It started as a project to keep family and friends up to date on their wedding plans.

Scott and Helen Wright did not expect the world to be interested in their marriage when they developed a web site for their big day.

But soon the site was receiving as many as 14,000 hits a day and the couple were being contacted by strangers keen to find out the latest developments.

Thousands of people in the United States, the UK and across the globe logged on to www.themarriage.co.uk to read about what had become the non-celebrity wedding of the year.

Helen (nee Coppard), 23, and Scott, 24, who live in Wolstonbury Walk, Shoreham, married at St Mary's Church, in the village of Washington, near Storrington, on August 9.

When Scott, a web designer, first developed the site, it was originally for wedding guests who could view the wedding list and map to the church and RSVP on line.

Scott said: "I wanted to learn some techniques for web sites and I thought I would use our marriage as an example.

"It was originally for friends and family. We have relatives who live quite far away and we wanted to share the details such as times for the church.

"For some unknown reason it started going round different message boards and forums."

The site was featured on the Lycos top ten web sites list and Scott and Helen were thrust into the limelight.

Strangers began to email them through the address Scott had posted on the web site.

Some people even thought it was a reality television show.

"I was sitting at work and I suddenly started getting all these emails through," Scott said. "There were literally three every ten minutes or so."

The site was a hit with Americans who were fascinated by the big traditional English white wedding which Scott and Helen were planning and Scott was interviewed by a US radio station in New Hampshire.

When British people started logging on, Scott and Helen decided to take off the details of when and where the ceremony would be held for fear of strangers turning up.

Helen said: "I was really worried. I thought, I am not having all these people turn up.

"Even so, there were two people at the church who we had never seen in our lives."

There are other wedding web sites on the internet but it is the detail and professionalism of Scott and Helen's site which they believe has attracted so much attention.

It features almost every detail of the big day, from photos to the guest list, wedding cake and invitations.

It takes visitors right through the landmark moments of Helen and Scott's relationship from the first time they met and the touching account of Scott's proposal to Helen on the London Eye to the edited versions of the stag and hen nights, an account of their wedding day and their honeymoon diary.

Helen and Scott first met when they were working as temporary Christmas staff at Marks and Spencer.

A year later, on Scott's 18th birthday, Helen made her move while he was working as a DJ at the Escape Club in Brighton.

All men preparing to pop the big question should take a leaf out of Scott's book.

He hired a Cupid's Capsule on the London Eye, telling Helen he had won a competition to get them a free flight.

With staff in on the act, a champagne waiter on hand filming the moment and people watching in glass capsules either side, Scott got down on bended knee to propose.

But he denies he is a born romantic.

"I am not usually so romantic to be honest. That was the one time in my life I have been," he said.

"There were lots of emails from people saying they were reading it with a tear in their eye. People have been saying, 'I wish my husband had proposed to me in that way'."

The couple's wedding was followed by a marquee reception with a barn dance at Tottington Manor, Edburton, near Henfield, before a honeymoon in Jamaica.

Scott said: "Quite a lot of people who sent us emails before the wedding emailed back afterwards and said congratulations."

The web site also serves as a virtual wedding keepsake for the couple.

Scott said: "It is a good thing to look at if we want to show our children or grandchildren."

Helen added: "Friends and family think the site is fantastic.

"It has been really nice for my great aunt and uncle. They could not make the wedding day because my uncle was ill. They have been able to look on the web site before we got the album and video."

Scott has been asked to do web site work for Kiss FM DJ Bam Bam and friends who are getting married have asked him to help them with their own wedding web site.

Television programme You've Been Framed even contacted them and asked them to send any funny video clips of the wedding.

Scott said: "As a web designer I wanted to go further and see how I could get more out of it. I never realised it would get so much attention."

Scott plans to keep the site live for six more months but will eventually take it off the internet and keep it for themselves.

Web surfers will not be able to follow the couple through their married life on the internet - Helen has put her foot down at the suggestion they should record the birth of their children.