Wet ceremony for their underwater wedding

The beautiful bride wore a pure white waterproof dress and a pair of white flippers. Her head was covered with diving gear. The bridegroom too was dressed similarly and wearing diving gear.

This was how Kate Watkinson and her husband Andy were dressed for their underwater wedding in the Maldives. After getting married in the UK first, to make their marriage legal, they had a second wedding ceremony on their honeymoon in the Maldives.

The aisle was marked out by dolphin statues blowing bubbles and the vows exchanged in front of a table shaped like a manta ray.

Kate said: "We didn't do exchanging of the rings, instead we had the mixing of shells. So we each had some small sea shells and then we mixed them in together and the idea is, they can't be separated. It was absolutely wonderful."

The couple, who lives in Bromley, got married in the Maldives after their UK ceremony last March.

Andy said: "It really was beautiful down there. It was just amazing, so peaceful."

Kate and Andy have been visiting the Maldives for many years. This year's visit would make it their 17th visit to the Bandos Island resort.

The day started off with Kate getting dressed as any other bride. Dressed in white, smiles from ear to ear, and looking absolutely stunning, she walked towards her husband - Andy. Both of them are keen divers and have described that they are 'the happiest when we are underwater'.

Bubbling with happiness Kate said: "We wanted to celebrate our wedding with all our friends here in Bandos. Ramune (from the dive centre) flew to the UK to be my bridesmaid at our UK wedding, but we wanted to do something here as well. As diving is our passion it seemed right that we should have our wedding at underwater. After all, that is one of the main reasons why we come to the Maldives so often to dive. Being underwater is where we are most relaxed. Our family and close friends celebrated with us in the UK, but we have close friends here in Bandos who joined us underwater to celebrate. I am not worried about not getting my dress wet. I purchased the dress especially for that reason - it has to be easy to swim in and relatively light weight and not to bulky so that my dive gear would go over the top."

They went underwater along with the minister, and a small group of their closest friends from the resort.

When the wedding was done with, they slowly came aboard once again, to head back to the island, for the cake-cutting ceremony.

The couple were greeted at the beach by traditional Bodu Beru group, and a drink of Kurumba. Taking pictures, and laughing gaily, the couple walked to where the cake was set up.

The resort don't normally hold underwater weddings, but thanks to Kate and Andy, this would be the first of many underwater wedding celebrations to take place at the beautiful resort.