Two stewards on a polar studies vessel have ended up the first same-gender couple to get married in the British Antarctic Territory, the British Antarctic Survey said on Monday.

Eric Bourne and Stephen Carpenter were given hitched on Sunday in bright sunshine on the helideck of the RSS Sir David Attenborough on the BAS’s Rothera Research Station.

The rite — the second one marriage among BAS body of workers given that trade inside the law in 2016 permitting marriages to be arranged within the territory — became held by using the ship’s captain.

The British Antarctic Territory Government, based in the foreign office in London, will register the union, which will be valid in the UK.

The first couple to get married in the territory were polar field guides Julie Baum and Tom Sylvester in July 2017.

Baum made her own wedding dress using part of an old orange tent while Sylvester made the wedding rings at research station’s metal workshop.

On Sunday, Carpenter braved the freezing temperatures in a kilt — and snow boots — while the ship’s crew, in full uniform, officially welcomed the newlyweds, forming an archway by holding aloft ice axes.

He said Antarctica, with a backdrop of icebergs and snow-covered mountains, was “the perfect place” to get married.

Before heading south, the couple had the coordinates of the location — 67 34′ S 68 08′ W — engraved into their wedding rings.

“We’re both very proud to be the first same-sex marriage to happen in British Antarctic Territory,” Bourne said.

The pair received toasts and telegrams and heard speeches from their best men before tucking into a wedding cake topped with penguins.

A large reception with all personnel on the studies base will take location on May eight when the deliver returns to Rothera research station.

A party for his or her circle of relatives and buddies in Spain, where Bourne lives, is planned for later this year.