Announcing their engagement

But the fairy tale did not end there. They say they are a couple perfectly in love with each other, and since the birth of Brooklyn Joseph in March, a perfectly happy family.

David has even thrown off his World Cup pariah reputation in the glory of Manchester United's treble.

Now with the tightly-controlled wedding, the couple's dreams have been fulfilled.

It started, David told his best man Gary Neville, after seeing the Spice Girls perform Wannabe on Top of the Pops. He reportedly pointed at Victoria and said she was the girl he was going to marry.

His efforts to meet her - including a trawl of London nightclubs in case she was there - came to fruition at an Old Trafford game. But he says it was Victoria who made the running. She had become interested in him after being shown his picture by a journalist.

The engagement ring

She got really interested when she was told he wore Gucci loafers without socks. She said she decided "to stalk him".

When they did meet, in March 1997, they said they felt like they had known each other for ever.

"I wanted to sound like I knew something about football and said something like: 'Good game, then?'" said Victoria. "He laughed, and that was it."

The relationship flowered quickly in the hothouse conditions of the celebrity world.

"I started thinking about proposing a week after I met her," David said.

Media spotlight

In the rough and tumble of newspaper gossip, all sorts of celebrities have dalliances with all sorts of other celebrities. But the Beckham-Posh Spice relationship stuck.

David is over the moon at Brooklyn's birth

They got engaged a year after they met, sharing a love of shopping for expensive items, and the wherewithal to indulge their tastes. Together, they are estimated to be worth £20m.

(Victoria's Van Cleef and Erpels engagement ring earned the Customs and Excise £3,000 when a sharp-eyed inspector realised David had bought it in New York.)

Beckham is sent off

Matching Cartier watches, designer clothes - including the sarong which earned him widespread ridicule and the headline "Three lions on his skirt" - and cars including a £200,000 Ferrari are just some of the fruits of this passion.

David's days in the harshest heat of the spotlight - when he was blamed for costing England the World Cup by getting sent off for kicking Argentinian Diego Simeone - were made bearable for him by Victoria, he says.

He flew from Paris to New York to be near her. "There is no way I would have survived the World Cup without Victoria," he said recently.

"She didn't say anything, just gave me a big cuddle. She was about a month pregnant - no-one knew except us - and was as pleased to see me as I was to see her.

"Once I was with her I knew I would get through it."

The press's verdict on Beckham's sending-off

Victoria's growing pregnancy brought the couple even closer - they are reported to speak to each other up to ten times a day, wherever they were in the world. Despite her closeness to her family and her roots in south-east England, she moved to the north-west to be with Victoria.

Brooklyn Joseph was born in March this year, taking his name from his place of conception. Some of David's team mates told him it was lucky it had not happened in Peckham.

Their wedding - like their relationship - was held in front of the cameras.