ONE night back in 1960 certainly proved to be an enchanted evening for Ivor Smith and Pamela Voake after the couple’s eyes met for the first time at a dance in Birmingham.

The pair were instantly attracted to each other.

And it wasn’t long before they took to the dance floor together to the tune of Some Enchanted Evening, from the musical South Pacific, at an Intervarcity Club Dance at Manchester Unity Oddfellows Hall in Livery Street, Birmingham.

It couldn’t have been a more apt song, for it tells the tale of seeing a stranger across a crowded room and immediately knowing you will be seeing them again.

The lovestruck couple have been together ever since.

Just a year later after that chance meeting, Pamela and former Birmingham University lecturer Ivor became engaged and the following year tied the knot at St James’ Church in Handsworth on January 3, 1962.

But the conditions on their wedding day were a far cry from the warmth of the South Pacific island that they were transported to on the dance floor 52 years ago.

For it was at the height of a record cold snap in Birmingham.

In the two weeks leading up to the wedding temperatures in many parts of the city were struggling to much above freezing point and there had been a record surge in demand for electricity and gas as families struggled to keep warm.

During the night before the big day heavy snow fell across the city and many of the couple’s relatives and friends, who lived in Cardiff and Bristol, were unable to make it through the snow.

But the ice failed to stop the pair getting to the church on time as a black and white picture from the Birmingham Mail archives shows.

For the then Dr Smith, who grew up in Erdington and is now a university professor, is captured carefully carrying his new bride down the church’s snow-covered pathway. One of the bridesmaids wore jeans under her dress to keep warm and Pamela, who was born and grew up in Handsworth, admits to donning a vest.

Fifty years on, 82-year-old Ivor and Pamela, aged 76, have three sons and six grandchildren and are gearing up to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a family celebration at The Belfry, near Sutton Coldfield.