A Colchester couple celebrated their church wedding in style at the weekend – with a giant pizza-inspired wedding cake.

Dale Connelly hit the headlines two years ago when he popped the question to Catherine Scott on Southend Pier by writing his marriage proposal in toppings on the couple’s favourite takeaway pizzas.

But they took their love of PizzaExpress to the next level when stunning their wedding guests at All Saints Church in Fordham with a three foot, croquembouche-style cake on Saturday.

Cake designer Juliet Sear spent 16 hours on the masterpiece, which included 1,000 dough balls.

Mr Connelly said: “I proposed on a Padana and it was an amazing moment, so we asked PizzaExpress if they could make something special for our big day.

“What they came up with was the icing on the dough ball wedding cake. Everyone was really surprised by our choice of cake but they thought it was amazing.”

Embellished with handmade chocolate flowers and real, edible flowers, and served with a selection or chocolate and vanilla cream dips, the sweet treat delighted guests.

Mrs Connelly, 27, said: “People might think we are bonkers but we could not have been happier. We had the most perfect day with lots of touches that were personal to us.”

Holly Davies, head of menu at PizzaExpress, added: “We are the experts in dough balls and Juliet is certainly an expert in creating beautiful cakes, so we knew we would be able to come up with something really special and totally unique.”