A BRIDE-TO-BE will get to the church on time - despite cycle-event road closures across the Borders blocking her route to the altar.

Wedding plans were going well for 27-year-old hotel manager Sarah Turner and her future husband Richard Dalgleish.

Beautiful Kailzie Gardens near Peebles was the perfect venue for the ceremony and the high-tea reception.

But the couple, who both work at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, had a spoke thrown into the wheel when they discovered their nuptials clashed with the region's biggest closed-road sporting event, Tour o' the Borders.

And on closer inspection 35-year-old sous-chef Richard found traffic on all routes leading to the Tweed Valley estate would be banned throughout all of the morning and early afternoon.

Sarah told us: "We decided on Kailzie Gardens around 18 months ago and our wedding plans were going well.

"It was around April when we first heard about the cycle event and that there would be problems with road closures.

"We both live in Rosewell and nearly all of our guests were coming from the same direction."

Around 2,000 cyclists will freewheel into Peebles on Sunday to take part in the highly popular Tour o' the Borders.

But the sportive does require extensive road closures across Tweeddale as well as the Yarrow and Ettrick valleys.

And both the 120km main route and 88km challenge route pass along the B7062 access to Kailzie Gardens.

After a few frantic calls to the Tour o' the Borders organisers a plan was hatched for not just Sarah and Richard reaching the estate, but also their 66 guests.

Sarah added: "There will be two coaches - Richard's will leave the Park Hotel and my one will leave Heriot - with all of our guests.

"When we arrive at Cardrona we will receive an escort from marshals and the police to reach Kailzie."

With the B7062 due to reopen at around 2.30pm the happy couple and their guests should able to reach Heriot for a post-wedding party in the early evening without any problems.

Tour o' the Borders organiser Neil Dalgleish explained that meetings with Scottish Borders Council, Police Scotland and other emergency services had to take place before the special wedding convoy was given permission to breach the road closures.

He added: “Everyone loves a wedding and it was great to work with the emergency planning team to make sure Sarah and Richard’s big day would go ahead as planned.

"No vehicles are allowed on the event route on Sunday as the roads are legally closed for the safety of all the cyclists, but we’re delighted the Police have okayed this exception to the rules.

"It’s taken a fair bit of organising, but we’re delighted to be able to help.”