A bride-to-be has described finding out her dream wedding had been cancelled – via Facebook.
Jade White, 29, booked the Park Hall Hotel in Charnock Richard, Lancashire, four years ago after searching the country for the perfect location.
But then Covid hit, forcing her to reschedule twice – before she was dealt a final blow last month.
The mother-of-two looked on the venue’s Facebook page and spotted a string of posts announcing the hotel had shut, and weddings were cancelled.
Ms White, from Atherton, Greater Manchester, has made persistent attempts to contact staff but – weeks later – she is still in the dark.
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She and her fiance Adam Flitcroft, a 30-year-old mechanic, have no idea if they will get her ￡4,250 back or find another venue, Ms White said.
“Absolutely everything was prepared – outfits and rings bought, cake ordered, decorations purchased, invitations sent – just for this to happen,” said Ms White, who is a car salesperson.
“Adam and I travelled all around the country to find the perfect venue and it had been booked for four years – we even took out a loan to cover the costs. When I found out, I was absolutely devastated. I was crying too much to even tell Adam what had happened.
“Who knows if we'll ever get our money back, and I have no idea how to tell all our guests that there’s no wedding after all.”
The couple – who have two children, aged four years and nine months old – first booked their wedding in 2018, for a date in July 2020.
Adam Flitcroft and Jade White with their children Lola and Joel
(Jade White / SWNS)
“As soon as we stepped foot into that hotel four years ago, we knew it was the one,” Ms White said. “I looked at my mum and we both cried because it felt so special and we had searched everywhere to find the perfect venue.”
They had juggled booking the wedding alongside a costly house move, as well as recently becoming first-time parents to their daughter, Lola.
So, to cover the wedding costs, they had to take out a ￡10,000 loan.
Their wedding was originally scheduled for 4 July 2020 but, due to the pandemic, it was rescheduled for 23 July 2021 – a date which was also cancelled.
The couple then decided to book well ahead to avoid another cancellation, and set the date for 29 April 2023.
Invitations were sent out while they began other preparations – selecting outfits, buying rings and ordering a cake and decorations, with Ms White describing growing increasingly excited to share a surname with her children and partner.
Jade White, 29, booked the Park Hall Hotel in Charnock Richard four years ago
(Jade White / SWNS)
But a phone call on 13 February from her booked make-up artist confirming the address of the venue led Ms White to check Park Hall Hotel’s Facebook page, at which point she realised she was without a venue and out of pocket.
“My first reaction was just to burst into tears,” Ms White said. “I was crying too much to even tell Adam what had happened – my dad had to ring him and tell him."
Ms White recalled her panic rising as she was unable to reach anyone when she phoned the venue to check, and spotted local reports saying the same thing.
It is thought that the hotel’s doors had closed a week earlier on 7 February, after the property was sold.
In a desperate bid to get answers, Ms White emailed the hotel on 13 February. But she received an email back, apparently from a member of the management team, the following day, who said they had lost their job as a result.
A section of the email read: “I am truly heartbroken this has happened and really hope you get this sorted and get the wedding day you deserve.”
Ms White said the email left her increasingly bewildered, having never been informed of the cancellation in the first place – which the former employee said had been an emailing error.
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She was told she would need to email her invoice and a bank statement to the hotel’s management by the same employee, but has had no response or acknowledgement.
Ms White now has no idea if she is due to receive a refund or not on the ￡4,250 she had paid in advance for the occasion using a bank loan.
She is also set to lose ￡350 which they paid for a separate ceremony due to having re-scheduled too many times already.
It is claimed that the hotel has since reopened for a dance event – leaving those who had weddings cancelled frustrated.
“When I first found out, I was so upset, but I don't even want to cry anymore,” Ms White said. “I need to accept it’s cancelled and move on, but that's hard to do when it's our money on the line and we might lose it.
“It seems we didn't need to bother taking out a loan since it's now just sat somewhere in someone's pocket. I remember feeling so excited finding the perfect wedding venue – it felt so special, and that's been taken away now.
“It was meant to be third time lucky with this date. I'm starting to think we are jinxed. I feel like someone somewhere is having a joke at our expense – especially finding out your wedding is cancelled the day before Valentine's Day.
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“We've already been so unlucky – now I'm just worried I'll never find the perfect venue.”
The Park Hall Hotel was previously managed by the Best Western group, who launched a probe after the hotel closed without notice.
The chain said in a statement at the time that it did not “own or operate” the property, so did not have a say in operational decisions.
Earlier this week, Best Western cut its ties with the Park Hall Hotel, with a spokesman telling local media it had been “removed from the [...] brand portfolio”.
Repeated attempts were made to contact staff at the hotel via existing email and phone numbers, but no one could be reached for comment.
SWNS