A Christmas wedding '“ a festive day for Cosham coupleÂ

For December is known to be the month of kindness, love and celebration and that is why the Mortimers believed there was no better time to tie the knot.

'˜We knew that we wanted something different,' says bride Carla as she describes her perfect Christmas wedding.

Carla, 45, met her husband Dannel Mortimer, 47, from Cosham, when they were teenagers but they lost touch.

'˜We started talking again through Facebook as we were organising school reunions for Charles Dickens School, which is where Dannel went, and Buckland School, which is the school I attended,' explains Carla.

'˜He asked me out one day and it went from there.'

After six sweet months together, the couple were engaged and began planning their Christmas-themed wedding.

However it wasn't necessarily their undying love for the festive season that made them book their wedding on December 20, but more because of Carla's experience of weddings.

'˜I am a wedding photographer so I'm at weddings nearly every week,' she explains, '˜through work, I see a lot of styles and themes. But I wanted mine to be elaborate.

'˜I just wanted to be different to everyone else.'

And elaborate it was. With snow machines, glistening table decorations, Christmas bouquets and an abundance of sparkling baubles, Carla and Dannel pulled off the wedding they had always dreamt of at the Old Italian Villa, Poole.

'˜I had some help with the planning but I knew what I wanted. The venue helped me with the decor and the colour scheme was blush pink, white and silver. We had lovely Christmas-themed ornaments and our wedding cake was made out of baubles and shaped like a Christmas tree,' explains Carla.

Carla had her sparkling ivory-white wedding dress made by Chichester designer Ruth Milliam and set the date for the wedding on her late mum's birthday.

'˜As people walked into the church, there was Andy Williams singing It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year,' laughs Carla.

Although everything was perfectly planned, bad traffic put an unexpected obstacle in the way of the Mortimers' wedding.

'˜I was over an hour late. The traffic was so bad and because I was stuck in a car for so long, I got so nervous.

'˜I think it made Dannel nervous too,' laughs Carla.

With 80 people celebrating with them, Carla and Dannel hired The Wedding Crashers to give their guests an unexpected surprise, as they suddenly burst into song during the reception.

'˜Everyone found it really funny,' says Carla.

As a wedding photographer, Carla's attention to detail doesn't falter. She confessed that she will be having a couple more wedding photographs taken in spring 2019, meaning she will have to dress up again.

And the newlyweds are looking forward to their sunny honeymoon in Australia and Fiji in 2019. But for now, Carla is busy with someone else's wedding, capturing their special day on camera.

When describing his new wife, Dannel says: '˜ She is so generous and has a good sense of humour.'

Smiling, Carla replies: '˜He is just so kind and thoughtful.'