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AssetID: 35703102

Headline: Couple Take Photobooth Picture Every Year For 19 Years

Caption: STORY COPY: A couple have taken photobooth pictures together annually for 19 years. Giles Paley-Phillips, 41, and now wife, Michelle, 37, decided to document their love using passport photograph machines in 2000. Since then the couple from Seaford, East Sussex, have ventured into a booth every year - and now have to squeeze in their two children: Elijah, 11, and Sonny, nine. The result is a series of pictures that chart their relationship from a beaming couple in the first flushes of love to a contented family of four. They snapped the latest portrait this month (November). Giles, who launched his Blank podcast earlier this month, says: "It's becoming increasingly difficult to find photo booths these days, we have to travel several miles to a nearby Sainsbury's, also the machines are becoming too sophisticated, with a vast array of options. The kids still like to play along with the whole tradition, but it is becoming more of a squeeze in the booth, but it's still a special day when we go out and get it done. Maybe one day there will grandchildren to squash into the booth." Giles was 23 and with bleached hair when 18-year-old Michelle joined him in a Brighton train station booth after having dated for a few weeks. They had grown up in the same small town and known each other as children but had recently bumped into one another again. "I thought 'Wow!'" says Giles. From then, the pictures chart changing styles and a greying of the hair - and one, then two children. By 2002, Giles and Michelle, were able to appear as a married couple. " I loved having a picture with my 'wife'. We felt as if we'd been together for many years and knew it was right." Giles says that 2006's image was a "momentous photobooth moment" as Michelle was three months pregnant. "She had terrible morning sickness that day. I think we both knew life would never be the same again." However, first child Elijah would only appear two years later, as for 2007's picture the couple snuck into a booth on their first night alone since the birth. "Michelle and I had had little time together since the birth, so we literally ran into a booth that was outside a supermarket." In 2009, the picture frame was full as new baby Sonny was able to join the family portrait. Giles says: "The photobooth was in a post office and I remember trying to squeeze two growing children into the booth and realising there would be less and less space each year as they got bigger and that one day they would be grown men like me." By 2012, the effects of having two energetic young sons was also visible, as Giles says he finally let his grey hair come through. The family say they will try to continue the tradition as Elijah and Sonny grow up. Looking back, Giles says: "I think we both know we are different people, but the same somehow. My feelings for Michelle are just the same, perhaps stronger than ever. "Our favourite picture is the one where the four of us are in it for the first time, our family complete." Blank podcast: https://theblankpodcast.com/new-page/

Keywords: odd,oddity,offbeat,funny,LOL,quirky,weird,amazing,interesting,cool,humour

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