Bircotes bride's moving plan to honour dad's memory with her wedding date de-railed

Dawn Friel had planned to marry fiance Jack Burton on what would have been her dad’s birthday in April.

But now they have had to delay their wedding due to the Government’s social distancing crackdown.

Dawn said: “I lost my dad, Desmond, four years ago, and wanted to have my wedding on his birthday – that was the plan. We were close. If it was just our wedding, I’d probably try to do something about it, but there are so many weddings affected. There are lots of us, and there are websites supporting each other. That has picked me up.”

After the initial upset, the Bircotes couple are now looking ahead to revised plans to marry in October.

She said: “We’ve been together eight years. I was friends with Jack’s sister and we met through mutual friends. We’ve been together for eight years.

“We got engaged in July 2018. Jack got down on one knee to propose. We’d gone to Leeds to watch an England game in the World Cup, and he proposed to me before the match.

“We started making wedding plans, and then we won a competition with Bespoke Weddings, which got us discounts and a free venue – the the Olde Bell in Barnby Moor.

“We’d even booked a honeymoon, in Crete.

“The Olde Bell were reassuring for a while, saying until the Government says no, it can go ahead. They've been very good. Then the ban came for weddings with more than six people at the ceremony. That made our minds up for us. We’ve got a lot of people we wanted there, including elderly people. But they asked me to go in on Saturday, and we pencilled in a new date. We’ve got a registrar and suppliers.

“It was really disappointing. I was devastated, and I had a mini-meltdown. But you can't do anything and it's something I’ve got to accept.

The 24-year-old, originally from Branton, is looking to change the honeymoon and she and Jack, originally from Bawtry, are looking at going somewhere warmer, with it being October.