Dog gatecrashes wedding as bride and groom watch on

A newly married couple have described the "hilarious" moment when a runaway dog gatecrashed their wedding.

Simon and Amy Keane's wedding was about to begin on Saturday afternoon when a passing Jack Russell sprinted into the church in Eastleigh, Hampshire.

It then ran around members of the congregation and joined the couple's own dog, Duggie, who was due to be a ring bearer.

Simon, 31, who had been feeling nervous as he waited for his bride's big entrance, said it had been "kind of hilarious".

"I just wanted everything to be perfect," he said. "As all the guests stood up, I thought 'here we go'.

"I looked down the aisle expecting to see the bridesmaids and suddenly saw a dog I didn't recognise running up towards me.

"I saw the owner, who had obviously just come off the street and looked mortified."

Bride Amy, 30, had been waiting to make her entrance into the church on Desborough Road.

She said: "I saw the dog coming down the street. I was a bit worried as it wasn't on a lead and it ran straight in."

She and her bridesmaids looked on "in absolute fits" as the dog did laps of the inside of the church with its owner and other guests trying to usher it away.

"It calmed everyone down and set the tone for a lovely rest of the day," she said.

Amy said the couple had since spoken to the dog's owner and reassured him he had "nothing to apologise for".

Father of the bride Charley Scarbro said the unexpected arrival had "just made the day", adding: "People were talking about it all day.

"The dog was so excitable it didn't know what to do or where to go. It just ran round and under people's legs."