When one local bride-to-be planned her perfect March wedding, it was so that she could be surrounded by daffodils, her favourite flower, coming into bloom.

But for Natalie Stevenson and her new husband, Adam Webb, things did not work out as planned, and as unseasonal sub-zero temperatures and significant snowfall took hold of Swindon, the lack of spring flowers was the least of their problems.

Despite this, the Gorse Hill couple, who were married at St Mary’s Church in Lydiard Tregoze after being together for 15 years, were clearly delighted to have defied the arctic conditions and tied the knot – once they had stopped shivering.

Adam, 35, said: “This was obviously unexpected, but we got there in the end. It’s been a long few days.

“Our boiler went yesterday – we were thinking it was all against us!

“We have had a few people who couldn’t make it, from Kent and Oxford. We’ve had to change table plans and so on.

“Yesterday, we had to go to the printers and he had had to close and left our stuff pinned to the door.

“But it was a really lovely service, the reverend made it really special.”

Natalie, 34, clutching onto a heavy blanket to shield her bare shoulders from the biting wind, said: “So much has changed in two days.

“The reason we were trying to get married this time of year was that my favourite flowers are daffodils, and we thought they may be out time of year.

“We’ve also had to change cars because the original one couldn’t make it here.”

Despite road closures and cancelled public transport across the south of England, 56 guests managed to make it to the service, including the newlyweds’ two children, Jacob, 5, and Rhys, 2.

The party, including Adam’s three brothers, who stood as his best men, and Natalie’s sister as chief bridesmaid, was then due to be joined by another 25 guests – down from the originally planned 50 – at the reception at Cricklade House Hotel.

After spending the night there, and a few days at home getting organised, the couple then had warmer climes in mind – as they head to Costa Rica for their honeymoon.