A COUPLE who loves all things military have tied the knot surrounded by several hundred tanks at The Tank Museum 

Wanda Armstrong-Bridges, 53, and Steve Ellis, 58, love the museum in Dorset so much they decided to get married there, after Wanda proposed there. 

Staff at the museum were so determined the couple would get married at the famous Bovington attraction that they even applied for a wedding license for their wedding, attended by more than 60 friends and family. 

Newlywed Wanda said: “I had always wanted to be in the RAF but just before I was due to join I suffered a fractured skull and was deemed unfit for service. 

“However, I have always loved military history and when I met Steve we realised we had a lot in common. 

Bournemouth Echo: Guests at the wedding in The Tank Museum. Credit www.bobbielee.co.ukGuests at the wedding in The Tank Museum. Credit www.bobbielee.co.uk

“A few years ago I was made redundant and we decided to go travelling for six months. 

“When we returned we wanted to live near the Tank Museum because we loved it so much. 

“So we got out a map and drew a circle around the museum within which no point was more than an hour away – and we ended up in Yeovil. 

Wanda proposed to Steve at The Tank Museum on February 29, 2020 just before the covid lockdown hit. 

She said: “I gave him some dog tags that matched his real ones – and on one I’d had engraved ‘will you marry me?’.” 

Her husband Steve spent 13 years in the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards and Royal Dragoon Guards on Chieftain tanks finishing his military career as a Corporal.  

He said: “Unfortunately Covid meant our wedding was delayed and it kept being delayed because we had guests coming from all over the world. 

Read more: £5,000 raised by Tank Museum to restore Second World War tank

“But finally we had the perfect wedding at a place we both love and visit all the time. 

“We showed our guests around the museum and we’ll keep returning, but now as a married couple.” 

Steve, a facilities manager, who trained in Bovington at the start of his military career, and Wanda, a radiological compliance manager, say they are planning to take a honeymoon to the Pacific Northwest.