A WOMAN who grew up in Kinmel Bay had her wedding saved after the initial Prestatyn venue she had booked suddenly closed.
Rhianne Holmes, a 26-year-old nursery school teacher, married 27-year-old estimator Scott at Rowton Hall Hotel and Spa, Chester, on Saturday, July 29.
The couple had initially booked Lyons Nant Hall Hotel in Prestatyn as their venue in June 2021, with the wedding pencilled in for the same date.
But on January 1, owners Lyons Holidays Parks shut the doors of the hotel, a Grade II listed landmark on Prestatyn Road, for good.
Despite the upheaval, the couple, who now live in Mansfield, still celebrated an “amazing day”, and were fortunately able to recover much of the money they had put into the initial Prestatyn wedding.
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Rhianne, whose wedding was the day after her 26th birthday, said: “It was perfect. The weather had been really bad all week, but we had sun all day on Saturday. It was an amazing day.
“It was obviously quite stressful, because we had everything booked suppliers-wise, but then didn’t have a venue, so we didn’t know if a lot of our suppliers were able to change venue.
“Luckily, they were all OK, and it took us about two weeks to find the new venue.”
Lyons Holiday Parks provided a full refund of their £900 deposit, Rhianne said, while her mother-in-law was eventually given back the £600 she had approximately spent on booking rooms at the hotel.
The couple also had to book a new registrar in the Chester region, which lost them the £200 they had spent on their original registrar in Denbighshire.
They are now celebrating a “mini-moon” in Newquay, Cornwall, having celebrated their engagement in the county, before their honeymoon in Singapore and Bali in September.
Rhianne added: “Pretty much the only thing that changed was the registrar; we had to get one from Chester instead of Denbighshire, which changed the wedding time slightly, but it all worked out fine.
“We got the full amount back from Lyons. I think it took about two weeks to get everything back; which was a relief.
“Scott’s mum had booked rooms at Nant Hall and had paid for them outright, so had to keep ringing and ringing and chasing it up for about a month before she eventually got her money back.
“There were a lot of people worse off than us, though.”
Family business Lyons Holiday Parks bought the hotel in 2010, and said the reason for its closure was “high running costs”.
It remains closed, but on July 24, Rossini's Italian Restaurant, based on Queen Street, Rhyl, said its owner, Ross Day, will be re-opening the hotel later this year.
*Photos of Rhianne and Scott's wedding by Andrew Baines Photography.
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