Surviving the One Year Itch: Cutting Edge Tips for Weddings that Last...! | UKbride

In the UK today, marriages are most likely to fail in the first couple of years... it's a depressing fact, but from the chat on our lively wedding forum, UKbride.co.uk members are utterly in love with each other and are determined to make their marriages work.

So where does it all go wrong? At the start of 2009, having been commissioned to produce a documentary on the subject, Channel Four's Cutting Edge cameras attended the weddings of 50 British couples to see if tying the knot would change their lives for better or worse.

One year later, on their first wedding anniversary, Cutting Edge recently returned to find out who’s survived their first year. In a series of honest interviews, a selection of the couples answer the question of whether marriage was everything they’d hoped it would be. What were the real trials and tribulations faced by newlyweds today and how do these compare with their initial hopes for married life?

Graham, 24, and Sarah, 23, married in April 2009, just 10 months after they met. Having lost out in a competition to win a wedding, they quickly decided that marriage was what they wanted. In hindsight both of them believe that they married too quickly.

The reality of the commitment they’d made to each other proved too much for Graham and within a couple of months of their wedding, he told Sarah it was over and left her. Sarah blamed herself, even though Graham had started seeing another girl soon after the split. Sarah was so desperate to win him back she would still let him stay the night which led to an unexpected twist to events…

Sue and Hugh, known as Q, both in their 40s, were engaged for six years before finally deciding to tie the knot. Sue had never been married before, and Q was rather fond of a drink, so her only request to him was not to drink too much before the ceremony. But the Dutch courage rather exceeded a little tipple and Sue soon wished she could do the day again as Q was drunk during their ceremony. It was not the start to married life she had hoped for.

Bhavika and Amit both aged 27, wed in July 2009. When she was 22, Bhavika and her parents discussed her marriage and she asked them to help her find a husband. Amit also turned to his parents after failing to meet a suitor. After being introduced to about seventeen possible partners each, they met and were married in a year. But when did they actually fall in love?

Hannah and Carol married in May 2009. Carol had previously been in a heterosexual marriage and has two daughters, but was separated for quite a while before she met Hannah. Completely out of the blue she struggled to make sense of her new relationship.

Carol says they are not ‘banner wielding lesbians’ and is still uncomfortable with being labelled gay – yet they were proud to celebrate their relationship. But they explain how the wedding left them with a sense of huge anti climax…

Josh and Laura, 21 and 19, married when Laura was only 18. As Christians, they firmly believed in no marital relations before marriage and admit their desire to sleep together was a driving force behind getting married so young.

Their wedding day symbolised more than a legal union, but allowed them to finally have a physical one which made the day extra special for them. But they have found the first year of marriage tough with their young age.

Roy married his Thai girlfriend Thip in March 2009. Previously married and then divorced for about 15 years, Roy met Thip through a friend and they married in Thailand.

Despite being very happy to be marrying her, Roy felt slightly left out of the day itself due to the language barriers and huge cultural differences. Thip returned to Roy’s home in West Yorkshire to start their married life together. How has she coped adjusting to a completely different way of life, language and missing her family?

All of these stories and more can be seen in the documentary, Newly Weds: The One Year Itch, a Cutting Edge documentary by Monkey Kingdom in association with Rare Day; see Channel Four's On Demand service.