Two dedicated lifeboat volunteers have tied the knot in front of friends and family – with the groom carrying his on-call pager “just in case”.
Luckily Andy Scott and his new bride Sarah, 32, got through the day without incident – though it did go off while they were on honeymoon in Crete.
Electrical engineer Andy, 33, is one of 28 crew members, while mobile hairdresser Sarah arranges fundraising and volunteers in the shop.
Amazingly, all the volunteers from the Silloth Lifeboat Station, Cumbria, were involved in their day on Saturday June 15.
They had 250 guests at their wedding to make sure everybody was included.
Father-of-two Andy, said: “It’s habit to take my pager with me wherever I go. If someone’s life is at risk I would put that over anything.
“We can get married any day, but someone can’t wait to be rescued another day.”
Sarah said: “I didn’t know he was taking his pager – but I would have let him go if he’d been paged.”
The couple moved to Silloth four years ago from Carlisle, with their two sons Connor, 5, and Harry, two, who were pageboys at the wedding.
It was Andy’s retired firefighter dad. Malcolm, 62, who joined Silloth Lifeboat Station eight years ago, followed by Andy four years later, then Sarah.
Sarah said: “Working for the lifeboat is like a ripple effect. You’re part of the family instantly – my family is the lifeboat.”
All members of the lifeboat team had a helping hand in the wedding, from being taken to the church in an RNLI jeep, to making table decorations to arranging wedding drinks, to making the cake and creating a wooden love heart guest book – all being donated as wedding gifts to the generous couple.
They kept the RNLI theme running through the day, with a great photoshoot on their lifeboat, the Atlantis 85 – bought completely out of donations.
Sarah and Andy gave RNLI pins to all their guests as favours, all wearing them with pride throughout the day.
They also had RNLI sweety bags for the children.
Sarah said; “I felt so lucky to be part of something so amazing, we all give so much to the lifeboat but you forget about what you give.
“Andy trains on a Sunday and a Thursday night and will go out on any emergency, even after finishing a late shift at work.
“So for everybody to give so much to us for our day, it was absolutely amazing and overwhelming.
“It was magical. They mean so much to us. They’ve made our wedding the best wedding.
“We really want to thank everyone for everything they’ve done for us. If the town hadn’t pulled together like they did, we wouldn’t have had all of that. We’re so proud and lucky.”
Andy added: “I’m so proud of the lifeboat family and that they made it all happen.”
Sarah said: “We were pleased to get through the day without any emergency, Andy did not have a drink until the evening.
“He is in such a habit of carrying his pager that he even brought it on honeymoon.
“Two days in it went off when two women and their five dogs were cut off and we did not leave the hotel until he knew everything was okay.
“He has had a call since we’ve come back to find a missing paraglider. It is such a worry when he’s out at night, but it is all part of the job.”
On average the team is called out once a month, although they have been called out four times in the last 10 days.
Eddie Studholme, lifeboat operations manager, described Andy and Sarah as popular members of Silloth RNLI.
He said: “All the crew found it was a great pleasure to be involved with the arrangements and planning of their wedding.
“We were enormously proud when they decided to get married and involved us in their wedding plans.
“All members of the crew are equally dedicated, but this just proved to what extent they are prepared to go.
“I am very proud and honoured to have such a dedicated and committed team of volunteers at Silloth lifeboat station.”
If you wish to make a donation, the latest fundraising effort is a crew member taking part in a parachute jump. His just giving page is: /www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sillothlifeboatstation?utm_term=ZaMMBA5Yn