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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
World
Louisa Streeting & Sian Traynor

TUI cancellations causes bride to scrap dream wedding days before ceremony

A devastated bride was forced to cancel her dream wedding with just days to go after flight cancellations meant they couldn't get there in time.

Seren Rounds and her fiancé Adam Howells had been due to tie the knot in a stunning ceremony in Paphos, Cyprus, surrounded by family and friends.

With 34 people travelling from the UK for the event, Seren, Adam and their family had been booked onto the 1.35pm TUI flight on May 28 from Bristol Airport.

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However, after checking in and making their way through security, the wedding party received the gutting news that their flight was delayed until 10.30pm the following evening.

Speaking to Bristol Live, Seren's step-dad Kevin Trenchard, 55, explained that although desperately trying to find away around the disruption, the couple realised they would be unable to get everyone out in time.

Have you been affected by flight cancellations? We'd love to hear from you at news@edinburghlive.co.uk

Kevin said: "They called us down to the gate to give us the bad news, which at that stage was that the flight had been delayed until 10.30pm Sunday (May 29) evening."

At first, airport staff had said they could only find 13 hotel rooms to accommodate passengers who were affected by the delay, at which point some of the wedding party with young children left for a hotel in Bristol. But then this situation took another turn.

He added: "They then made the announcement that the flight has been cancelled and that we'd all get a refund."

"She was obviously broken yesterday and they're actually in TUI in Newport trying to sort something else out but it doesn't look like it's going to happen."

With the ceremony booked for June 2, the couple were forced to make the heartbreaking decision to cancel, along with another couple using the same hotel who were also affected by cancellations.

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Mr Trenchard claimed not one person from TUI got in touch and it was left to the ground staff and the security people who he praised for their help and support throughout.

"It's been a disaster really", he said. "The communication from TUI was all via text or email, that's where everybody found out about it.

"Because she's a school teacher we are limited to the available slots we can get away.

"She may still get married later this year but if we do that it might have to be somewhere like Vegas where we can just go and get it done without any big planning. If you want to get married [in the UK] it takes ages to find an available slot."

When approached about the cancellations, a spokesperson for TUI said: "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to our customers on flight BY 6676 from Bristol to Paphos, on Saturday, May 28 who were delayed to a combination of factors causing significant operational disruption.

"Unfortunately, we felt the impact to customers holiday was too great and took the difficult decision to cancel the flight. We contacted affected customers as soon as we became aware of the change and all customers will receive a full refund within 14 days. We understand how disappointing and frustrating this is and we do apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Passengers have been offered £200 vouchers along with a full refund and a £350 compensation sum per person by the airline.

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