Ultimate Winter Wedding: Russian Couple Say "I Do" in -17°F weather

The newlyweds met in the Russian capital Moscow and visited Murmansk, in the extreme north-west of Russia, during a brief business trip away together.

The pair fell in love with the snow-covered city - where the sun doesn’t rise for 40 days every winter - and decided that one day they would return there to wed.

Svetlana, 27, originally from Volgograd, said: “We had never seen such natural beauty. For our winter wedding I wanted to capture our old memories and the beauty of the north on camera."

Another unlikely inspiration behind the winter nuptials was the new Leonardo DiCaprio film ‘The Revenant’ - in which the American star plays a frontiersman who uses his outdoor skills to survive in a harsh wintery environment after being badly injured and left for dead by his team.

"After watching the movie 'The Revenant' I was very much inspired and it became a fixed idea, I wanted the same scenery as the movie,” Svetlana added.

Svetlana and husband Sergey’s special day was captured on camera by professional photographer Alexandr Kryazhev, with pictures showing the happy couple wrapped up and embracing as they pose for photos.

In other images the lovebirds also kneel down to feed the animals at a nearby reindeer farm that they visited immediately after the formal ceremony.

Sergey said: “After the registry office, we went for a walk, the first place we wanted to visit was the deer farm, which was about 40 kilometres away from the city.

"The air temperature was about -17°F here. As there was only one hour and 19 minutes of daylight, we were constrained with time and the weather conditions.

"All in all we spent about seven hours outside.”

Sergey and Svetlana made the decision not to spend their wedding day with any other company, keeping their wedding party to just the two of them.

Svetlana said: “We both wanted to make the day only for us, without the hustle and bustle and the guests, we just wanted a beautiful celebration for two.

"We will arrange a celebration for the rest of our family later on in the summer.”

Despite temperatures dropping to an mind-freezingly cold -27°F, the bride and groom coped admirably with spending their magical day in the great outdoors.

“We are both hardened towards the frost, love warmed us up - as well as coats, boots and hot tea! At the end of day we jumped into a 212°F sauna to warm up,” Svetlana said.