A couple have made history by becoming the first to marry in a Church of Scientology chapel, five years after they brought a legal case to have their religious rights recognised.
Newlyweds Alessandro Calcioli and Louisa Hodkin, both 25, described their marriage as a "momentous" victory against "inequality and unfairness" as they posed for photographs outside a Scientology church in London, surrounded by confetti and bridesmaids.
"It has been a long, five-year battle to achieve a simple freedom – the right to marry in our own church with a service in accordance with the rites and customs of our religion and surrounded by our friends and family," the couple said. "All weddings should be magical and momentous for the couple concerned, but we are conscious that ours, as the first for our religion in England, has its own place in history."
The newlyweds, both from East Grinstead, West Sussex, took their fight to the supreme court after officials refused to register the Scientology chapel in the City of London as a place of marriage.
Five supreme court justices ruled in December that the Church of Scientology was a "place of meeting for religious worship" and that a 1970 ruling that religious worship involved a supreme being was out of date.
On their website, the couple describe how they had been friends since they were infants, but grew closer when they started volunteering at the Church of Scientology in London after leaving school. The pair shared their first kiss on Hodkin's 18th birthday.
A Church of Scientology spokesman said it was a "historic day for religious equality and freedom for all in the UK". He added: "They have paved the way for other Scientologist couples. We extend our congratulations to the happy couple and wish them well in their future life together."