A SOLDIER who married before being sent to the Gulf finally got the big summer wedding day she wanted.

Royal Engineer Louise Hallett had to have a lightning ceremony last January as war in Iraq loomed and she was put on standby.

On Saturday, back home from Iraq, she finally went through the full ceremony she had originally planned.

Louise, 33, who lives with farmer husband Elton Montgomery, 28, in Rochester, said: "Now we could have the day we had planned in the first place, on the date we had originally booked. The original bookings for everything on that day, the church and venue, made after we got engaged, were kept in place."

The couple's fast-track wedding was on January 25 at the Archbishop's Palace in Maidstone.

The ceremony and reception were rapidly organised after she received news about being on standby just eight days earlier.

Louise, a lance corporal, was then posted to Iraq from February to May, with the Royal Engineers deployed on Operation Opetlic, working alongside the medical regiment providing medical assistance.

The short-notice wedding meant that not all Elton's family in Northern Ireland could fly over. Louise also could not get her wedding dress in time.

So the ceremony took place, as originally planned, at the Glenhoy Presbyterian Church at Elton's home village of Augher in County Tyrone.

The couple had already legally taken their vows in January so the church service involved a blessing. The big reception was at the Corick House hotel.