Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Travel, Wedding
Anish Vij
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Travel, Wedding
A couple's £9,000 dream wedding was ruined after Jet2 were forced to cancel their flight.
Shannon Williams and Stuart Martin were heartbroken after their plans to get married in Cyprus were halted amid the recent 'air traffic chaos', which caused thousands of delays up and down the country.
The pair were supposed to get married last Thursday (31 August) at Sirens Beach in Cyprus.
However, when arriving at Birmingham Airport with friends and family on the Monday (28 August), they were told that their 2.30pm Jet2 flight had been delayed.
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After a painful six hours of waiting, the couple realised they would miss out on their £9,000 ceremony because their flight was cancelled all together.
30 of their guests who were already waiting for them in Cyprus were told that the wedding ceremony was off.
Shannon, 28, who lives in Coseley, West Midlands claims Jet2 said there were no flights available until the following Friday (1 September) flying to Larnaca from Bristol Airport.
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This date would not leave them enough time to complete the legal formalities prior to their Saturday (2 September) ceremony.
The supermarket worker and support service assistant for the NHS said: "All we got was a text message saying 'due to air traffic control, the holiday is cancelled. You will receive a full refund'.
"I was in absolute bits thinking 'what am I going to do? My wedding is Thursday, I've already got 30 friends and family out there'. They said 'there's nothing we can do'.
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"They promised me another flight but that one got cancelled anyway. My children were distraught.
"They took no consideration that it was for my wedding, I wasn't just going out there for a holiday I was going out there to marry my fiance that we'd planned so much for."
As an unfair compromise, the couple were forced to accept a flight days later, which they just treated as a summer holiday for the kids.
Their wedding date has now been pushed back to next Summer.
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Shannon said: "I paid £250 for hair extensions, mine and my daughter's nails were £150. I paid £200 in legal fees so you can marry abroad. I've lost money on the bridesmaids dresses and kids outfits which won't fit them next year.
"It's all gone to waste - I don't normally pay for things like that because of money. Because it was my special day I wanted to go all out.
"I had an open-top bus, a videographer, saxophonist, a selfie-mirror. I feel really bad for the businesses and suppliers as well because they would've been paid.
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"God help us if I'd lost all my wedding money. Luckily they've transferred the money over for another date."
After spending 13 years together, Shannon and Stuart, a 33-year-old scaffolder, got engaged in October 2021. They share two children; six-year-old Carter-Rae Martin and Rhyia-Mae Martin, 10.
The mum added: "We had our kids, then we bought our house, getting married was our final piece of the puzzle."
A Jet2 spokesman said: "The widespread disruption caused by the technical fault affecting the UK's National Air Traffic Services last week left us with no choice but to cancel a small number of flights and holidays.
"Although events such as this are completely outside of our control, our absolute focus is on looking after our customers and we did offer Ms Williams the option to travel on our next available flight to Larnaca from the UK.
"This offer was declined so we have provided Ms Williams with a full refund. We would advise that Ms Williams contacts her wedding insurer to discuss other costs.
"We do of course apologise for this situation, however we did everything we could despite the difficult circumstances we were faced with."
Tyla has contacted Jet2 for additional comment.