight in the Holiday Inn next to the Kassam Stadium with his son Zak who has a season ticket for the U’s.

The couple’s daughters Sophie, 17, Abbie, 16, and Caitlin, 14, are to be bridesmaids and Zak, 11, will be the best man at the small family wedding.

The newly-weds will spend the night at The Oxfordshire Golf Club before hosting a party at Thame Snooker Club on Saturday evening for 180 guests.

Bicester Advertiser:

  • The couple following the birth of Sophie in 1997

Mr Jamison added: “I expect nothing to change after we’re married.

“The only thing I will struggle with will be calling her my wife instead of my girlfriend.

“We have the same beliefs, values and are there for each other always.

“We’re a team. It’s not always easy but too many people don’t value being with one person forever.

“I am pretty nervous about the big day. Neither of us really like being the centre of attention, so we are having a small ceremony but a big party with all of our family and friends where we can have a great celebration.”

Mr Jamison said the couple had not gone over the top on the wedding rings and the dress and their next priority will be putting their children through college and university.