'Love is love': Ten years on from Berkshire's first same-sex marriages

Last year marked the 10th anniversary of same-sex marriage being legalised in England and Wales, and Friday is exactly a decade since the first weddings took place.

BBC South has spoken to couples across Berkshire who have got married in the last 10 years.

Maria and Yvette Freeman-Keep have been together for 24 years. Maria told BBC Radio Berkshire's Love Made Legal series she "didn't want to go through my life not having a wife".

"If I was going to marry her, I wanted to be married and not civil partnered," she said.

Being unable to get married until they had been together for more than a decade presented practical difficulties, too - not least because Yvette was a police officer, and Maria wanted to have rights if anything happened to her.

"It's been so hard being gay not to have all the same rights as a heterosexual couple," said Maria.

Yvette said they were only the second or third gay couple in Berkshire to register. Afterwards, a man came up to them and said he could not believe they were having a double wedding

"He was looking all over the place for two grooms," said Maria.

"It's still not accepted."

But neither of them have any regrets.

"She's my world and I'd marry her again tomorrow," said Maria.

Megan and Whitney Bacon-Evans met online in 2006.

"I knew, even though I was only 19 or 20 at this time, that I was going to marry Megan," Whitney told BBC Radio Berkshire.

"It was the strongest feeling I've ever had in my entire life."

They were long distance for four years while Megan was studying in Cardiff and Whitney in Hawaii, but then Whitney moved to Windsor and they entered into a civil partnership.

Megan said they were "grateful" at that stage, but they always wanted to get married when it was legal.

Simon Scaddan and Vas Caramb also met online. At the time, Vas was in hospital in Bucharest with pneumonia. They had to use Google Translate to communicate at the start, and then eventually Vas came to settle in the UK.

Simon was married to a woman for 25 years, but he told BBC Radio Berkshire he always knew he was gay and it was "a great relief" to come out.

He said that with Vas, despite the language barrier and cultural differences, he "just knew".

He proposed on the London Eye, and they entered into a civil partnership because it gave them both "stability", but they always wanted to get married.

"I wanted to call him my husband," said Simon.

When Claire and Jodie Anderton met, it was working in the restaurant that Claire owned, and Claire was in a relationship with a man.

She knew she was gay, but it was "buried deep down", and she did not come out until she was 30.

She says that when she started a relationship with Jodie, it "felt completely normal".

"I never ever looked back," she said.

Jodie proposed when they had been together for 10 years - she did not want to be in a civil partnership.

"Love is love," she said.

"Why can't we marry the same way that every other person in love could marry?"

She said she knew that gay marriage would eventually be legalised. They got engaged on a narrowboat in Reading, and got married in Henley.

Jodie said it feels like gay marriage has "always been accepted" now.

"It feels like this is it, it's been this way for ever," she said.

"I feel like I was part of the generation that paved the way for [acceptance], and that's a really nice feeling... it's a beautiful, beautiful thing and there's no fear to be who you want to be now."

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