Sarah Edwards, née Elliott, 34, matched with Paul Edwards, 36, online and within days decided to get hitched.

They matched online on December 15th and exchanged messages and spoke to each other for the first time on December 22nd.

The loved-up couple spoke again on the 23rd had decided to marry despite never meeting face-to-face.

Sarah Elliott, 34, and Paul Edwards, 36, who met on a dating app on 15th December - meet in person for the first time as they fly off to Las Vegas from Gatwick to get married. Picture: SWNS

Friends who made pact to marry if they were still single at 40 get hitched

They committed to each other and booked a wedding venue - the Bellagio Hotel and Casino.

Meeting for the first time at Gatwick Airport on Christmas Eve, the duo boarded a plane in full wedding gear and jetted off to Las Vegas to get married.

Sarah, a nanny originally from New Zealand but who lives in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said: “We instantly clicked - there was an undeniable connection.

“I feel like Paul’s my best friend already.

“We’re not looking at everything through rose-tinted glasses. We know it will be challenging, but we’re willing to work together.

“I’m usually such a logical person, but all the rules have been thrown out.

“We’ve both tried to do things the traditional way before and it didn’t work out for either of us.

“We get on so well and just thought: ‘Why not have that commitment to actually making a marriage work from the very start?’ “I’m not interested in just going on dates looking for things I don’t like about that person.

“I’m committing to making this marriage absolutely work - like they did in the old days.

“It’s traditional, older generations might have only met their partner once or twice before getting married.

“It’s similar, we just hadn’t even met before.”

Sarah and Paul, who works in broadcasting, met online on dating app Bumble and instantly hit it off.

She said: “I saw his profile, thought he looked nice and loved what he had written about being open and honest.

“When we matched, I sent him a message.

“I thought it was funny that his name was Paul as I currently share a house with two other people called Paul - so I said: ‘I’ve already got two Paul’s in my life, why not add a third?’ “He replied to my message saying: ‘Apparently the third Paul is always the best and I don’t have a Sarah in my life so I guess that would make you number one.’ “We spoke on the phone on Saturday night for two-and-a-half hours and then again on Sunday morning for an hour-and-a-half.

“Sunday evening we were chatting away on the phone and calling each other for three hours.

“I can’t remember who brought it up, but one of us said: ‘We get on so well - maybe we should get married’.

“The other one went: ‘Yeah, maybe we should’ and it literally spiralled from there.

“There was a moment between us where we both thought: ‘We totally could do this. How amazing would it be if we got married on our first date?’ “By Monday morning - three days after we’d first started talking - we’d agreed to get married.

“We both just thought: ‘Let’s do this’.”

Couple meet for first time at airport on Christmas Day - then fly to Las Vegas to marry