Man flies to wedding a year early

The wedding is due to take place in July 2008, not 2007

A teacher flew home to Wales from Toronto in Canada for a wedding, only to discover he was one year early.

Dave Barclay, 34, mistakenly thought Dave Best was marrying on 6 July 2007 after he e-mailed him at the start of the year and started making plans.

It was only when he arrived back at his mother's in Wenvoe near Cardiff he realised he had travelled 4,000 miles for a wedding 12 months away.

"I am a year early - yeah, my mates are loving it, aren't they," he said.

Mr Barclay, who has been teaching in Toronto for three years, admitted he had assumed the big day was this July when he received his friend's e-mail.

"I occasionally come home for weddings and my mate, Dave Best, e-mailed me at the start of the year to say he's having a wedding - July 6," he told BBC Radio Wales.

Well, at least it's assured me a mention in the speech next year, I reckon. Dave Barclay

"So I booked my ticket, paid £500 to fly into Cardiff, got the old suit cleaned, the goatee trimmed, the head shaved - I was going to be the belle of the ball."

The teacher added: "I called his mum to find his number and then I called him up and I said, 'When and where is this wedding? It's in a couple of days and I'd just like to know where I'm going.'

"He said to me: 'Mate it's not this year, it's next year - 2008 not 2007."'

Once he realised his mistake, Mr Barclay said a handful of other oddities began to make sense, like the fact that his friend's mother never mentioned the wedding when he called her.

He said he had deleted the original e-mail sent by his friend.

Asking the time

"He just said July 6th and I assumed it was this year because if you tell the guy July 6th, they're going to think it's this year."

Instead, he blamed his girlfriend who he said "usually takes care of that kind of things".

His friends back in Wales are now ribbing him asking him the time and showing him newspapers.

But Mr Barclay admitted he had not been able to tell his friend the total truth about what happened.

"He said to me you didn't come home specially for the wedding did you and I lied and said no. And he said: 'Thank God for that, I thought you were going to charge me for the cost of the (plane) ticket and the present then.'

"Well, at least it's assured me a mention in the speech next year, I reckon."