A 79-year-old Norwegian has swum across a fjord in the pouring rain dressed only in swimming trunks and a bow tie to wed his 65-year-old bride-to-be on the rocks.

Trygve Bernhardsen was accompanied by his two grandchildren as he swam the 800 meters in 14C water.

Before his exploit, Bernhardsen joked with reporters that they were with him mostly to make sure that he didn’t swim off in the wrong direction.

“If I decide to say yes, I will swim straight over. If it’s a no, I’ll swim off to sea, and I think the wife wanted some assurances,” he said. 

Ellen Hertzberg, the bride, told the local Adgerposten newspaper that she hadn't had much choice in the matter. 

“He didn’t want to marry me unless he was allowed to swim to his bride, and I thought that was great,"  

Bernhardsen is an avid swimmer, braving the sea in winter and summer at the couple’s home in Lyngør.

“I was never afraid. He’s like a seal,” Hertzberg said. “This swim was nothing for him. I have found the best man in the world.”

The groom, however, claimed that the swim had been something of an ordeal. 

“It was terribly cold, I could feel the cold towards the end of the swim. My legs were completely stiff,” he said. 

The couple met 15 years ago when Bernhardsen moored his yacht close to Hertzberg's home at Sandbukta, Lyngør, where they now both live.

“This is our paradise,” they told the newspaper.