HERE comes the bride - not 40 inches wide - but in the cab of a 38-tonne truck instead!

When long-distance lorry driver Barry Scott and Joanne Gilham, of St Annes, decided to get wed, they wanted to make their special day that little bit different.

So this Saturday, Joanne, dressed in a beautiful, full-length bridal gown, with all the trimmings, will step daintily in to the seven-ton cab of an HGV, and be chauffeur-driven to the United Reformed Church in St Annes.

Her friends still don't believe she is going to do it but Joanne, of Barton Road, said: "I'm going to prove them all wrong."

But even she admitted: "Although I'm looking forward to turning up in style, I am still trying to figure out how I'm going to fit my whole dress in the cab. But I'll do it."

The couple, who met through friends four years ago and fell in love at first sight, explained that they had the idea when a close friend who owns John Smith's haulage company in Poulton offered his services.

Both of them decided to have no truck with conventional bridal cars, but to let him drive her to the big day instead.

Joanne said: "It seemed especially fitting because Barry is a long-distance lorry driver and his father before him. I thought why not?"

After the happy couple exchange vows, they will then be driven to the reception in the HGV cab.

Joanne is quick to point out however that the reception will be a classy affair in a local hotel and not in a greasy spoon transport cafe.

"We're not taking things that far", she laughed.

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