Couple salvage big day after hotel fire

A bride and groom managed to salvage the reception of their fairy-tale wedding at the last minute after a severe fire ripped through the hotel where it was due to be held.

Newlyweds Kirsty and Matthew Fellows were left stunned when they were told of the fire at The Mount Hotel, in Clent, on July 28 – just days before the reception was set to take place on Saturday.

Kirsty, aged 25, whose maiden name was Wilmore, a teacher at Hill Avenue Primary School, Wolverhampton, had spent 18 months planning her dream wedding with Matthew, a 31-year-old credit analyst for Virgin Media in Birmingham. They had planned everything down to the finest detail but their carefully laid plans were thrown into disarray after the fire devastated the ground floor area of the hotel.

But they were able to move the venue to the nearby Bromsgrove Hotel allowing the celebration to take place.

The blaze at the Mount broke out at 1.20am on July 28 and led to the evacuation of 13 guests and owner Edward Gibbs who managed to rescue two who slept on unaware of the fire alarms.

Kirsty and Matthew are among fourteen couples who had to search for other venues or decide to hold their receptions in a marquee at the hotel. It will be several weeks before The Mount is back in business.

After managing to salvage her reception from the ashes, Kirsty said: "When my sister Debbie called to tell me about the fire I thought she was joking.

"We were at a cashpoint machine and just could not speak. We drove to The Mount to see the extent of the fire.

"We had to walk away and were just in tears as we had been planning the wedding for 18 months.

"Then we put in calls to see if we could change the venue and Matt's mother also made appeals on the radio.

"Eventually it was agreed the wedding could take place at the Bromsgrove Hotel and on the day everything went as planned. It turned out to be absolutely perfect," she added.