Father-of-the-bride undertakes year-long photo mission

Jen Swain is busy counting down to her wedding day a week today - and she is not the only one.

Her dad Bobby, a Preston College lecturer, was determined to ensure his daughter had a most memorable year. He purchased a special countdown plaque and started to mark up the number of days to her wedding , photographing it in significant locations.

The 29-year-old bride, from Fulwood, who now works for PwC in London, said: “One year before I get married, my dad decided to send me a photo of a countdown plaque each day until my wedding day.

“What started off as a simple countdown has now turned into a community-wide initiative. My dad now goes around Preston, the North West and even overseas to take photos with the countdown plaque with different people and backdrops.”

The Preston jewellery shop where her wedding ring was purchased featured in one photo, as did the Clitheroe shop where her wedding dress was fitted and even the city shop where groom Jamie Scudamore is getting his suit. Each time Bob persuaded staff to pose with the placard.

His range extended to the Lancashire anti-fracking protest and other significant scenes with members of the public willingly posing in the pictures to send their good wishes.

One photo shows the placard placed by a book on football legend Tom Finney.

Jen and her sister Mel attended Kirkham Grammar School and Sherwood County Primary School in Fulwood, where mum Janet is a teaching assistant and manages the before and after school club.

Although both daughters now work in London, their love of Preston has remained and the plaque photos have provided an enduring link with Lancashire.

Mel said: “We take our partners to Preston and even they’ve fallen in love with Preston.”

Bobby, who teaches painting and decorating and life skills, got the idea for the 365-day challenge after seeing the plaque for sale in a chain store. Mel said: “He thought this would be a fun thing to do.”

Mel has also joined in the fun, taking a plaque on her sister’s hen do in Ibiza.

She said: “It started with a photo of the plaque by her favourite tea cup. Now even friends and family are coming up and saying can you get me in it.”

In the final week before the wedding Mel predicts there will be “lots of lovely surprises” in the unusual photo album.