The wedding morning for most brides is spent at the hairdressers, relaxing with bridesmaids and trying to get over any remaining jitters with a glass of champagne. No such luck for Barnsley bride, Clare Reynolds, when she was dropped, blindfolded in her wedding dress, 250 miles away from her wedding venue on the Isle of Wight this morning.
It all started at 7am on Thursday morning when she went up against the clock, faced with the challenge of travelling over 250 miles across the UK in just 8 hours, with no transport and no money, in the hope of getting back to her husband to be, Sean, who was waiting patiently at the Crown Hotel in Bawtry.
As part of the Hallam FM Wedding promotion, the rules meant she would be faced with a series of 20 minute time penalties. The first time penalty at 3pm would result in the substitution of her champagne toast for bottles of value cider! Over 20 minutes late would mean that her wedding cake gets changed for arctic roll. Over 40 minutes late, would mean walking down the isle to The Prodigy’s ‘Fire Starter’! And Clare’s biggest worry, the final penalty for being over an hour late, would be the substitution of their all expenses paid for honeymoon in Paris, swapped for Blackpool!
The adventurous bride knew what she was in for when she put herself up for the ‘Get Me To The Church on Time’ wedding competition on Hallam FM. Clare and her partner Sean Goddard from Royston in Barnsley, beat hundreds of other wedding hopefuls, when they won themselves an all expenses paid wedding live on air two weeks ago. The past week was spent franticly planning their big day... choosing the dress, the suits, the flowers, and the cake, just about fitting in stag and hen dos. All that was left to do was for Clare to get to the church on time!
The day started for Clare with a blindfolded helicopter ride over to the Isle of White. None the wiser about the mystery location for her journey starting point, Clare’s initial response live on air was;
“I don’t know where we are and I wouldn’t know where we were if I used a sat nav, I can’t work a sat nav…or read an atlas… all I know is it smells like the UK!”
Faced with the thought of what to do next, poor Clare was clearly overwhelmed by the situation, with the reaction;
“Oh my word, oh my god…Shaun once told me it was in England I think? I think we need to get a ferry? I know I can swim, but I don’t think I can swim that far in my frock?”
After taking off her blindfold and letting it all sink in, it was soon all systems go with a mad dash to the ferry port, in the hope of trying to blag a free crossing back to the mainland. Luckily the plan worked, and after finally arriving in Southampton at around 8.20am, and with just minutes to spare, Clare and presenter Michelle managed to get themselves onto a coach heading for Scotland. The day’s adventure saw them travel by ferry, bus, coach, taxi, train, and tractor, covering the full 250 mile distance.
Already 35 minutes late, arriving in Maltby on the back of a tractor, panicked Clare was soon delighted when saw a kind Hallam FM listener ready and waiting to help her on the final short dash to Bawtry in his retro party bus! She eventually arrived at the wedding 50 minutes late, meaning that she would toast her marriage over value cider, walk down the isle to ‘Fire Starter’, and cut an arctic roll for a cake! Despite the penalties, wet, cold and exhausted, bride Clare wasn’t phased by her wedding day ordeal, just thrilled to finally be getting married to her groom Sean, saying
“All I can say is that it’s been a mad day, absolutely mad! I’ve had the time of my life”
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