A Bristol couple are celebrating their first wedding anniversary today in Afghanistan – where they are both serving with the army.

Dave and Claire Godfrey, who are both captains, will be celebrating with a pizza and cans of Coke.

Dave, who is 28, is with the 4th Battalion The Rifles and Claire, 26, serves with the 33 Armoured Engineer Squadron.

Dave grew up near Blaise Castle and went to Henbury Comprehensive School.

The couple met while at university in Nottingham where they joined the East Midlands University Officer Training Corps, a subsidiary organisation of the Territorial Army.

They dated for five years before Dave popped the question on top of a mountain.

He said: "I had just spent seven months deployed in Iraq and I decided I would propose to Claire.

"We are both keen mountaineers so I hatched a plan to propose to her on top of a Welsh mountain. On a drizzly day in December 2006 , having scrambled up the north ridge of Tryfan, in Snowdonia, I got down on one knee and proposed."

The wedding was a full military affair with a Guard of Honour and two buglers from Dave's battalion.

The buglers played a fanfare as Claire entered the church and walked down the aisle. They then had a two-week honeymoon wine tasting in California.

"Getting married on the eighth of the eighth 2008 means I have no excuses for forgetting our anniversary – though I would not put it past me," Dave said.

The couple were deployed to Afghanistan in June this year and are grateful that they are both out at the same time.

Dave said: "Life is busy, but, as luck would have it, Claire and I are in the same location which means that we can meet occasionally for lunch or a can of pop in the evenings, but out here work really does take priority."

They will mark the anniversary with a Pizza Hut meal and a can of Coke as no alcohol is allowed, but they are determined they will have a more conventional celebration when they return in October.

Dave said: "It certainly is a novel way of celebrating our first anniversary – one to tell the grandchildren."

He added: "You give a lot to the army but you get a lot in return, both Claire and I really enjoy our jobs, the challenge, adventure and lifestyle makes it a real draw"

"Whilst this is our first anniversary there will be many more that we can celebrate in a more conventional manner."