Wedding couple raffle off ceremony duties to guests for unique day

But Ben and Olivia Chudley from Milton only discovered who would be taking part in the ceremony minutes before they wed in Chichester on Saturday.

They penned a special extra part for the wedding ceremony and then raffled off the privilege of delivering it to oblivious guests.

After being officially married by a registrar, it was then over to their guests to deliver other parts of the couple had written.

Olivia, 22, said: ‘That was my favourite part of the day. We wanted to do something unique.

‘It was beautiful and special when the words that we had written were read out.’

Ben, 30, said: ‘We gave every adult guest a raffle ticket when they arrived but didn’t tell them what it was for.

‘Then just before the ceremony started, we announced that the person with the winning ticket would deliver our ceremony.’

The honour went to the pair’s friend Sam Brown, much to their relief.

Ben said: ‘If we could have picked anyone, we would have wanted Sam to do it. We were joking beforehand about rigging it, so it was almost fate he had the winning ticket. He did us so proud.’

Ben proposed in 2014 by spending an hour running around the streets of Portsmouth with a GPS-tracking phone app to spell out ‘Will you Marry Me.’

He and Olivia met through a mutual friend around four years ago. Olivia’s Asian heritage played a key part in their big day. The bride and her bridesmaids wore traditional saris and the couple had a curry buffet.

Traditional British touches were present with guests entertained with an ice cream van, stalls and games such as bingo.

Ben, a manager of a domiciliary care company, said: ‘It was a hybrid wedding, as we really wanted to incorporate both our cultures.

He added: ‘Olivia looked amazing and it took my breath away seeing her walk down the aisle.

‘Seeing her on the day was 10 times better than I imagined.’