Firefighters tie the knot on 9/9/9

A firefighting couple were married today - on the perfect date for an emergency services wedding.

Gloucestershire firefighters Mike Dyer and Barbara James decided to tie the knot on the ninth day of the ninth month in 2009 - so their wedding date was 999.

The couple travelled to Stroud register office on board a fire engine this afternoon, where they were married.

Electrician Mr Dyer, 49, has been a retained firefighter for 30 years and is the watch manager at Tetbury Fire Station.

He said: "If you told me, when I joined-up 30 years ago, I would end up marrying a firefighter from my own station I would never have believed it."

Ms James, 40, whose other job is as an electronics technician at Renishaw, in Wootton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire, joined the service a year ago as a retained firefighter.

She said: "We wanted a way of involving the service and what could be more exciting for a bride than to go to her wedding in a fire engine?

"I met Mike when we worked together in a hotel in Tetbury. He was always rushing off to a fire or something and I thought, 'I could do that'.

"When we got together we talked about it and at first I wondered whether I would be able to do it or whether I might be scared. But when I talked to other women in the service, I realised I was being silly and decided to go for it.

"I've still got lots to learn but I love it."