THE groom was a prisoner and the wedding was in a jail but the couple still got to spend their first night as husband and wife together, albeit in a special prison cell.

After Bali Nine heroin courier Martin Stephens today married Christine Puspayanti, the woman he met behind bars, the couple were given special permission by the jail’s boss for a conjugal visit tonight.

Their first night together will be spent in a prison cell set aside especially for the newlyweds.

Jail Governor Siswanto said that for reasons of “humanity” the pair had been granted the right to a conjugal visit, something which is not regulated or normally allowed.

“On the side of humanity, we will give them a room which has been changed to become a room for a couple who got married, just for a night, until tomorrow morning,” Siswanto said at the wedding, which he attended as a guest.

But despite this special dispensation, their married life, at least for the first part, will be anything but conventional.

Stephens has been sentenced to life for his role in the Bali Nine heroin gang.

One of four couriers arrested at Bali airport with heroin strapped to him, he has lost all appeals against his life term and his only hope now is a clemency plea to the president. He is also hoping that remissions will shave time from his sentence.

The couple first met in 2005 behind bars after Stephens and the other eight Australians were caught trying to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin to Australia.

Christine was at the jail with a friend, who was visiting another prisoner, when she and Martin met.

They fell in love, Christine visited daily and today their dream of marriage was fulfilled, watched by both their parents, Christine’s daughter Laura, family and friends and fellow Bali Nine prisoners, including three who are on death row and awaiting the outcome of their final appeals.

Andrew Chan attended with his Indonesian girlfriend and Scott Rush, along with his parents, were also guests.

Schapelle Corby did not attend.

Stephens’ brother Kevin and friend Tim Fisher were best men.

Wearing traditional Javanese wedding attire, and matching Central Javanese sarongs, the couple was united in a Christian ceremony, swapping traditional wedding vows, promising to love and honour in sickness and health.

As Pastor Thompson Manafe declared them husband and wife, the wedding guests clapped and cheered loudly and cheered even louder as the couple kissed and embraced.

They kissed more and danced a bridal waltz at a reception which lasted several hours in the jail’s meeting hall and for which caterers provided food for up to 100 guests.

For some time at least yesterday the pair was in a suspended reality.

After the ceremony, Stephens said it had been a “great day” and that he always harboured a “dream and hope” that one day he will be released from jail.

It is then, when the couple is back in Australia, that they hope to have children.

Stephens said he hoped that his sentence would be reduced on remissions, for good behaviour so that he and Christine have a future together.

“My plans is to hopefully go down in my sentence with my remissions coming up so there is a future. I believe that and I believe that everything will work out in the end,” he said.

As Christine arrived at the prison for the ceremony, she said it was her “big day” and that she was “very very happy”.

She thanked God for bringing the couple together. After they met she had prayed to God to bring them together if he was right for her or to separate them if it was not right.

“I love him and I am not worried about his sentence. I believe God will help us,” Christine said.

Stephens’ Jakarta-based lawyer, Wirawan Adnan, was a guest at the wedding. He said it was a dream come true for the couple.

He said it was the first time a client had married behind bars and that it was one of the most beautiful weddings he had attended.

“It was very formal, it was very sacred. Everyone was happy,” Mr Adnan said. It was like the wedding was anywhere but a jail.

“Tomorrow they might wake up and fade the reality but today it was like they were in a moment forgetting about what is going to happen tomorrow,” he said.

with Komang Suriadi