Convention goes that the groom asks for his maiden’s hand in marriage but one St Albans man took matters into his own hands when he asked her parents’ permission to take her name as well.

Childhood friends, Jane King and Bradley Neville, both 26, – who met as pupils at Sandringham School – tied the knot at a ceremony at the city’s Register Office, The Gatehouse, surrounded by family and friends.

The pair, who surprised everyone when they got together, had been friends for years but had never been romantically involved.

Jane’s mother, Coreen King, from Sandridge, said: “We never expected they would end up together. Bradley used to come round our house to do homework when they were younger but always just as friends.

“They remained friends after finishing school and Jane would always come home and say I’m going out for a coffee with Bradley but we just didn’t think anything of it because she was going out with someone else and so was he.

“They both happened to finish with partners at the same time and it went from there.

“I just thought it was so sweet he asked our permission to take our surname!”

The newly-weds continued their celebrations with a honeymoon in Flushing, a little Cornish village just outside Falmouth.