'Of all days to choose to get married': Leap year makes anniversary a rarity

Tying the knot on February 29, 1964 has meant they can only really celebrate every four years.

They chose the leap year date because it was a Saturday, and the day after Ron turned 21 which meant they could get married without needing his parent's permission.

"In those days you had to be 21 before you could get married otherwise you had to get permission," Carlyn said.

"We couldn't get permission because his parents wouldn't sign. So we waited until he was 21 and got married the following day."

Ron said: "After 60 years, we are celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary but it's in fact only our 15th wedding anniversary because of all days to choose to get married it was the 29th of February 1964".

The fact their anniversary only technically rolls around every four years has never phased the couple.

"We've never been big on events," she said.

But the couple are having a large celebration this weekend with friends and family.

It was a small wedding.

Carlyn's parents were there, as was Ron's aunt. Ron's parents were living in Nigeria at the time.

"We were never a close family," he said.

Caryln said she got up and cried the morning of the wedding because of the thick fog in Wednesfield in the United Kingdom.

"You couldn't see the bottom of the yard it was so foggy - yellow skies with sulphur from the factories," she said.

The couple first met as teenagers at the Methodist church where Ron said he started attending because they had three tennis tables and the Anglican church only had one.

"That's when we first got to know each other," he said.

Ron was at the time organising social events for the youth club.

"We weren't allowed to have dances because we were Methodists, so we had socials which was music and dance," he said.

It was at one of these events love blossomed for the pair.

Nervous about walking home by herself because she had been attacked a few years before walking to church in the dark, Carlyn asked Ron to walk her home so her dad didn't have to pick her up.

"That's when we started going out and a year later we got married," she said.

The couple didn't have a honeymoon. Instead, the British couple boarded a plane just a few weeks later to start a new life together under the Ten Pound Pom program.

The move Down Under was something they said they've never regretted.

"The best thing is we got a letter from the King today," Carlyn said.

They also got letters from the Prime Minister, Governor General, Governor and local state and federal MPs to mark their diamond anniversary.