BRIDE Lisa-Marie Morgan was so disappointed her brother could not come to her wedding that she took along a life-size cardboard cut-out of him.

She asked her brother Alan Dyer to give her away to husband-to-be Luke Edwards at a ceremony at Kingston Maurward College, near Dorchester.

But the Royal Marine was forced to miss the big day because he was serving in Norway.

Lisa-Marie, now Mrs Edwards, 32, of Wheat Farland, Chickerell, vowed her brother would be present when she tied the knot.

So she paid £60 for a cardboard model of him to stand at the top table during the reception and be included in the photographs.

She said: "I wanted him to give me away because he is my best friend and the best brother in the world.

"When he told me he couldn't be there, I said: 'You are going to be there one way or another,' but he didn't believe me. I walked up the aisle on my own but wanted him to be in the photographs.

"And it does actually look like he was there in the photographs. Everyone laughed when they saw it. The cut-out was at the top table and it was a bit of a giggle because some people took it out for a dance in the evening."

Lisa-Marie said the replica was a surprise for most of the 60 guests at the reception, especially Alan's wife Leigh, who 'hardly left him alone all evening'.

She added that the cardboard model was the next best thing to having Alan at her wedding and was delighted he sent her a message of congratulations on the day. But he complained that the replica was two inches shorter than him, she added.

Lisa-Marie met husband Luke through Alan and the couple have now been together for more than two years.

The cut-out of Alan, who has just been promoted from corporal to sergeant at 539 Squadron, is now hanging up on a door inside his Taunton home. It was created by printers Sloane and Partner, Granby Industrial Estate, Weymouth.

Director John Hardy said: "We do have some strange requests but that was the first time we have been asked to do something like this."

He said a photo of Alan was scanned, enlarged and coated in plastic to make the mock-up.