Wedding day 'went to pot'

10:08am Saturday 26th January 2008

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A COUPLE were left standing out on the street on their wedding day after a mix up at the register office.

Ruth and James Middleton-Lee were due to get married at 11.20am on January 12 at the High Wycombe Register Office.

"I�ve got no photographs of me walking down the aisle with my father."

Mrs Ruth Middleton-Lee

Mrs Middleton-Lee said: "We arrived at the register office and it was locked. All my guests, myself and my husband to be had to stand outside.

"Eventually, someone turned up and said she had not been expecting our wedding or the wedding before us."

Mrs Middleton-Lee, from Daws Lea, High Wycombe, had to wait to be married before being rushed through. The delay meant that she missed her reception at the Compleat Angler in Marlow.

She said: "I've got no photographs of me walking down the aisle with my father. We didn't have any of the music that we'd organised. I did a lot of planning and it all went to pot."

Luckily, the Hand and Flowers restaurant in West Street, Marlow was able to organise a meal at short notice.

"They opened the restaurant early for us and let us go for dinner. They gave us free champagne on the house and really came to our rescue. They were fantastic. We stayed in one of their suites for the night."

Bucks County Council, which runs the register office in High Wycombe, said that the office "apologised unreservedly" for the mistake.

Margaret Dewar, cabinet member for community services, said: "Due to a combination of sickness and a rota mix-up, four couples' weddings were delayed by about an hour on Saturday, January 12.

"We marry some 1,300 couples a year and this is the first time this has happened in the many years the service has been operating.

"Our registrars are all too aware that this is one of the happiest days of many people's lives and can only apologise unreservedly to these four couples and hope they went on to have a wonderful day."