A pair of geriatric lovebirds have tied the knot in their 80s after they fell for each other on an internet dating site.<br /><br />Besotted Tricia Shaw, 85, admitted she was smitten "at first sight” when she went online and found her “toy boy” lover Ian, 82, who was three years her junior.<br /><br />The ex-cosmetics manager and private detective then reached out to qualified pilot Ian, who agreed to meet up after sensing there was “something about her."<br /><br />And Tricia, who'd previously met four potential suitors online, said she was left “wobbly at the knees” when she first tucked into a fish supper with her new beau.<br /><br />The couple, who now live together, went ahead with their wedding in February after Ian was diagnosed with heart disease and needed a risky bypass operation. <br /><br />Tricia now believes more octogenarians should embrace online matchmaking after the pair enjoyed a "magical" wedding in front of 115 guests.<br /><br />She said: “I highly recommend online dating because you tick so many boxes before you even meet. You can tell you’ve got a lot in common.<br /><br />"The wedding was the most magical time of my life. Everything was spot on, and I couldn't have imagined anything as wonderful."<br /><br />Ian added: “It certainly worked for us. So I certainly would say to people to give it a try, and I’m happy to recommend it.<br /><br />“Tricia said it was love at first sight. She fell for me straight away, and I also liked her from the word go. The wedding meant everything to me."<br /><br />Great-gradmother-of-five Tricia, from Lytham St Annes, Lancs., came across Ian’s profile after going on the dating platform Plenty More Fish seven years ago.<br /><br />She joined the site after losing her previous husband of 33 years and had met a handful of men before messaging the retired optometrist, originally from Glasgow.<br /><br />The relationship got off to a rocky start when Ian, previously married for 35 years, ignored her first text, which came at the start of his seven-day walking holiday.<br /><br />But he was intrigued when Tricia sent another cheeky message prompting him to get “in touch” and wrote back after completing his hike.<br /><br />Ian said: “The message arrived just as I was getting on a train, and I thought, ‘Well this will keep until I get back home. <br /><br />“But later, I got a message from Tricia saying ‘I can’t believe you haven’t been in touch’. And I thought: 'This one has got something about her.'"<br /><br />The pair first met up at Formby Hall Golf Resort, Merseyside, on October 5, 2015, where Tricia had met up with other potential matches she’d seen while online dating.<br /><br />And as soon as she got talking with Ian over a fish and chip dinner, Tricia said the silver fox had caught her hook, line and sinker.<br /><br />She said: “My legs wobbled when I first met Ian.<br /><br />“I’d met four other gentlemen before, always at Formby Hall to make sure I was safe, so they knew what was happening."<br /><br />The love-struck pair moved in together 14 months later and had made plans to marry sometime in the future.<br /><br />But when Ian got the news he would need a heart-bypass operation, they decided to press ahead with their wedding, which eventually took place on February 10 this year.<br /><br />Ian said: “It was one of those classic things where we both enjoyed good health, and we both thought ‘Well, eventually we’ll get married’. <br /><br />“But I was diagnosed with needing a heart bypass operation on December 11. That altered the timing for us a bit."<br /><br />Tricia added: "Ian wanted to get married 29 days after he proposed, but because of Christmas and New Year, we couldn’t get hold of a registrar, so we had to delay it.”<br /><br />Over a hundred friends and family showed up for the wedding, where Tricia was given away by her son Timothy and grandson Henry.<br /><br />Ian said: “It started off as being family. And then after I had my operation, we had a big doo and it just morphed into a big wedding. <br /><br />“I have no family, but Tricia has an enormous family. All of them came and loads of friends. There were 115 eventually.”
