Newlyweds

[ceremoniesさん]

A NEWLY-WED couple were forced to spend their wedding night in a hotel’s
“pokey” box room after staff refused to believe the bridal suite was theirs.

Tom Barry, 35, and bride Amy, 33, claim a worker at Marks Tey Hotel in
Colchester, Essex would not give them the key to their £180 suite despite them
standing at reception in their full wedding outfits.

The couple had used the suite earlier that day to prepare before their big
day but left the key inside the room.

They claim that when they returned to the hotel in the early hours following
their reception in a nearby venue the receptionist would not hand it over to
them.

The couple say she refused to check the booking had been made with Tom’s
credit card but let them use it to pay £80 for a budget room in a far-flung
corner of the hotel.

Construction estimator Tom, 35, said: "I was incredibly angry.

"It was meant to be the best day of our life and we ended our first night of
marriage in a horrible room in the corner of the hotel.

"I can't see how it happened.

"The fact that I was standing there in a suit and my wife was standing there
in her cheap short prom dresses was a give-away.

"The room was booked in my name and they could have simply checked my card
and let us in."

The couple got married at the Barn Brasserie near Colchester in Essex on
February 18.

The venue doesn't have accommodation and so the couple booked a room at the
nearby Marks Tey hotel, run by Great Western.

Amy had spent the day before the wedding getting ready in there and left all
of her things including the room key and her handbag in the hotel.

When they returned after the "best day of their life" they had a few drinks
at the bar.

Tom said: "We had a few drinks then Amy said she wanted to go to bed.

"It was quite late and we went to the receptionist and said 'can we have the
key please'.

"black prom dresses don't have pockets and she had other things on her mind so she
didn't bother taking anything with her.

"I couldn't believe it when the woman just point blank refused to give us the
key.

"She was incredibly rude and wasn't interested in helping us at all.

"We ended up having a terrible night on what should have been one of the
happiest nights of our lives.

The next morning, staff apologised for the mistake but dragged their heels
with refunding the couple £200 and offering them a weekend stay in another
hotel.

The couple demanded that they were given a two-day stay with breakfast and a
meal included to remedy the situation.

After nearly a month, Best Western which runs the hotel finally agreed to
this but the couple say this "will not replicate our wedding night".

Tom added: "I can't quite believe what's happened.

"Whenever I tell people about it they just look at me in disbelief."

Amy works in a pre-school and the couple live in in Wivenhoe, Essex, with
their three daughters Sunny, eight, Dolly, six, and Betsy, three.