Skipton couple overcome disaster ahead of Lake District wedding
Jamie and Sally Parkin (nee Horner) were due to get married at Jesus Church in Troutbeck on February 21 but their perfect day was thrown into chaos due to their canine ring bearer Ted.
“We decided to get married in the Lakes, in Troutbeck, because it’s a place really close to our hearts,” the new Mrs Parkin said.
“We’re very keen walkers with the dog. And when we’ve stayed in the Lakes we’ve more often than not stayed at The Mortal Man in Troutbeck.
“The idea was that we would stay the Friday night with close family and friends, that went according to plan.
“Then I just took Ted the dog out for his bedtime wee on his lead and what happened was he saw a cat and pulled me and because it was a bit slippy and wet, he pulled me right over and I ended up landing on a bench outside the pub.”
Sprocker Spaniel Ted, who was ring bearer at the wedding, pulled on his lead chasing a cat, causing the then Miss Horner to trip and injure herself (Image: Sally Parkin)
Initially the then Miss Horner thought she’d only just hurt her face but she then started to realise that she had a pain in her ribs when she got into bed.
She added: “Throughout the night the pain got really quite debilitating so then the morning of my wedding, I had family and friends around my bed, working out whether I should go to hospital or not.
“I was saying, ‘no, I don’t want to spoil the wedding, I’ll be fine,’ but the consensus was I needed to get myself checked out.”
After a trip to Kendal urgent treatment centre, she found out she cracked her ribs alongside hurting her face.
That made her ponder whether she could just discharge herself while the vicar, Rev Dr Chris Taylor, also offered to marry the couple in hospital to make sure the wedding went ahead.
However, with the help of the staff at Kendal Urgent Treatment Centre alongside the understanding nature of the vicar and the organist, bell ringer and church warden at Jesus Church, Miss Horner was able to become Mrs Parkin, albeit with a delay of a couple of hours.
“We managed to push back the wedding. Thankfully, I did manage to get back in time,” she said.
Mr and Mrs Parkin tied the knot at Troutbeck's Jesus Church (Image: Sally Parkin)
“After the ceremony, we did actually want to walk back from the church to The Mortal Man but obviously I couldn’t do that.
“But we did manage to dance down the aisle to A Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen. I managed to do a few skips. I think that was painkillers’ adrenaline coming through.”
Mrs Parkin was thankful for all the help she received on the day, especially from now husband Jamie.
She said: “My daughter, bless her, did manage to put an awful lot of concealer on my face because the bruises started to come out. It does look like I’ve been fighting
“Obviously with vows saying in sickness and in health, I think Jamie wasn’t expecting to look after me quite so soon.
“There was also the vicar, the church warden, the organist and the food at the hotel was put back as well. Everyone just pulled together and we can’t thank everybody enough. It’s a wedding no one will forget now”
Mrs Parkin thanked everyone for their support including that of her daughter and husband (Image: Sally Parkin)
Mrs Parkin, who is a teacher, is now hoping for her injuries to have healed for the honeymoon later this month.
“Luckily, because I’m a teacher, we were not going until the Easter holidays. That’s the only positive that’s come out of this," she added.
“At least it wasn’t the day after. We’re not going away to Thailand until March 30, fingers crossed I’ll be fit for that.”
