It was planned as a dream wedding in a stately hotel with family flown in from several continents away, flower covered aisles and friends reunited from across the country.

Instead it turned into the wedding from hell as the bride and groom faced a catalogue of errors including no honeymoon suite and no bedroom for the bride’s parents arriving from Zimbabwe.

They even had to share the matrimonial bed with their baby daughter on their wedding night because it was so cold in the room.

Now Rebecca Smith, 39, and her husband Kevin, 38, an accountant, of Sutton, are claiming compensation for the £8,000 ruined celebration at Selsdon Park Hotel in South Croydon on May 16.

Among the errors were most of the wedding cake thrown out, a £450 toast master who did not turn up, and hotel staff who tried to charge for flowers paid for independently.

A cot brought in for the couples’ youngest child – Lily-Belle, aged 15 months – was also broken and when another was delivered the newlyweds were forced to let the baby sleep in their bed for warmth in the freezing room.

Mrs Smith, a swimming teacher, spent most of her big day “crying her eyes out” when she wasn’t trying to keep a stiff upper lip and smile for the cameras.

She said: “We had been planning this for years and it was all ruined.

“My day was spent running around trying to sort things out and putting a smile on my face for the cameras; the rest of the time I was crying my eyes out in my room.

“They have written an email to my mother-in-law but it does not take any real responsibility and is a slap in the face.

“They have also phoned us asking for payment for items they can’t even explain. It’s disgusting.”

Mrs Smith, whose other daughter is Daisy-Grace, two, said the wedding, which cost a total of £18,000, was “ruined” and efforts by the Principal Hayley Group which owns the hotel to make amends had been “an insult”.

She said she was now reporting this issue to the police for attempted theft, trading standards for failure to provide a service and also engaging a solicitor for legal action.

Selsdon Park Hotel is a Neo-Jacobean building set in 205 acres of parkland.

The hotel’s website says: “The highly-trained, professional and courteous staff at this upper four star residence will enlighten your stay with a history of the building and be happy to help plan your day’s activities with you.

A spokeswoman for the hotel said: “We do take complaints very seriously and have attempted to address these issues with Mr and Mrs Smith.

"We accept that mistakes were made on the day and are very sorry for the distress caused, however we have also received positive feedback from them both on the day and at a meeting on June 6, complimenting us on the service, the food and the venue.

“We feel that the compensation we are offering is in keeping with the complaints they have raised.”

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