A Scots couple won a £15,000 dream wedding in a radio contest – only to be told 20 minutes later that they were runners-up.
To add insult to injury, Arlene Keir and Andrew Hutchison were offered a consolation prize of an overnight stay in the hotel where they’d thought they would be getting married.
The couple, from Dunfermline, won the top prize in the Kingdom FM contest at the Doubletree Hilton at North Queensferry on Sunday.
A tiebreak quiz, broadcast on Facebook, saw two couples asked how much the Queensferry Crossing cost.
Arlene and Andrew, both 39, were crowned the winners and celebrated with friends and family. But minutes later, producers ushered them into a room with another couple.
They were told there had been a mistake, the other couple had won the top prize, and they could have
the overnight stay and £1000 as a second prize.
Andrew and Arlene say they were left humiliated in front of their children Kai, six, and Ava, 21 months, and their friends.
Arlene said: “The world came crashing down around us in the space of 20 minutes.
“The room erupted when the presenters announced we had won. Confetti cannons were set off and champagne was handed out.
“We were on cloud nine, and assumed we were maybe being taken to get photographs or something when someone from the radio station took us aside.
“They sat all four of us down with our answers and said, ‘It’s came to light that after a miscalculation you guys are the real winners’, and pointed at the other couple.
“We were all just looking at each other. It didn’t seem real.
“We were left to go back downstairs to tell our friends and family. My little boy started crying and asked, ‘Mummy, are you and daddy not allowed to get married anymore?’”
Friend Debbie Duncanson entered the family in the contest after they struggled to save for a wedding over a difficult nine years.
Arlene lost her mum and suffered multiple miscarriages and Andrew was made redundant.
“A wedding would have completed us as a family,” said Arlene. They told us it was just human error, but that isn’t good enough.”
Kingdom FM told us they couldn’t comment and referred us to their owners, DC Thomson.
We tried several times to obtain a comment from them, without success.
Friends of Andrew and Arlene have started fundraising so they can have their wedding.
To donate visit here.
