Kindhearted staff work for free to save couple's wedding

Hotel staff, who lost their jobs when the venue closed, turned up for work on Saturday, to save a couple's dream wedding from disaster.

Adam Sanders and Amanda Mularczyk, both 35, had booked the £4,200 party at the South Marston Hotel and Leisure Club, in Swindon for 200 guests, two years ago.

However, they were told on Thursday that the venue was closing down - despite the fact that their wedding reception was scheduled for Saturday.

All 45 employees of the 60-bed hotel lost their jobs, and have been told they won't be paid this month's wages. But when they realised that this would ruin Adam and Amanda's big day, they pleaded with auditors to allow the venue to stay open.

And on Saturday, around a dozen staff turned up to make sure everything went according to plan.

"I walked into the hotel on Thursday and Kelly our organiser just broke down and we could see it all over her face," Adam tells the Swindon Advertiser.

"Her team has been incredible and if it wasn't for them coming in unpaid it wouldn't even go ahead. They are bending over backwards to make it happen. It's overwhelming."

The couple organised a whip-round at the reception to make sure the staff got at least something for their trouble.

While the closure was announced in May, it was originally scheduled for October - but was brought forward unexpectedly this week. While guests booked in for a night or two would have been able to make alternative arrangements, wedding receptions can't be put together at a couple of days' notice.

However, three other local venues - Blunsdon House Hotel, The Wiltshire Hotel Golf and Leisure Club in Royal Wootton Bassett and Alexandra House in Wroughton - have said they will fit in any disappointed wedding parties if possible and match the South Marston Hotel's prices if proof of contracts can be produced.

Of all the fears about the big day, the closure of the venue is probably not high on the list. However, it happens surprisingly often.

In January, the Manor Barn, in Buriton, East Hants, closed down unexpectedly, leaving as many as 50 engaged couples in the lurch.

In May, the River's Edge Hotel in Gateshead was sold and turned into a care home without any warning to those who had booked wedding receptions. And last September, couples were left in shock after discovering that the Milton Barns Hotel in Hampshire had shut up shop - and that police were hunting for the owners, who'd fled to Canada.