London, November 08 Joy and Callum MacKay, who are now a happily married couple, had first taken their marital vows while playing a game at the age of five.

The young friends had to split when Joy's father moved from their earlier house at Lady Brae Place to Fife after finding a new job.

The two had no information about each other for the next 22 years, until Callum spotted Joy's name on website Friends Reunited in August 2008.

The childhood friends met and fell in love all over again to get married last month.

Joy, who works as an occupational therapist and lives in Falkirk, said: "I'd actually told my friend to phone me within half an hour of meeting Callum to give me an escape hatch in case it was a total disaster, but in the end I wished I hadn't because it was like no time had passed at all.

"He hadn't changed a bit - apart from becoming a baldy biker. When I went home afterwards and told my little sister she joked that we would probably end up getting married."

Back in 1980 it was the couple's siblings who had encouraged them to play the "marriage" games of "kiss, cuddle or torture."

"I think we were the bane of our elder siblings' life back then because our parents always insisted they let us play with them, so I think they decided to torture us one day by making us get married," Scotsman quoted Callum as saying.

He added: "I remember being really embarrassed having to walk hand-in-hand from my front door all the way down to the swing park, especially since all my mates were playing on the swings.

"I had to relive all the embarrassment when we actually did get married because our family set up a slide show."

The couple got "re-married" at Struthers Memorial Church in Falkirk on October 17. (ANI)