Not allowed to get married

Happy couple devastated by Customs’ ruling.

A couple were devastated after a visa mix-up forced them to fly back to the US two days before their planned “dream wedding” in Scotland.

Sophie Campbell, who was born in Dundee but now lives in Washington, had hoped to marry her partner Ian Somppi in Oban so her 106-year-old Scottish gran, Jean Campbell, could attend the wedding ceremony.

She spent a year planning her big day and invited more than 40 guests from Britain and America to take part in the celebrations.

However, just weeks before they were due to fly to Scotland, the British consulate in New York rejected their UK wedding application.

The couple didn’t have enough time to reapply but decided to fly to Scotland anyway and party with friends and family on the day they would have got married.

Sadly, those plans were also scuppered when Customs officials in Britain found Sophie’s wedding dress in her luggage and accused them of trying to get married in Scotland illegally.

As a result, they were ordered to take the next flight back to the US with their airline just two days later, leaving them with hardly any time to visit Oban.

Ironically, the couple are all too acquainted with Customs given they both work in airport security for the US Department of Homeland Defence.

Sophie, 24, said: “The British Consulate said there was no proof on my application that Ian wanted to marry me.

“They also said there was no proof on Ian’s application that I wanted to marry him. They didn’t specify what proof they wanted.

“I don’t know what else we could have done. We even had our fingerprints taken for the application. We decided to just go and celebrate with family anyway.

“Customs officials saw our wedding stuff and thought we were going to get married illegally so we were told to get the next flight with our airline back two days later. It was devastating.”

The couple were grilled by Customs officials for six hours before they were allowed to leave the airport.

They decided to bring their party forward by two days so some of their friends could celebrate with them.

Wedding planner Christine Learmouth, who had been organising the couple’s big day, enlisted the help of local businesses to bring off a bash in record time.

Two days before the day they should have got married, Ian and Sophie got dressed in their finery and gathered with friends and family at The Oban Bay Hotel for a champagne reception.

They also delivered all of their speeches and cut the top tier of their wedding cake. The only thing missing was the actual wedding.

Ian, 31, and Sophie then flew back to Washington two days before their wedding would have taken place and got married in their local county court last week.

Sophie said: “It’s ironic that we work in airport security and this happened to us.

“There will be a time when we can laugh about it but not for a while.

“We were very hurt when we got home. It took us a long time to leave the apartment.

“It was really important that my gran got to see me in my wedding dress so I’m glad I at least got to do that.”