A couple who had to cancel their first wedding date due to Covid were saved from a second delay when they said their vows in a venue by candlelight after Storm Arwen almost derailed their plans.
Hannah Armstrong and Scott Cowens married on Saturday, December 4, in a Northumberland church that was left without power after last week's extreme weather.
It was the “perfect” day the couple thought they might not see - after having to completely reorganise in just 48 hours, Chronicle Live reports.
The pair rescheduled their January 2021 wedding to December 4, but couldn't believe it when Storm Arwen battered their reception venue, leaving it with a leaking roof and no electricity.
Hannah was in “floods of tears” on Wednesday when they learnt there was no chance of the site, near the village of Alwinton, being able to hold the wedding.
With just three days to go, Hannah’s brother Andy put an appeal out to see if anyone could help the couple save their special day.
Richard Shell, of the Doxford Group, came to the rescue after letting the pair use Doxford Barns, an award-winning venue near the market town of Alnwick.
Hannah, 36, and Scott, 33, were due to get married on January 4 this year - but had to repeatedly slash their planned number of guests from 140, to 40, and then to eight.
The pair were then forced to cancel the wedding altogether after the third national lockdown was announced just four days before they were set to tie the knot.
Hannah said: “When the third lockdown was announced the vicar said we could only have two other people and we just thought, ‘this isn’t going to happen.’
“We wouldn’t have even been able to get all the godparents in.”
Hannah and Scott have been together five years and got engaged on Christmas Eve 2019.
Explaining the travails her family have been through to get to this point, she said: “I thought, I’ve gone through pregnancy in lockdown, being evicted, moving house while heavily pregnant, sorting wedding venues three times.
“It’s just been yo-yo-ing over the past six months, and it got to the point I thought I didn’t want to do this anymore.
“Then four days before the date it was cancelled again - you can’t count this luck.”
Hannah said she was “overjoyed” when Doxford Barns owner Richard Shell said they had had a cancellation that Saturday and the couple could use the venue.
“It was pure relief,” she said.
“I was overwhelmed that people are generous and out there to help.”
The pair married at St Bartholomew's Church in Whittingham after Scott's ushers arrived early to light the building with hundreds of candles.
After the wedding, Hannah said: “It was absolutely perfect."
