It is supposed to be the happiest day of your life...

Yet shocking figures released exclusively to the News & Star reveal that tying the knot can in some cases be fraught with unexpected risk – and occasionally blighted by violence.

In the last five years, Cumbria police officers have had to respond to emergency 999 calls from 60 weddings.

Funerals have also triggered call-outs, with officers sent to sort out problems 15 times.

Covering 2012 to 2016, the figures were released following a Freedom of Information request.

Of the 999 emergency responses to weddings, nine were in north Cumbria, 22 in the west of the county and the rest in the south.

Forty-three of the crimes reported were assaults and 14 thefts.

Six of the call-outs were for criminal damage, five for public order offences, and three for sexual crimes.

One call was triggered by a guest allegedly having a weapon while another was said to have issued a death threat.

Among the other reported offences were burglary and harassment.

But a police spokesman stressed: “These figures are obviously relatively low considering the amount of such events held in the county over a five-year period.

“The figures make up a minute portion of the total number of such events, which traditionally can be attended by large numbers of people.”

In 2012, one wedding in Carlisle ended with horrific violence as the groom’s father was felled by a punch so powerful that he suffered a fractured skull.

The man was attending his son’s wedding reception at a Carlisle club when he was knocked unconscious.

The victim was left almost completely deaf in one ear.

The attacker – said to have drunk an enormous amount – was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Wedding planner Annabel Candler, of Brougham Hall, Penrith, said she once heard a story about a best man who was arrested after the bridal party went out in town the night before a wedding.

She said the police let him go just 15 minutes before the wedding was due to start and his black eye was immortalised in the wedding photos.

But generally, Annabel thinks tensions run higher in the morning before the wedding itself.

She said: “I think when someone does become irritated or if people can tell something’s going to kick off, normally ‘the pack’ riles up and says: ‘No, this is not the time to do it.”

Wedding photographer Chris Freer, based in Cockermouth, thought the number wasn’t bad considering weddings are an emotionally charged occasion.

Photographer Helen Whitaker, of Scotby, said she had been at a wedding with bouncers, but added: “I don’t think I’ve ever had the police called.”


Vicars say the county's weddings are almost always peaceful and happy occasions, rarely marred by violence.

But the same is not always true of the receptions, when self-control can lapse as alcohol flows.

All the clergy contacted by the News & Star were surprised by the Cumbria police figures.

But there were admissions feelings could run high.

The Reverend Canon Gill Hart , of St Bega's Church in Eskdale, said: "I suppose these are times of heightened emotions.

"By and large, I'm out of the way before the alcohol starts flowing."

The Reverend Jim Hyslop, of St John the Baptist Church in Upperby, Carlisle, has been ordained for 38 years.

He said: "I've known the police to be called to a funeral tea but usually that was because of drinking.

"There are occasions when there have been factions at weddings, but it has never been bad enough to justify getting the police involved."

The Reverend Canon Geoffrey Ravalde , who has been a vicar in Wigton for 26 years, has conducted more than 1,000 funerals and Christenings at Wigton St Mary in that time.

Never once had he seen the police involved.

He said: "The overwhelming majority of people in this area both love and respect their local church.

"They behave well when they're in them."

The Reverend Steven Donald is vicar at Carlisle St John The Evangelist, Botcherby.

He said: "Weddings are usually peaceful and happy occasions.

"At the last wedding I took, a man in the choir and the visiting organist were very moved by what I'd said.

"The verger gave me a hug. And at Burgh-by-Sands a couple of years ago, the bride asked me if she could give me a hug.

"So I must be doing something right!"