Donovan said: “I started sending out random text messages, showing off to my friends.
“I picked the first four digits the same as mine, then the last three digits randomly – it was probably about five or six different numbers – and then didn’t think anything of it.”
Kirsty said: “We would text through the day and then obviously it would become more and more frequent and then at one point we decided we should phone each other.
“We started speaking over the phone as well as [texting] during the day and then eventually it come up to the August Bank Holiday 1998.
“I said to my stepsister, I’ve got to go and meet this guy, and she was like ‘he could be anyone’, and I was like ‘yes, I know’ but I was 18 and didn’t really think about consequences.
“I just got on a train and came to Coventry.”
More than 20 years on from their big day, the pair will be taking part in a mass renewal of vows at Coventry Cathedral on Valentine’s Day, organised by CWR.
