Arm in arm outside the bride’s family church, Catherine and Benjamin Mullany smiled as they prepared to spend the rest of their lives together.

Two weeks later parishioners who had thrown confetti at St John the Evangelist Church were shocked to hear about the murder of their golden girl, while her new husband was left fighting for his own life.

More than 100 friends and relatives of the couple, known as Cath and Ben, had packed into the 12th-century church in Pontardawe (Cilybebyll), near Swansea, South Wales, for their wedding on July 12.

Dozens of pictures of the ceremony and the reception in a marquee at the bride’s family farm were later posted on a social networking site. One comment read: “Congratulations! Wishing you and your husband the happiest of lives together, xxx.”

A friend of the couple said: “When we waved them off they were the happiest couple in the world. They were a very devoted couple and had everything to look forward to in life.”

Two days after the ceremony they jetted off for a honeymoon on the Caribbean island of Antigua, where they were shot during a suspected robbery on Sunday.

Gareth Jones, the bride’s uncle, described yesterday how her parents were surrounded by photographs at home of their daughter’s wedding. “She was married a fortnight ago and will now never see the photographs of her own wedding,” he said.

Dr Mullany had spent months planning every details of her wedding day. A friend said that the Welsh-speaking paediatrician was as “a very traditional girl who wanted a proper white wedding”.

Mike Cosgrove, a paediatric consultant and clinical director at the Singleton Hospital in Swansea where Dr Mullany worked, said yesterday: “She had so looked forward to her wedding; she had talked about it for months.

“We were expecting Catherine back from her honeymoon today and instead we heard this terrible news.”

Even for those used to dealing the life’s tragedies the news from Antigua was almost unbearable.

The Rev Martyn Perry, who officiated at the wedding, told a parishioner: “It is difficult to take in. Just two weeks ago they stood in front of me exchanging their vows, and now this.”

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