A bride-to-be fought back tears as she visited the burned remains of what was to be her wedding venue.
Kelly Mckain, 46, paid a £300 deposit to hold her reception at the Cadbury Club in Birmingham a week ago.
Today the teaching assistant was close to tears when she surveyed the smouldering cinders of the building, Birmingham Mail reported.
Kelly's wedding reception was due to be held at the community club on Saturday, August 21, 2021, seven days before the social club burnt down.
The alarm was raised at 4.45pm yesterday and at the height of the blaze, West Midlands Fire Service had sent nine appliances to the scene in a bid to bring it under control.
Smoke from the blaze could be seen across the city.
Kelly and fiance Daniel Snook, 41, visited the site at 7am today just to double check if their dream really had turned to ash.
Seeing two firefighting teams still at the site confirmed the couple's worst fears - that their reception plans were toast.
It is not currently clear what caused the fire.
Kelly and Daniel, who works at a company which manufactures self-service drink dispensers, have known each other for four years, with him popping the question in Liverpool last May.
They chose a church to marry in that is halfway between their family homes in Birmingham.
The couple then spent ages trying to find the perfect wedding venue before Kelly's godparents suggested the Cadbury Club next door to their own home in Franklin House, a former Cadbury office block recently converted into apartments.
Kelly, who is known at Miss Chips at school because of her surname, took one look at the building and knew it was perfect.
She particularly liked the 'secret' park next door which has little known historic features and the fact the venue offered privacy and a relaxed atmosphere.
Because of the pandemic, just trying to book a wedding reception for August next year had not been easy.
Kelly said: "When the Cadbury Club reopened last Friday, we were queueing up outside before they'd even opened the door.
"We wanted to make sure that nobody else could have our date and we paid the deposit of £300.
"I really don't know yet what we are going to do yet, but the people running the Cadbury Club were so lovely my heart goes out to them.
"They had been telling us about all the things we could do to make our wedding exactly how we wanted it.
"I assume we'll get our deposit refunded - because of the pandemic, we hadn't even been able to insure our wedding.
"Everyone had told me John Lewis was the best for that, but companies have been having so any claims we hadn't been able to get any insurance."
Kelly said that her and Dan's wedding would have showed the rest of the world how they 'feel about each other'.
"The Cadbury Club was going to be the perfect venue for us and it would have meant the world to have had our reception there," she continued.
"Our vicar had had cancer but then died from Covid-19 so we had already lost her in June.
"And now we've lost our wedding reception venue, too."
Kelly added: "Seeing the Cadbury Club going up in flames was heartbreaking."
No one was hurt in the Cadbury Club fire.
