Unlucky bride whose honeymoon and hen do were ruined has now had wedding cancelled by coronavirus

After encountering huge obstacles to her dream wedding venue, honeymoon and hen do, a bride has revealed her “devastation” after her big day has now been cancelled by coronavirus.

Steph Carr, 31, was over the moon when her partner of 13 years James Fuller, 35, popped the question at their home in Staines, Surrey in August 2018 - however shortly afterwards her honeymoon was called off by Thomas Cook collapsing and then her hen do was ruined when a stripper broke his leg.

The mum-of-two’s string of bad luck began when her dream wedding venue became unavailable after Netflix bought it.

She booked another place and also a two week trip to Florida for her honeymoon, but lost the £3,500 holiday when Thomas Cook collapsed.

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Then, the management accountant’s hen do ended in disaster when a 'Dreamboy' injured himself and knocked an elderly woman unconscious after falling into the crowd.

Now her big day, due to take place on Friday, and the subsequent rebooked honeymoon, have been cancelled due to coronavirus.

Steph - who is mum to daughter Sophie, 11, and six-year-old son Harry - said: "It has been absolutely devastating - you start to feel like your wedding is cursed, like how could so many things go wrong?

"This is supposed to be every girl's dream come true and a fairytale day but it has been more like a nightmare.

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"I'm really organised, I had the venue booked a month after we got engaged and by January 2019, everything was sorted - the dress, the caterers, the lot.

"Every time something went wrong, I'd work so hard to fix it and find an alternative, but with coronavirus hitting the UK weeks before the wedding, there was no way it was going ahead.

"We are having to postpone the wedding now, our venue have been helpful with looking for another date but I don't know if our suppliers can do then so it's all a mess.

"I am really upset, I just wanted to marry James and it seems like the world has done everything it can to stop that which is so devastating.”

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A month after they became engaged, the couple secured their first-choice wedding venue, Littleton Park House at Shepperton Studios - but in April 2019 they called her up to cancel.

Despite offering a refund, many other venues had already been booked for their set wedding date and the cheapest they could get was £2,000 more than what they had initially spent.

Steph explained: "I sued Shepperton Studios for the £2,000 excess because it was their fault we were left paying that much for a new venue, and they settled out of court with us and paid us the money.

"It wasn't until three months later that I saw in the press that Netflix had signed a production deal with Shepperton Studios and I realised that's why they'd cancelled my wedding."

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In July 2019, Netflix announced they had struck a deal to set up a permanent production base at Shepperton Studios, guaranteeing the streaming service exclusive access to most of the facilities there.

A spokesperson from Shepperton Studios said: "Unfortunately, a vendor scheduled events when our facilities were unavailable. We are very sorry to any parties that have been impacted by this."

They booked another venue and also planned a honeymoon at Disneyland Florida for two weeks with their children.

However, when the travel agency collapsed they lost their £3,500 trip.

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Steph recalled: "I couldn't believe it, I was in total shock. We'd been saving up forever for this holiday and the kids were so excited and it was all coming crashing down around us.

"I couldn't get hold of anybody at Thomas Cook, it was mayhem, I had no idea if I would get my money back at all and we totally panicked.”

Fortunately, they managed to get a full refund three months later and booked the holiday again directly through Disney.

Then, in February of this year, she was about to enjoy her hen do at the For Your Eyes Only club in Shoreditch where they were putting on the ‘Dreamboys’ show.

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They had just arrived when a male stripper shattered his leg after jumping onto a 20ft fireman's pole that ripped out of the ceiling, sending him crashing into the audience and knocking an elderly lady unconscious.

Steph said: “We were all sent to the back of the room whilst this poor guy lay on the stage with his leg facing the wrong way.

"It was an absolute mess, the night was ruined and we didn't want to stay in London so we just called the limo back and went straight back home.

"We ended up in a cocktail bar back in our local town and we still had a good time but I wanted my hen do to be at the show so it was disappointing to leave so suddenly."

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Finally, with the coronavirus outbreak, the couple have been forced to postpone their celebrations indefinitely.

Steph said: "I've got elderly relatives who wouldn't be able to come, the hotel advised us to reschedule and with the rule about social distancing, we had to make the decision to postpone.

"We're looking at rescheduling it for September 2020 as the venue said they can give us a date then, but all our wedding stuff has our original date on and I don't know if my suppliers would be available.

"Speaking to Disney about the honeymoon is proving to be a nightmare - they won't honour our free breakfast dining if we reschedule for October and the hotel isn't available so would cost loads more to rebook.”

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The future bride continued: "I'm absolutely gutted. I've had two guests say to me today that they don't think they can get time off for the new date which is understandable but so upsetting.

"James is obviously upset and so are the kids - my son Harry actually said 'I hate this planet' when we told him.

"I'm feeling very stressed and deflated and I don't really know what more I can do to make everything work like it did before."

James added: "I'm devastated that this has happened and there is nothing I can do to change it or make things better.

"It's all been very upsetting for all of us but I am still looking forward to marrying Steph, whenever that will be."