Kayley Stead’s big day was planned for September 15, at the Oxwich Bay Hotel in Wales. The 27-year-old had spent about $14,000 to celebrate her marriage to Kallum Norton with a mega event. But that morning the dream was shattered.
The night before the couple had arranged not to see each other to respect tradition. She went to an AirBnB, celebrating with her closest friends, while her groom and groomsmen stayed in a motorhome near the ballroom.
Kayley woke up happy. She had breakfast and received the make-up artist, who at 11 in the morning already had her as beautiful as ever. The wedding was an hour away, and it was then that the phone rang. She attended Jordie Cullen, one of the bridesmaids, and on the other side she heard the voice of her boyfriend’s father…
In August 2020 the couple had decided to take their love to the altar, they had been together for a little over two years and began to imagine a complete party in which nothing could be missing. They spent a lot of money to make the night perfect. After two years of preparations, the date finally arrived.
Kallum woke up anxious, tense, something was wrong. He left the motorhome, told his friends and his family that he was going for a ride in the car, but the hours passed and there was no news.
In crisis, the groom’s mom called Kayley. “She was crying and she told me that he had gone for a drive in the early hours of the morning and that she had left,” the young woman told The Sun. But at that moment she didn’t think he could run away, she knew him well, he was just a little nervous, he was going to come back.
“I still had high hopes. Throughout our relationship he went for a walk or a drive to clear his head many times when he was nervous,” Kayley explained that she trusted his man.
It was the bride herself who calmed everyone down and continued with the preparations: “For a couple of hours I was sure that he was going to come and I reassured the girls. I honestly didn’t think he could disappear.”
The call that no one wants to receive
The phone rings. Jordie, who had taken her girlfriend’s cell phone from her to avoid making her more nervous, answered.
-“Hello?”.
– “I am the father of the groom. I’m calling to tell you he’s fine, but he’s not coming. I’m sorry but he’s four hours away.”
Trembling, Jordie approached the bride and told her that Kallum would not be coming. Kayley cried for an hour.
Her eyes were swollen from crying, her makeup had run down her cheeks, and the white dress she had imagined walking into her wedding so many times stared at her from the side, hanging on a hanger. But something made her react. She ached for her soul but she couldn’t let it all end like this.
She went to the bathroom, wiped away her tears, looked in the mirror and said to herself: “I’ll do it.” Her heart lighting up again, she told her friends that the party wasn’t over: “I had spent all this money, I was looking forward to food, a dance with my dad, spending time with my family, so why not? ”, he explained.
The wedding without a groom
“That nightmare turned into a day that I will always be proud of,” said the young Welsh woman. “I can really look back and smile because it will always remind me that I don’t need someone else’s love to be happy.”
“I didn’t want to remember the day as a complete sadness. The photographer said to me: ‘Why don’t you girls continue? You’ve spent all this money, you’re not going to get it back, all your guests are here.”
Kayley’s friends, including her sister Katie, 29, called the groomsmen and to tell them not to leave because the wedding was called off but the party was going to happen anyway.
Many of the guests did not know anything about what had happened, they simply thought that the wedding had been delayed and they were waiting in the ceremony room of the Oxwich Bay Hotel. And then the bridesmaids and groomsmen arrived to explain that the only one absent from the party would be the groom.
The sign at the entrance had to be changed, instead of “Mr. and Madam”, it became “Kayley’s Shindig”. Instead of sharing her first dance with the boyfriend, Kayley danced with her dad Brian, 71, and her brothers Craig, 47, Matthew, 46, Gary, 46 and another Craig, from 43.
He even indulged in hitting the wedding cake because it reminded him of Kallum.
“I always dreamed of dancing with my dad at my wedding,” said Kayley, who thanked the groom’s family and friends, who stayed for the event, for the gesture.
“They didn’t run away, and I would have totally understood if they had, but they supported me. All day we said that it felt like an episode of some series.
“There were many special moments, the entrance of my wedding, the walk with the sparklers and the punch in the wedding cake,” recalled the young woman who became something of a viral star. She was invited to British TV shows, she received donations to pay for her failed wedding and she even won a trip on “The Morning”.
Callum? He was contacted by the local press, but he simply limited himself to saying that he did not want to say anything about it.
