Engaged couples planning what should be the happiest days of their lives have spoken of their anger and frustration after the venue they booked failed to guarantee or confirm if their weddings could even go ahead as it prepares to become a home for more than 200 asylum seekers. Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli is at the centre of a row after it was revealed last month that it is in line to become a temporary home to asylum seekers.
While the UK Home Office and the hotel itself have remained tight-lipped on specific details it has been confirmed that the hotel is set to be used for that purpose from next month. Protests have taken place outside the hotel, in the Furnace area of Llanelli, and an action group has been set up oppose the plans and implore the UK Government to reverse its decision. You can read more about the concerns of people who live near the hotel here.
While there is a level of uncertainty for those who live nearby there has been huge disruption already for people who were due to get married at the popular venue in the coming months. There has been no information released relating to the length of time the hotel will be used as an accommodation base for asylum seekers meaning brides and grooms to be have been left in the lurch despite booking Stradey Park Hotel months in advance and paying a deposit to secure the venue for their big day.
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Lucy Watkins and Adam Kenny are a couple from Llanelli who were all set to get married at the four-starvenue next March. However, their plans descended into chaos when they found out from a friend about the possibility of the venue being used to house asylum seekers in the near future. They weren’t told by the hotel itself and emailed immediately asking for clarification only to be told in late May that the venue did not “currently” have any formal agreement in place to house asylum seekers. The situation, explained Lucy, “left us in limbo as our wedding is next year so ‘currently’ did not instill any confidence that it would go ahead at all”.
The couple then waited a week without knowing what would happen next before it was reported that the UK Home Office had given the plans the go-ahead with the first of 77 asylum seekers expected to arrive at the hotel on July 3. Despite repeated requests from WalesOnline for clarity on the situation neither the Home Office nor the owners of Stradey Park Hotel have thus far responded. Given the lack of information forthcoming, Lucy, 29, and her fiancé Adam, 31, emailed their wedding coordinator to inform them that they had “lost all confidence” in the venue and that they wanted a refund on the £1,000 deposit they paid in September 2022.
“Two days later we had received no response to my email so we decided to go up to the hotel and speak to them in person,” said Lucy. “When we arrived there was another bride and groom also asking for a refund. We were told that the wedding coordinator would be in touch with us later that day but I explained that I hadn’t had a reply to my email and was told that if we hadn’t heard anything to go back up to the hotel by 6pm. By 5.30pm we received an email saying that my refund request had been sent to their head office for approval. I responded immediately to ask when I would get the refund and was told it would take a week to process it.”
That deposit money has now been returned but Lucy said there has been no apology from the Stradey Park Hotel for the inconvenience caused. The last few weeks have been an awful time for the couple who have done their utmost to remain calm as they realise that staff working at the hotel are not to blame for the confusion that is affecting many couples and the wider Llanelli community. On top of hastily trying to rearrange a wedding family tragedy has only added to their distress at a time that they should be cherishing.
“Each time we have emailed or spoken to someone at the hotel we have been courteous as we appreciate it is not the local staff making these decisions and they’re as much in the dark as any of us,” said Lucy. "During the weeks of uncertainty we were put under so much stress and I was constantly crying. We could have done without it as Adam’s mum passed away very suddenly in December and his father has had open heart surgery just weeks prior to this news coming out so needless to say the added stress was unwelcome.
"Many tears were shed not only by Adam and myself but also by our two beautiful daughters who were so excited about the wedding. Plus everything was already booked – cars, flowers, registrar – and we needed to find a new venue with the same date available or the cost incurred on top would have possibly meant cancelling it all. Thankfully we have been able to secure a new venue and we have managed to swap everything apart from the registrar due to it being in a different county. Ironically Carmarthenshire Council cannot, or will not, refund our deposit [for the registrar] even though the housing of the asylum seekers is a government decision.”
The couple will now have their wedding at Oldwalls Gower next year on the same date as initially planned. “They’ve been absolutely amazing and have saved our special day,” said Lucy. “They’ve given us a very good deal and they contacted the Stradey Park Hotel on our behalf to check they were refunding us. Coincidentally the money was returned to us later that day. The Oldwalls staff have gone above and beyond to help ensure everything is perfect for us and to put the smiles back on our faces.
"We cannot wait for our big day in a beautiful location and cannot thank the Oldwalls staff enough. We feel that we're a lucky couple because at least we had nine months to find somewhere else and sort things out but we really feel for the couples getting married in the next few weeks – it must be awful for them." When asked if she and her family will use Stradey Park Hotel – a popular location for family occasions such as weddings and afternoon teas – for any purpose in the future Lucy replied: “No.”
Emily Milner, 31, and her fiancé Alex Draisey, 32, from Swansea, have also been affected by the ongoing upheaval. They booked their wedding in January and paid a £500 deposit to lock in a date in November this year. However a request for a further payment coincided with speculation about the hotel being repurposed and when Emily rang the hotel to ask for clarity she was told by staff that they could cancel and receive a refund on their initial £500 without any guarantees about what was happening and when.
“In mid-May a friend of Alex heard about the concerns from other couples that were due to get married at Stradey Park Hotel,” said Emily. “So I got in touch and they said that nothing was definite and that they would let us know. They haven’t officially told us what is going on and whether we could get married there in November. I told them that we needed answers but they just told us that we could cancel and get a refund if we wanted to. They haven’t apologised or anything. Staff at the hotel have been sympathetic, I must say. Our wedding coordinator said she understood our situation but they couldn’t tell us what was going on.”
Emily and Alex have been fortunate in that they too have been able to re-book their wedding with Oldwalls, at their Fairyhill venue, on the same date as they had initially planned. While grateful for that the couple have still been left frustrated by the rigmarole of changing their wedding plans at such short notice. “It’s been stressful because we have a young child and this all happened as I was returning to work," said Emily. "We talked about getting married with just two witnesses and then having a separate celebration somewhere, and we spoke about postponing it until next year, but we wanted to get married on the date we chose. We’re lucky that we’re in a good situation. Had we had to postpone it I would have felt a lot worse but we’re just delighted that Fairyhill is able to accommodate us.”
Emily, like fellow bride-to-be Lucy, feels that the uncertainty and a lack of answers from Stradey Park Hotel will affect her decisions about whether to use or visit the hotel again, which she said is “sad for the staff’’ as the whole controversy is not their fault. “[The hotel staff] have been sympathetic and have responded to me when I have emailed them,” she added. “I have no anger with the staff. It’s more with the management – they are keeping everyone in the dark. I would not go back there especially if you were booking it as a venue for something. I wouldn’t be able to trust them.”
As well as the distress caused to couples the loss – temporary or otherwise – of a large wedding venue is bad for the local economy, according to Shakira Obaid, commercial director at Oldwalls, which attracts more than 40,000 wedding guests per year at its venues in Gower. “It’s such a shame to hear that Stradey Park is set to suddenly change direction which has dashed the wedding plans for so many couples,” she said. “The Welsh wedding industry injects millions into our local economy and helps to put southwest Wales on the map. Local wedding venues such as the popular Stradey Park, King Arthur, and Oxwich Bay contribute greatly, creating thousands of jobs and providing vital work for talented wedding suppliers.
"In addition the local tourism economy receives a huge boost from wedding guests travelling all over the country. As an industry we need to all support wherever we can to ensure that weddings in Wales continue to thrive – especially after the disruption we faced due to Covid. Planning a wedding is meant to be an exciting and joyful time. Our wedding coordinating team are bending over backwards to support with the disrupted plans of Stradey couples and several have since booked with us. We’ve tried our best to ease their concerns and provide them with the best possible options.”
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