As Happy Days icon Ron Howard was waiting for his bride Cheryl Alley to join him at the altar on June 27, 1975, he knew it was the first day of the rest of their lives. 

And instead of a huge blowout ceremony and reception – like those now expected from brides-to-be Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift – the couple kept it very low-key. 

‘It was a small, very modest wedding in Burbank, California,’ Howard told People. 

‘And it was important to Cheryl’s dad that he pay for it, so therefore it was important to Cheryl to not let it get out of hand,’ he told the outlet.

Howard, 71, was starring as Richie Cunningham in the hit TV series Happy Days and was a household name at the time. 

He and Alley had met in their high school English class and at the ripe old age of 21, they decided to get married.

When Ron Howard and his bride Cheryl Alley, then 21, walked down the aisle on June 27, 1975, they had a modest wedding by Hollywood standards, costing only $800, including the dress  

‘We sent out invitations to 300 people and Cheryl kept saying, “That’s huge.” My mom kept saying, “They won’t all show up,”‘ he recalled, but she was mistaken.

‘That church was chock-a-block full. It was everybody from The Andy Griffith Show, everybody from Happy Days, and so many other friends, Cheryl’s friends as well.’

‘It was a great day,’ the two-time Oscar winner said. In his memoir The Boys, written with brother Clint Howard, 66, he revealed the whole thing cost about $800, ‘including the price of the dress.’

‘My mom and dad had a small kind of champagne punch reception back at their house,’ he told People. The whole thing was super modest, but you know what? By God it worked.’

Howard said ‘I just knew I wanted to be with Cheryl, and that we’d be great together.’

‘If you would’ve asked me then, will you celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary? I would’ve said, “Yeah, if we live that long, absolutely.” 

‘I was just so sure.’

The couple celebrated their half-century of marriage by donating a kissing bench to Johnny Carson Park in Burbank where they had spent so much time together while dating. 

The couple were high school sweethearts and had met in English class;  Pictured in March 1974

‘If you would’ve asked me then, will you celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary? I would’ve said, “Yeah, if we live that long, absolutely.” I was just so sure,’ he told People; Pictured in Beverly Hills in March 2018

The couple are parents to four children, Bryce Dallas, twins  Paige and Jocelyn, 40, and son Reed, 38;  Pictured in Los Angeles in December 2015

The couple went on to have four children together; Bryce Dallas 44, twins Paige and Jocelyn, 40, and son Reed, 38. 

Instead of staying in Hollywood, the family moved to Connecticut away from the spotlight. 

The writer and director made those comments while promoting his new film Eden.

A-listers Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby and Sydney Sweeney star in the 1930s survival story based on a group of people who tried to create their own paradise on the Galapagos islands.

Eden opened in theaters on August 22.