A bride and groom chose One Ring to bind them at a Lord Of the Rings Wedding in a fairytale castle.

Dad-of-two Gary Grey, 38, did not want a traditional white wedding with guests dressed in formal suits and ties.

So the computer programmer asked all his guests to turn up wearing fancy dress costumes inspired by the legendary JRR Tolkein fantasy epic.

Film buff Gary dressed as warrior king Aragorn to wed bride Angela, 35, dressed as Elf princess Arwen - just like in the Oscar winning movie trilogy.

And all 60 guests joined in the fun dressing up as their favourite Tolkien characters for the wedding bash at Edlingham castle near Alnwick.

The couple, of Guidepost, Northumberland, finally tied the knot on Saturday after months of detailed preparations with Angela's mum designing the spectacular outfits.

And Gary's best man turned a culinary hand to make the fantastic Lord of the Rings wedding cake.

Angela said: "When we first met, Gary's best man had just got married himself and has said he wanted to have it in fancy dress but the bride had wanted to get married in white.

"At the time I thought it was a fantastic idea and when we decided to get married, neither of us wanted to have a traditional wedding.

"We didn't want the expense and we just wanted the day to be fun.

"Gary's an absolute film fanatic and he had bought me the book to read a while ago.

"So we decided to go for it and thought that there we so many diverse costumes that everyone would be able to find something to come dressed as."

Angela and Gary, who between them have children Michael, seven, and Bronwyn, eight, met through a dating website four-and-a-half years ago.

Their first date together was at Whitley Bay and the couple were at the seaside town when Angela popped the question.

She said: "I knew we would always be together but with Gary being so quiet, I knew he would never propose so when it came to our anniversary I decided to bite the bullet and ask him.

"And it was after I had proposed and we were on our walk that we started talking about having a themed wedding and so it sort of evolved from there."

The civil ceremony was held at the White Swan hotel in Alnwick and was followed by a picnic at the nearby Edlingham Castle before guests returned to the hotel for the night-time do.

And Gary thinks the themed ceremony was a hit with all the guests.

The computer programmer, 38, said: "It went absolutely fantastically. We were getting panicked initially because we started getting ready around midday but my best man's make-up took ages to get on. "But in the end it was just a fun, relaxing day. I'm not really into ceremony with all the stiff collars and stuff.

"I'm quite a casual person, quite laid-back, so it seemed natural to do something more fun."