WEDDINGS Brought together by the ‘Iron Man’

The couple: Tula Smallman, 37, originally from Cheshire and Russell Coxon, 43, originally from Maesteg. The venue: The balcony at the HiTide pub, Porthcawl. How they met: It happened at Ynysawdre swimming pool, Bridgend, where Tula was learning how to swim because she wanted to compete in Iron Man Wales. Tula said: “We met three years ago at a swimming pool.

“I was learning how to swim and was telling him I wanted to do Iron Man. A year later I did it, but I was friends with him before we ended up together.

“We were really good friends for two years. He helped to teach me how to swim.

“I did Iron Man in 2016 and everyone was shocked.”

Russell, originally from Maesteg, competed in Iron Man in 2017 to prove that he could also rise to the challenge.

The bride explained Russell always had feelings for her but she didn’t know in the early stages of their friendship - even though he would visit the pool when she was there just to be able to talk to her. The wedding: Tula, who is originally from Cheshire, said: “We wanted to go abroad but then we thought Porthcawl is so beautiful - why don’t we get married here?

“So we spoke to the people at the Hi-Tide pub and they said they had never done it before but we said we would give it a go.

“We were married on the big balcony - you could probably see us from the harbour.”

As well as worrying about the weather, Tula didn’t have an easy time leading up to the wedding.

They had problems over bookings for the transport they needed to bring her family to Wales as well as with the performers who were due to sing at the ceremony.

And when Tula went to pick up her wedding dress there were also problems with the alterations.

This led to a very stressful few days for the bride-to-be.

“Nothing has gone smoothly - as from Tuesday I didn’t have a wedding dress,” she said.

“Russell had to drive me around looking for a new dress.

The pair wanted a wedding that would be in keeping with their relationship.

With Tula’s family being English, Tula arranged for a big screen to show England’s quarter final during the three course meal at the reception.