A Burnham-On-Sea couple has tied the knot after a two year wait to get married due to the pandemic and a Somerset wedding venue letting them down.
Kat and Mark Mercer, who have been together for 13 years, had hoped to get married at Maunsel House in North Petherton in 2020 but the pandemic and later restrictions initially halted their wedding going ahead.
The date was moved several times last year to comply with the Covid restrictions on the number of people that could attend weddings.
Kat says they then moved their wedding to a new date this year as was suggested to them but then didn’t hear anything further from the venue.
“We rang in January but got no response back and we started to get worried, having paid a substantial deposit. Then, following more silence, we heard on the local news in February this year that there were many other couples also affected who were hoping to get married at Maunsel House and who had heard nothing.”
“It was a shock to hear that the company we paid our money to no longer existed – they had gone into liquidation and no one had been contacted. We’d lost the venue and everything spent so far.”
“When local people heard about our situation they got in contact and wanted to help. Among them were Josh and Molly from Rich’s Cider Farm in Watchfield near Highbridge who were so kind and offered us a great deal on a wedding at their site.”
“They were fabulous and could not have been more helpful so we took them up on the offer – and held our wedding last Friday at Rich’s Cider Farm!”
“We had a wonderful day after such a long wait. We were delighted to have the support of many local people including Amy Andrews singing for us free of charge at the wedding, Rodney Coles Diamond Jax DJ who provided his services free, and we also had a visit by several vehicles including a VW bus provided free by Richard Dagger, and a Transformer VW Bumblebee.”
“We had so much support on the day and after a difficult few years it was so wonderful! It was a happy ending for us – Rich’s Cider Farm was the perfect venue and everyone was wonderful.”
