Snow fails to halt white wedding

Pete Read and bride Nic Hughes eventually made it to the church

A couple who planned a white wedding got more than they bargained for when the groom found himself trapped after heavy snowfall hit north Wales.

Wheelchair user Pete Read, 36, and Nic Hughes, 31, from Pentre Uchaf on the Lleyn Peninsula, north Wales had planned to marry on Thursday afternoon with a church service and a reception at Nant Gwrtheyrn Heritage Centre.

But, although the couple had dreamed of a white wedding, they had not bargained for quite so much snow.

When Mr Read and his friend and chef Gwyn Jones, who had prepared a buffet for the 40 weddings guests, set off by four-wheeled-drive car for Nant Gwrtheyrn complete with the food for the reception, they hit serious trouble.

The centre is at the bottom of a steep road on a cliff edge and it became obvious to the pair they were not going to be able to get back up in the icy conditions.

Mr Read - who has been paralysed from the chest down for the last eight years - said: "We had to carry on straight to the bottom.

I was on the edge twice and it was horrendous - it's a scary run down there Pete Read

"We could not reverse back out and we had to keep into the ditch on the right hand side because the drop on the left hand side was a sheer one.

"I wasn't worried to be honest until it started clicking on to 12, 1230 and 1 o' clock."

The desperate bridegroom-to-be then called RAF Valley on Anglesey to see if they could help get him to the church on time but the weather was so hazardous that a rescue helicopter could not take off in the conditions.

In the end he called on a friend to come to the rescue with a mechanical digger while another team of friends set off across the snowy countryside on quad bikes as back-up should that have failed.

"I was on the edge twice and it was horrendous - it's a scary run down there," said Mr Read.

However, the digger eventually managed to pull bridegroom, chef and the wedding cake back up the hill.

The wedding was postponed for two hours and the reception had to be moved from Nant Gwrtheyrn.

Mr Read's employees at Glasfryn Parc Go-Kart and Quad Centre, near Pwllheli, stepped in to help by hosting the reception instead.

On Friday, the happy couple set off for slightly warmer climes to their honeymoon in Thailand.