It must have been one of the most painful moments of her life. With just days to go before her big day, Angela Burrow’s fiance called of their wedding – by text message.
But, after three solid days of weeping, the 52-year-old bride-to-be did something remarkable. She put on a brave face and decided to go ahead with the ornate £5,000 reception she had already paid for.
Instead of her wedding dress, the former Army major donned her regimental attire and a medal she received for service in the Iraq war and hosted a lavish dinner for 40 of her friends and family. She even took advantage of the bridal suite they’d booked.
“My motto is everything happens for a reason,” the mother-of-two told metro.co.uk. “So I resurrected the reception and held it as a new beginnings party.”
Guests were entertained by Scottish pipers and feasted on a gourmet meal at the swanky Tylney Hall Hotel in Hampshire.
Though Angela still doesn’t know why her former fiance jilted her in such a cruel way, she says she doesn’t intend to end up like Charles Dickens’ character Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.
After being left at the altar, Miss Havisham spends the rest of her life in her wedding dress in a decaying mansion.
“I’ve always been a glass half full person,” says Angela. “I shared the bridal suite with my 21-year-old daughter, Heather.”
“You have to laugh really, don’t you? Life’s too short.”
What a brave, brave lady! How do you think you’d react if you were left at the altar?
