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The wedding crashers

My big day was about to end with an almighty bang...


Published by: Amy Thompson
Published on: 21st January 2010

Every girl dreams of the perfect wedding. What her dress will look like, the flowers, bridesmaids... So when my boyfriend Ed, 26, proposed, I had our day planned.
We liked to be different, stand out from the crowd. Our wedding would have to be extra special. 'Ivory or white?' smiled the shop assistant when I went dress-shopping.
'Actually... I was thinking of wearing black,' I replied.
'B-black?' she gasped. Anyone would think I'd told her I wanted to wear a polar bear to my wedding! I was used to her reaction, though. I was always getting funny looks.
Maybe it was my pink hair or my lip and nose piercings that caught them off-guard. Most people I'd met accepted the way I looked. I'd had some nasty comments from narrow-minded idiots, but I couldn't please everyone. 'You've got to do what makes you happy,' Ed said when we'd first met. And that's exactly what I was doing.
Searching online, I found the perfect wedding dress - black with a meringue skirt and bodice covered in diamantes. Instead of a veil, I chose a tiny top hat with a pink ribbon to match my hair. We decided to have a Halloween theme for our wedding at Sheffield register office in October, so Ed wore a black suit, red shirt and a tie with skulls and crossbones.
At our reception in a hotel, rock music pumped until midnight as we celebrated with 200 friends and family. The day was perfect. And there was more to look forward to. 'I've booked you into a honeymoon suite at a hotel down the road,' said my Auntie Kath. 'Your cab should be waiting outside.'
It was a lovely surprise, and the perfect ending to a brilliant day.
But as me and Ed said goodbye, there was a commotion at the hotel entrance.
'Is everything okay?' I asked the manager, seeing a group of lads being escorted outside.
'Just drunk kids trying to gatecrash your reception,' he said. 'We've got rid of them.'
'Thanks,' Ed nodded.
Walking outside, I smiled. 'Your carriage awaits Mrs Emmingham,' Ed said, pointing to our taxi waiting at the bottom of the steps. But as we turned towards it, the lads loitering outside started shouting.
'Oi, love, who died?' one guffawed, pointing at my dress.
Ed looked like he was about to thump them, but I placed a hand on his arm. 'Just ignore them,' I said.
But as our guests filtered outside, the lads turned on them.
Before I knew it, a fight had broken out. Rushing over to stop it, I felt one of the lads shove me. Then, everything went black...
Coming round, pain shot through my right eye. Ed's mum was holding my head. Looking up, I realised I'd fallen... all the way to the bottom of the concrete steps outside the hotel. What the hell...?
'Someone call an ambulance,' my friend Jamie shrieked.
The next thing I knew, I was being rushed to hospital.
'It's my wife,' Ed told the receptionist at hospital. 'She was pushed down a flight of stairs.'
Blood trickled down my face and my head throbbed. This couldn't be happening. It was my wedding night! I had to wait seven hours in hospital while doctors cleaned me up and gave me an x-ray.
Luckily, nothing was broken, but my eye had swollen so much I couldn't open it. My eye was the same colour as my dress!
I was allowed home the next day, but we'd missed our night in the honeymoon suite - all thanks to a gang of pathetic, drunken louts.
The police looked into it but, because no one could say who had actually pushed me, they didn't have enough evidence to make a case. It was a disastrous end to what should have been the best day of my life. I even had to go on our honeymoon in Turkey looking like I'd done 10 rounds with Tyson.
Still, I refused to let them get the better of me. I might dress differently, but at least I can say I'm proud to be me. I wonder if those lads can say the same.
Lucy Emmingham, 21, Sheffield