Couple who camped with puffins for big day are first to marry on Lundy for decade

For most couples, getting guests, caterers and flowers to a wedding venue on dry land is challenge enough.

Spare a thought then for Simon Goode and Lucy Brentnall, who spent 10 days camping with puffins to secure the right to the tie the knot on one of Britain's more remote islands – and then shipped 136 guests to their big day on a cargo boat for a glittering wedding reception in a lambing shed.

In what must be one of the more demanding ways to hold a dream nuptials, the London-based couple have become the first to marry on Lundy Island in more than a decade. And they had to jump through a daunting number of logistical and legal hoops to get married in a community that consists of some 23 human residents and several thousand seabirds.

While others might satisfy their desire for originality in their wedding by booking one of the bewildering array of "unusual" venues – ranging from the gun deck of HMS Victory to the engine rooms of Tower Bridge – Simon, 36, and Lucy, 38, decided to take matters a step further. They decided they wanted to become only the 17th couple to get married in the 144-year-old church of St Helena, the island's sole place of worship which was built by a former owner of the island, the appropriately named Hudson Heaven.

In order to qualify for marriage on the windswept, but beautiful, landmass some 23 miles offshore in the Bristol Channel, the couple had to camp on Lundy during the Easter holiday in gale-force winds, with wildlife including puffins and the island's unique lichen for company. By doing so, they qualified as residents and obtained a marriage licence from the registrar in mainland Devon. Mr Goode said: "We fell in love with Lundy on a visit there and have been regular visitors, so we thought it would be a wonderful place to get married. There had recently been a change in the vicar responsible for the church and she was keen, so we decided to go for it.

"The camping was quite blustery but we're quite used to it," he added. "We wanted to get married in a beautiful and unique place so we were quite happy to do what was required. It was a really great day."

With their marriage permission obtained, the couple then faced the tricky task of working out how to accommodate guests. They rapidly realised the only building on the island that could seat their guests was a corrugated iron-clad farm building more generally used as a lambing shed.

They secured permission from the Landmark Trust to stage the celebration there and then enlisted friends to decorate the weather-beaten Anglican church and convert the farm shed into a restaurant. Guests were transported to the ceremony on board the MS Oldenburg, the passenger and cargo vessel which supplies Lundy during the summer months and transports its 20,000 annual visitors.

The Rev Shirley Henderson, vicar for Devon's Hartland Coast, which includes Lundy, said: "It was one of the more unusual weddings I have done – you don't see too many where the guests come with their wellies."

The occasion is also likely to be something of a one-off. The unique flora and fauna of Lundy means that managers can permit only three blessings in the church a year.