Seeing Ed Sheeran finally taking the plaudits after years of hard work brought back some particularly happy memories for one Mulbarton couple - as he played at their wedding.

Mary and Laurence Brooks, now aged 28 and 26 respectively, had seen Sheeran playing gigs on the Norwich music circuit several times and asked him to play at their wedding around six months before they tied the knot in August 2010.

His career really started to take off in the intervening time and the couple were unsure whether he would still be able to play at their wedding reception, at the groom's parents' house in Tivetshall St Margaret, near Diss.

Sheeran was true to his word though as Mary, digital development manager for Archant Life in Norwich, explained: 'Ee were sat watching the Brits and saying we weren't surprised at all because he was so good then.

'We first saw him at Norwich Rocks years ago and all the songs which are now famous, I have been listening to for years.

'At the end of a gig at a small venue we went and asked him and he said 'of course'. So we had booked him six months in advance and he was still relatively smallish then but was pushing himself and had moved to London by then.

'So when it got close we thought there was no way he'll turn up, so we text him and he said he would and he was flying in from America the next day.

'He'd had a meeting with Island Records about a deal but he turned them down because they wanted to change him too much.'

The couple had got to know Sheeran on the music scene through Mr Brooks' band Chasing Tigers, and he didn't disappoint.

Mrs Brooks continued: 'He turned up quite early at the reception and played a set between 5pm and 6pm and played his songs and everyone was quiet and watching him.

'Then h'He came back on for three hour later and people were just requesting songs, he hadn't planned it all, it was all just off the cuff.

'He also played the song for our first dance as well. He'd been in Los Angeles and he wrote a song for us because he didn't have any romance songs and now it's on his album (+), called Wake Me Up.'

david.freezer@archant.co.uk