The days leading up to a wedding are usually full of excitement and nerves, especially if you’re having it outside the country.

Now imagine this: the happiest day of your life happens to land smack bang in the middle of the Beast from the East, all your flights are cancelled and you have to endure a 36-hour trek to the church.

This is what happened to New Malden locals Áine Kilgannon and Heath Bateman, who were due to be married in Áine’s home town of Dromore West in Sligo, Ireland, at 3.30pm last Saturday (March 4).

Áine, 33, said: “My husband is from South Africa, so his family were due to fly to Galway on the Wednesday for some bonding, to write the speeches and to settle in.

“Their flight was cancelled so that was stressful. My flight from Gatwick to Knock was on Thursday and things got worse when that was cancelled and pushed to the Friday.

“Heath saw that flights were going from Heathrow to Shannon so he paid £700 for that.

“I then had two flights to choose from- I thought 'one of them has to go'.”

Unfortunately for Áine, they were both cancelled a day ahead.

She said: “The airline suggested I wait until the Saturday morning- the day of the wedding- to see if they would put on any flights. There was no way I was doing that.”

So Áine took the initiative to go to Holyhead in Wales to see if she, along with a 30-strong wedding party, could get on the ferry to Dublin.

At 6am on Friday morning, they set off for London Euston, wedding dress in tow.

Áine said: “The trains were delayed and we weren’t sure they would even go- I even tweeted Richard Branson for help.

“Our train was for 9.10am but because we arrived early we asked if we could get the 8.10am. It left the station at 8.45am and we all shouted for joy.”

The ferry times were 2pm, 8pm and 2.40am Saturday morning.

Áine was frantically ringing Irish ferries to make sure they were still going and the company said it looked “positive”- until two hours into the train journey when the boats were cancelled.

“The amount of stress was unreal,” Áine said, “We rang Stena Line, the other ferry company, and they said they might be able to get us across.”

The wedding party arrived at Holyhead and Stena Line staff said they could get on the ferry but “it might not leave for 18 hours”.

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Áine said: “That was really nice of them actually so we didn’t have to wait outside. They set us up in rooms and gave us prosecco - it was lovely. And we were able to get some sleep.”

The party set sail at 8am, arrived in Dublin where their coach was waiting and arrived at their destination at 3.15pm.

Your Local Guardian: Áine on the last leg of her journey 

They managed to organise an evening slot at a different church with the same priest.

Just three hours later they were married - with a lot of help from staff at Kilronan Castle where the reception was held.

The speeches were put on hold until friends from London arrived at about 9pm.

Áine (now Bateman), who had her first dance at midnight, said: “I wanted them to feel as though they were at a wedding and not just a big party.

“It ended up being amazing as people were having a celebration on top of a celebration.

“I stayed up until 6am and wasn’t even tired.”

Áine and Heath are getting reading to fly back to London. She added: “I’m not worried if it’s delayed- I’m just chillin’.”