A day to remember

A couple who were married 2,000ft above the Forth Bridges in a helicopter have told how air traffic control kept interrupting the ceremony. Samantha and Colin Bews were married on Friday. They had first met at Edinburgh Airport while plane spotting.

The 25-minute ceremony was conducted by West Calder United Free Church of Scotland minister, Rev Colin McAuley. Mr Bews, 38, an IT analyst said he and his 32-year-old wife had wanted to make their wedding "a day to remember".

The groom, from Motherwell, who helps out at Lothian Helicopters, said he approached the company owner with the proposal because of his love of flying.

He said: "I love flying and I wanted it to be a day to remember. On the day there was torrential rain, it really was like four brollies and a bride, but just as we reached the helicopter the sun broke out, it was just glorious. The minister said he was apprehensive before we took off but once we got going he was fine. Air traffic control kept talking into all our headphones and interrupting the ceremony, they were talking louder than the minister, but I would still recommend getting married in a helicopter in a heartbeat, it was fantastic and I'm very happy."

The pair then had a reception at Mrs Bews' father's house in Livingston before spending the night in the town's Travel Lodge.

They plan to go on a honeymoon in the future.

Mr Bews said he started talking to the now Mrs Bews by saying he had good pictures of planes and so they swapped e-mail addresses. Mr Bews added: "We are both of the opinion you only get married once so we wanted to do something unusual."