A newly hitched couple finally got a ‘ferry tale’ ending to their wedding despite bad weather almost ruining the big day.

Niall Mulligan (32) from Co Fermanagh and Emma Wall (31) from Dublin were forced to wait almost four hours to begin their reception after storms forced the cancellation of a three-minute ferry journey to Lusty Beg.

But, after a long and wet wait, the hotel staff managed to get all 160 guests over in small boats to the island to start the celebrations.

The bride, groom and guests, in full wedding gear, were left soaked while being brougth across eight at a time in small speed boats.

But the couple say the experience brought the two families together and what could have ended in disaster turned out to be “the best day”.

“It was the maddest day ever,” Mr Mulligan said.

The couple married at a nearby church and arrived to travel to Lusty Beg resort in Co Fermanagh by ferry at around 3pm last Saturday.

Around 40 people managed to travel across until the conditions were considered unsafe to continue.

“The ferry takes two cars at a time, we were on it but it started taking in water,” Mr Mulligan explained. “So we had to reverse the car back out quickly or we thought we were going to sink.

“The staff were great, they kept telling us that they will get us on the island. We were brought champagne and drinks to the car.

“Emma had a few tears in the middle of it all but it worked out in the end.”

He said staff made numerous calls to different people with boats around the island to see if they could help, but they said the conditions were too bad.

“They finally got about four or five boats, and wrapped about four or five jackets around Emma’s dress and put the life jackets on,” he said. “All the barmen, kitchen porters everyone was helping out, they were great. Everyone was determined we would have a good day.

“When we arrived onto the island everybody ran down to the little port and cheered. We were just drenched!

“We finally got to eat at about 8pm or 9pm. It could have turned out really bad, but it brought the two families together.”

The couple have now jetted off to South Africa on honeymoon.