What do you get when you cross Brighton with Cupid’s arrow? A seaside-themed wedding, of course.

Stuart Bullen, 36, and Sarah Rice, 34, tied the knot in a register office on Saturday before nipping round the corner to the Queens Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton, to party the night away with friends and family.

With a fish and chip supper, floral table decorations replaced by windmills and sticks of rock, cup cakes decorated with real shells and place cards replaced by painted pebbles, this was never going to be your regulation white wedding.

A giant scale model cake of Brighton Pier was the centrepiece of the reception.

Sarah, who had not seen it before the big day, admitted it was a shame to have to cut the giant cake, which featured a helter-skelter, merry-goround and roller-coaster.

She said: “We wanted to go for a seaside theme because we met in Brighton and have lived here the whole time we have been together.

“We had a lot of seaside themes going on. Some people might think it’s a bit over the top but it’s fun and we loved it.

“I had a small bouquet of flowers for the service but there weren’t any at the reception. We replaced them with windmills on the tables and also had inflatable seagulls dotted about. It was great.

“It all went a bit mad I must admit. It started with a fish and chip supper followed by ice cream and kind of snowballed from there, and we ended up with more and more things.”

Invitations were sent out in the form of saucy postcards featuring a knobbly kneed Stuart and a busty Sarah with the slogan “what a lovely pair!”

Close friend Alice Meacham decorated the cake, which was made by Stuart’s father, and was entirely edible, except for the flagpoles.

She said: “It was a scaled down model of Brighton Pier, complete with all its features. It was well over a metre long and took about six weeks to make.”

Sarah moved to Brighton from Watford to study accountancy at university. Stuart, a personal tutor at Sussex Downs College, has lived here since his teens and met his new wife 14 years ago in the Gloucester nightclub.

But Sarah admitted it was not the most romantic of encounters.

She said: “My friend was talking to his friend and we just got left with each other. That was 14 years ago and now look at us – married.”

The parents of two will be setting off on their honeymoon to Glasgow this weekend.