An SOS on Travel Gossip’s Facebook page rescued the wedding of a British bride after she landed in Cyprus and found that one of her bridesmaids had left her dress back in Newcastle.
Travel Gossip member Kirsty Cannings, Overseas Weddings Co-ordinator at the Coral Beach Hotel in Paphos, leapt into action and asked if anyone in the popular travel industry Facebook group had a client travelling to Cyprus who could bring out the dress.
Travel agent Charmione Lloyd, who works at TUI’s Heswall store on the Wirral, spotted the post over the Bank Holiday weekend and popped a message on TUI’s internal page asking if the operator could help, even though bride Gemma McDonald and her bridesmaid, future sister-in-law Lauren Fernandes hadn’t travelled with TUI.
“I was just getting ready for my Coronation Party and sat down for five minutes, had a flip through Facebook and saw the distress call,” she said.
“I got the bride’s details passed to our flight team and they organised to get the dress to Newcastle and taken to Larnaca Airport.”
The dress was handed by Kirsty to a relieved Gemma (main photo, right) and Lauren (second left with her baby, Alice ) in time for the wedding in front of 70 guests at the hotel’s Limani Taverna on Wednesday.
Pictured above: the wedding dress with TUI staff at Newcastle Airport and after it arrives in Larnaca
Kirsty told Travel Gossip that new mum Lauren felt her ‘stomach hit the floor’ when she realised she’d forgotten to pack the dress.
“Lauren said she had an inkling on the plane that the dress had been forgotten, but thought she was being paranoid,” said Kirsty.
“When she realised that the dress had not been packed her stomach hit the floor and she was petrified of telling Gemma.
“When Gemma found out, she was more upset for Lauren.”
Gemma immediately contacted Kirsty, more in hope than expectation that she could help.
“I received her message at 10.20 on Sunday morning and by 12.08 the lovely Charmione had contacted me with a solution via TUI,” added Kirsty.
She said her guests ‘couldn’t believe the teamwork and co-operation that happened between the travel companies to get the dress here on Sunday’.
“I explained that travel is a small world and everyone looks out for each other when help is needed,” she said.
A TUI spokesperson said: “We know how incredible our TUI staff are… and this is testament to that. As soon as our team became aware of the issue, they acted fast to find the best possible solution.
“Everyone worked together as it involved a lot of co-ordination, from getting the dress to Newcastle Airport, storing it in the cockpit of the TUI aircraft for the journey, passing it on to our ground staff at Cyprus and having it personally delivered to the bride’s resort.
“We are so happy to have been a part of this magical day, and we’d like to congratulate the bride and groom on their wedding.”
Gemma, who has three other bridesmaids and three flowergirls at her wedding to Michael O’Shea said she was ‘over the moon’ that the dress arrived in time for her sister-in-law to be part of the wedding party.
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Travel Gossip member Kirsty Cannings, Overseas Weddings Co-ordinator at the Coral Beach Hotel in Paphos, leapt into action and asked if anyone in the popular travel industry Facebook group had a client travelling to Cyprus who could bring out the dress.
Travel agent Charmione Lloyd, who works at TUI’s Heswall store on the Wirral, spotted the post over the Bank Holiday weekend and popped a message on TUI’s internal page asking if the operator could help, even though bride Gemma McDonald and her bridesmaid, future sister-in-law Lauren Fernandes hadn’t travelled with TUI.
“I was just getting ready for my Coronation Party and sat down for five minutes, had a flip through Facebook and saw the distress call,” she said.
“I got the bride’s details passed to our flight team and they organised to get the dress to Newcastle and taken to Larnaca Airport.”
The dress was handed by Kirsty to a relieved Gemma (main photo, right) and Lauren (second left with her baby, Alice ) in time for the wedding in front of 70 guests at the hotel’s Limani Taverna on Wednesday.
Pictured above: the wedding dress with TUI staff at Newcastle Airport and after it arrives in Larnaca
Kirsty told Travel Gossip that new mum Lauren felt her ‘stomach hit the floor’ when she realised she’d forgotten to pack the dress.
“Lauren said she had an inkling on the plane that the dress had been forgotten, but thought she was being paranoid,” said Kirsty.
“When she realised that the dress had not been packed her stomach hit the floor and she was petrified of telling Gemma.
“When Gemma found out, she was more upset for Lauren.”
Gemma immediately contacted Kirsty, more in hope than expectation that she could help.
“I received her message at 10.20 on Sunday morning and by 12.08 the lovely Charmione had contacted me with a solution via TUI,” added Kirsty.
She said her guests ‘couldn’t believe the teamwork and co-operation that happened between the travel companies to get the dress here on Sunday’.
“I explained that travel is a small world and everyone looks out for each other when help is needed,” she said.
A TUI spokesperson said: “We know how incredible our TUI staff are… and this is testament to that. As soon as our team became aware of the issue, they acted fast to find the best possible solution.
“Everyone worked together as it involved a lot of co-ordination, from getting the dress to Newcastle Airport, storing it in the cockpit of the TUI aircraft for the journey, passing it on to our ground staff at Cyprus and having it personally delivered to the bride’s resort.
“We are so happy to have been a part of this magical day, and we’d like to congratulate the bride and groom on their wedding.”
Gemma, who has three other bridesmaids and three flowergirls at her wedding to Michael O’Shea said she was ‘over the moon’ that the dress arrived in time for her sister-in-law to be part of the wedding party.
The post Travel Gossip community saves the day after bridesmaid forgets to pack her dress for Cyprus wedding appeared first on Travel Gossip.
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