Ormskirk restaurants save day after wedding catering no-show

A couple have praised staff at three restaurants which stepped in to save the day when they were let down by wedding caterers at the last minute.

Kate and Matt Dean from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were preparing to celebrate their wedding with family and friends at a venue in Ormskirk when the caterers failed to turn up and they were unable to get in touch with them.

With guests starting to arrive, Kate said they decided to ask two local restaurants if they could help.

Kate said she first approached restaurant staff at Piri Piri Grill, saying: “Hi! I don’t suppose you can cook for 100 people?” and “he just went, ‘oh, when?’… and I went, ‘now'”.

The couple, who have four children aged two to 12 between them, were married at Ormskirk Register Office on Monday, 13 July.

They decided to organise a special celebration for family and friends at Lost and Found Ormskirk on Sunday 19 July and were looking forward to the food arriving.

They arrived at the venue two hours ahead of time to get it ready for 14:00 BST but when time was ticking on – with no sign of the caterers – their concern grew.

Kate said they tried to call and message the business but there was no response and despite initially feeling upset – including crying in the bathroom at one point – she quickly hatched a backup plan.

“I’m quite a laid back person anyway, so I was sort of like in fire-fighting mode, like we have got all these people coming and no food, ‘what are we going to do?’,” she said.

Kate said when it got to 14:10 and people started coming in she thought about local venues with nice food, “I just… turned to Matt’s family, and I said, ‘if I can sort this, is everybody okay?'”