For 14 years they have been immortalised in steel as icons of the love that once dared not speak its name.

Now Simon Lovat and Sebastian Beaumont have gone legit and tied the knot.

Since 1992, an image of the couple in a passionate clinch has featured on the 12ft high kiss wall created by artist Bruce Williams.

When it first appeared on the seafront, the sculpture raised eyebrows.

A taboo subject at the time, images of real-life lesbian, gay and old-age couples were created by punching holes in the steel.

Yesterday, witnesses Alex Pollard and Kate Perks, Sebastian's sister, decorated the sculpture with hundreds of red roses to celebrate the pair's nuptials.

Sebastian, 46, said: "In the last decade, things have changed incredibly, especially in Brighton. Ten or 15 years ago there was a distinct feeling of disapproval. Although people didn't say anything, they gave you odd looks in the street if they saw you together.

"Having the ceremony is normalising the relationship.

People are beginning to see it as equivalent to heterosexual marriage.

"The sculpture is special to us - you could say we have been kissing on the seafront incessantly for the last 14 years."

The pair, who live in Lansdowne Place, Hove, met while at art college in the Eighties, although it took a while before romance blossomed.

Simon, 46, said: "At the time, being gay wasn't very cool.

Because we were the only two gay guys on the course, everyone assumed we were together.

"We spent the whole year trying to persuade them we weren't and exactly at the point when we had managed, we finally got together."

They were chosen for the sculpture when a friend recommended them to the artist.

Simon said: "We had to snog in front of the artist in his studio for ages. It wasn't too embarrassing because we didn't know him.

"The sculpture is amazing.

The artist wanted to use nonconventional couples because that was something he thought represented Brighton.

"I walk past it most days and it's quite strange because Sebastian and I both look so much younger. I forget I used to have hair."

Wedding guests saw the sculpture as they walked from Brighton Town Hall, where the ceremony took place, to the Terraces Bar and Grill in Madeira Drive, Brighton, for the reception.

The couple are flying to Venice today for their honeymoon.

Alex, 43, of Turton Close, Brighton, left the red roses for other couples to give to each other.

He said: "With Valentine's Day coming up, I don't mind distributing free red roses. I think it would be quite charming.

"It is a shame we have had to use fake roses but it would be ridiculously expensive to use real ones.

"I think Simon and Sebastian appreciated the gesture and hopefully it made quite a dramatic statement."