A WEE COUNTY couple were "married" in their garden after their original wedding plans were scuppered by coronavirus.

Sauchie's Arron Uytendhal and Sharon Whitehead were due to wed at the Cochrane Hall in Alva on Friday, May 15.

But the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown put paid to their plans.

In a bid to ease some of the disappointment of having their wedding cancelled at the last minute, Arron, 37, decided to hold an unofficial ceremony in their garden on Rosebank instead.

What's more, he managed to keep his plans secret from Sharon, 38, until the last minute.

He told the Advertiser more about how he managed to get everything ready for the alternative big day.

He said: "I live in a four-in-a-block housing unit, and there's a wee garden to the side of the house,

"All the grass was long, so I cut all the grass, laid flower beds around it, and got everything tidied up.

"Of course, I left it way too late, and had to get [neighbours] Ashley and David involved.

"And when you're in lockdown, how hard is it to be secretive?

"Sharon kept saying 'where are you disappearing to?'"

But he managed to avoid spoiling the surprise by saying he was tidying up the garden "for the kids".

After a few days of work, the garden was ready and the neighbours were on board to help with the ceremony.

But that left another big problem: how to you get your partner dressed up for a wedding without her realising?

Thankfully, Arron found a way around that too. He said: "I said to her the neighbours were going to be having a party and are all going to get dressed up.

"So I got her to get dressed up.

"She thought she was going to a party in our garden with a few of the neighbours."

After that, they made their way to the garden, and it was only then that Arron broke the news to Sharon that they were about to get unofficially married.

He said: "She had a big shocked look on her face.

"She had known something was up, but she was very happy."

When they arrived at the garden, they found their neighbour David had even dressed up as a reverend for the occasion.

And so the pair had their unofficial wedding, joined by David and Ashley and their child, as well as their own two children.

Arron said: "Then we had our first dance and all the rest of it, and we had a good old laugh about it.

"All the neighbours were watching."

But there was another big surprise still to come.

Arron said: "Now the story takes a pretty mad turn: David can get a marriage certificate."

It turned out that David had become ordained online for the occasion.

Arron said: "If you marry someone you apply to the Universal Life Church and they send you a marriage certificate, and you can hand it in to the registrars.

He laughed and added: "We don't know if it's real or not."

But now, he and Sharon have the option of rearranging their wedding, or seeing if they can make their impromptu wedding official.

With a chuckle, Arron said: "We'll see what the registrars have to say."