Kayley Stead, a bride who was left at the altar in 2022, has said she is glad she went ahead with her wedding day despite the groom not being there. She spent the £12,000 event celebrating with family and friends, wearing a white dress and enjoying speeches and dancing.
Stead has now found love again and is set to marry a man named Richard. The Welsh bride-to-be appeared on Monday's Good Morning Britain, where she spoke to Ed Balls and Susanna Reid about her life now.
A Different Dress for a New Chapter
Discussing how things are different now, Stead said: "This dress is completely different but represents me, a 31-year-old woman rather than I was 27 at the time. I've changed, I've grown, styles have changed."
Richard reached out after her first wedding, when he realised she had been left at the altar. "At the time, everybody was sending floods of messages because nobody would expect anybody to be left at the altar, it only happens in movies. And he expressed his apologies, his mum reached out, his dad reached out," Stead explained.
How They Reconnected
Stead originally met Richard at university. He gave her a year after the wedding to "find herself" before asking her out. "He went, we're going on a date, it's about time, a risk it for a biscuit type of situation, he booked us an Air B&B," she revealed.
She continued: "When he walked in and I saw him again, it was like butterflies, he went in for a kiss which I didn't know and I dodged. So he thought that [I thought] I'd made a big mistake and didn't want any of this but luckily for him, I did."
A Superstitious Wedding Date
Stead was surprised with a pre-recorded message from Richard on Good Morning Britain, in which he told her she didn't "need to worry one bit" and that he would be marrying her on Friday 13th, their planned date.
Explaining the choice of date, Stead said: "I've always lived at number 13 my whole life, it's my childhood. And unknowingly, we've actually known each other for 13 years this year, so it was fate. I went through the worst possible experience of a wedding the last time, so it couldn't get any worse, I think. The groom is going to be there, but everything else will probably go wrong, knowing my luck!"
Reflecting on her first wedding, she said: "It was a great party, I'm glad I had no groom because I got to enjoy my bar, got to drink plenty of tequila."
Of Richard, she added: "He's a great man. He actually asked me out in the first year of university but I said no, and then, I asked him out in third year, but he said no, because he thought, I need to get some back."
Ed praised the story as "a story of hope," and Susanna said: "Sometimes you're in your darkest moment, and actually, you can completely turn it around and it can deliver your most happy experience." Stead added: "It was all meant to be."
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
