Couple get married underwater in tank with reef sharks

‘We could keep the numbers down and do something that we love,’ says bride Lisa Higgins

(PA)

A couple who are avid scuba-divers have taken their passion to the next level by getting married underwater.

Lisa Huggins and Christopher Jackson wed in an 864,000-litre tropical oceanarium at the Bear Grylls Adventure centre in Marston Green, Warwickshire.

Among the creatures present in the tank, alongside various types of fish, were blacktip reef sharks, a timid species that can grow to be about seven feet long. Given their nature, blacktip reef sharks usually don’t pose a threat to humans.

The couple, who were together for five years before tying the knot, had learned to scuba dive together, hence why they decided to get married in this unusual setting.

It wasn’t their original plan, though, with the pandemic making it impossible for them to proceed with what they had initially arranged.

The tank where the couple got married. (PA)

Huggins, 38, told the PA news agency: “We were going to get married in Cyprus, then, with Covid, we couldn’t travel, and then with guest restrictions, it put a halt to everything really.

“So, for us, this was a good way really, we could keep the numbers down and do something that we love.”

Huggins went on to describe the significance of the underwater setting: “We trained to be scuba divers together so it’s sort of a journey that we started on together... so getting married was just another part of that journey for us, our diving journey.”

Family and friends watched the wedding from outside of the tank. (PA)

Jackson, 43, added that, following the cancellation of their Cyprus wedding, the couple decided to get creative with their nuptials.

“With Covid, we couldn’t get married because we were in lockdown and so on,” he said.

“Then we contacted these guys here about an underwater feature because we’re both scuba divers and they said ‘Yeah, we’d love to do that’ - so here we are today.”