Five wedding guests had to dash away from the service to carry out a daring rescue attempt. The RNLI said crewmates had ventured down to their local church to celebrate the nuptials of fellow volunteer Reverend Mark Broadway and his now-wife Jessie Broadway.
Jokingly at the start of the service, vicar Wayne Massey asked the congregation to "switch off your phones unless you're lifeboat crew and might get a shout". Little did he realise that a short while later, there would be an emergency to deal with for some of the guests.
Around 17 minutes into the service, RNLI volunteers' pagers started sounding off to reports of two people cut off by the tide. It led to five of the guests having to swap their glad rags for their RNLI gear and hot foot it out of the church, WalesOnline reports.
READ NEXT: Porsche billionaire divorcing wife, 74, over 'dementia-like illness'
After leaving Porthcawl's All Saints Church, the wedding crew were first on the scene at Dunraven Bay and luckily the couple cut off by the tide were rescued using a Coastguard helicopter, which had located a rock slab nearby. After helping rescue to the two people, the crew were able to head back to the church just as the ceremony was ending.
Newlyweds Mark and Jessie, who are currently honeymooning, spoke to BBC Breakfast this morning about the incident along with their RNLI friends. When asked how aware they were of what was going on, Jessie said: "Absolutely not at all.
"Everyone left so quietly and discreetly – we didn’t have a clue until after the ceremony. People were running up to us and going: ‘Oh my gosh – they all sort of got up and left’."
When asked if she was annoyed at all that they had left, she said: "No, not at all. In many ways it’s part of life."
Mark added: "It can go off at any given moment and does. So this is just so typical of what we would expect."
Ken York was one of the RNLI Porthcawl volunteers who had to leave the wedding. He told BBC Breakfast: "I felt the pager vibrate in my pocket and it only goes off for one or two reasons.
"I reached into my pocket and got the pager. It was a tasking request and at that point I saw a couple of the crew members around the church fumbling in their pockets as well and looking at their pagers.
"Then, suddenly and instinctively, we all started to get up at the same time. I looked at my partner and said: ‘I’ve got to go’ and she looked back and said: ‘You’re kidding!’. At that point we discreetly left as quietly and as quickly as we could."
Luke Anderson, one of the other volunteers, added: "There were a few looks of confusion. But as people kept disappearing from different parts of the church I think people realised pretty quickly what was going on."
Despite the call out, the happy couple said it did not spoil their big day. Mark said: "That was the main bit – we managed to have a bit of fun together afterwards."
Jessie added: "I heard the siren – I was at the back, we were having cake and stuff at the back of the church, and I heard this siren go. And I thought: 'No it can’t be.' I sort of hitched up my dress and ran out to the front and there they were all looking a little bit windswept and a bit damp from being on the sea and the boat was there as well, which was such a lovely moment".
Mark continued: "It was so good to be able to congratulate them on a successful shout and great to see them after they had done what they do so well."
READ NEXT:
