A daredevil bride was forced to throw away her dream wedding dress after scaling a towering rock face wearing it, 75 feet about the ocean.
Jill Young, 48, and her husband Robert, 52, tied the knot in an intimate ceremony on a cliff overlooking the sea in front of just four guests in July this year.
The adventurous couple, who met on a dating site in 2018, held the ceremony at Acadia National Park in Maine, US, and headed back the next day to climb the rock.
The mum-of-two’s beautiful ivory form-fitting sheath-style dress with lace overlay was sliced ‘like a c-section’ by new hubby Robert to accommodate her safety harness.
And if butchering the gown wasn’t enough for the bride, she managed to get it so muddy during the thrilling ascent that it was fit for nothing but the bin afterwards.
Jill, from High Point, North Carolina, US, said: “The day after the wedding, I climbed the same cliff we got married on in the dress and we had an audience of people cheering and clapping.
“It was right over the ocean. I felt completely safe climbing in the dress because had to cut a big hole in it for the harness.
“Robert cut the hole while I was wearing it and he said he felt like he was giving me a c-section.
“I felt silly when I was climbing but it was worth it and the photos we got are amazing.
“The dress was all muddy after and I left it in a trash can.
“It was my dream dress but I decided to wreck it because I was never going to wear it again.
“It felt fun. I knew my daughters would want to pick their own dress one day so it would never be worn again anyway.
“We’re a really outdoorsy couple. All the time we’re doing something, white water rafting or climbing and we travel every weekend.”
The day before the rock climb, Jill had traipsed through mud to marry dentist Robert at the top of the cliff and they then spent their mini-moon rock climbing and whale watching.
The couple chose to get married in Maine because holiday homeowner Jill grew up there.
Jill said: “We planned on eloping but my mother was going to be in Maine at the same time so we let her be our witness.
“We didn’t want fuss but my mum accidentally told my daughter so my daughters came too.
“It was really foggy and we moved the wedding up because there were going to be 45mph hail winds later in the day.”
The daring duo met on a dating site in 2018 and while Jill introduced Robert to the giddy heights of rock climbing, he insisted that she explore beneath the waves with scuba diving lessons.
Robert popped the question two years later while the pair were scuba diving in Mexico.
Jill said: “We got to the bottom and he was yanking on my tank.
“I’ve been known to not put straps on and he’ll hook something that I forgot so I thought that’s what he was doing but I turned around and he had a ring.
“I swam off because I was in shock and when we got to the top he asked me if I was going to answer him and I said ‘yes’.
“It was surreal and I wasn’t expecting it. We’re quite adventurous and outdoorsy.
“I got him into the hiking world and chasing waterfalls and he got me to dive and I was really scared of sharks.
“I told him that if he wanted me to learn to scuba dive then he would have to take the classes with me so he did the classes all over again even though he was already certified.
“I don’t think it was love at first sight but we fell in love fairly quickly.
“He’s kind, gentle, smart, considerate, he puts me before everything and nobody has ever loved me like he does.”
