Melton couple’s dream wedding turns into ‘nightmare’

Jamie Ingham and Laura Coggins had set their hearts on tying the knot on October 10, 2020, and they will do so, as arranged, at Brooksby Church, but they will not now go on to a lavish do at nearby Brooksby Hall.

They had resigned themselves to having only 30 present at church until the government last week tightened social distancing measures to only half that number.

Laura (30) told the Melton Times: “We had it all arranged to have this lovely wedding with 62 guests and then we would stroll over to Brooksby Hall for the wedding breakfast and then 130 people for the reception in the evening.

“Then lockdown happened and we thought ‘we’ll be fine, it will be over by the time of the wedding’.

“But it wasn’t and we were then forced to cancel the reception and reduce the number of guests to only 30.

“We had only just managed to whittle our guests down when we heard we could only have 15 people there.

“We just looked at each other and said ‘who are we going to cut off off the list now?’”

Everything seems to have conspired against Laura and Jamie, who first met when they both attended the town’s Long Field Academy and who have been together for 11 years and engaged for the last six.

They are so determined to get married on 10-10-20 because Laura says it will be 10+10=20 and they have always joked he will never be able to forget that date.

Among the other issues they’ve had were problems for family members getting fitted for suits because they were ordered from a shop in Leicester and there has been the local lockdown there.

The couple had to apply for a special licence from the Bishop of Leicester because the closure of churches meant they couldn’t attend enough times to enable their banns to be read out.

The alternative reception in the back garden at her parents’ Asfordby home has also been scrapped because social gatherings are now limited to six people.

And to add insult to injury, the couple have been left with 30kg of sweets which they had intended to give out as wedding favours.

They became romantically involved after meeting up again following their schooldays at Asfordby Amateurs FC when he was playing and she was working behind the bar.

Jamie, who is also 30, is a keen motorcycle racer.

The couple are still looking forward to their wedding, despite everything which has happened to them this year.

Laura added: “It’s been a nightmare and every day there seems to have been a new problem.

“But we are excited about our wedding because we are keen to start a family and we believe we should be married first.

“It will be a bit emotional because we can’t have everyone there who we want but it will also be a big relief that we’ve managed to fight through the obstacles to make it to the altar.”

Laura had her party last weekend at a Butlin’s holiday camp but even that had to be reduced from a big gathering to just five close friends.

One of them who attended was Katrina Jackson, who has seen the couple have to cope with all the many challenges since lockdown.

She said: “They’ve had an absolute nightmare through all of this.

“They are an amazing couple and I hope they now have a special wedding day after everything they’ve been through.”