An NHS nurse has had her dream wedding in Edinburgh paid for by a hotel group as part of a 'thank you' to several front-line workers who battled through the Covid pandemic and saved people's lives.
Apex Hotels, in conjunction with Operation Recuperation, are covering the cost of five NHS workers to have their dream wedding as a gift for their work during the pandemic.
On Saturday, June 11, the first of the five weddings took place at Edinburgh's Apex Waterloo Place Hotel, with Rebekah Brown and James Smith tying the knot in fabulous fashion.
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Hundreds of front-line workers within the NHS applied for the chance to have their ideal wedding paid for, with Rebekah and James, from Fife, amongst the lucky winners.
Rebekah is a Specialist Biomedical Scientist working in the Pathology Department at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. She returned to work at the beginning of the first lockdown after the birth of her second child.
Apex Hotels treated James and Rebekah to a complimentary complete wedding package, including a three-course wedding breakfast, drinks, evening buffet and upgraded wedding night accommodation.
In addition, the couple were gifted wedding essentials, as well as having the whole day captured digitally and having flowers taken care off by a professional.
The wedding cake was also especially designed and made for the occasion by Apex’s own Food & Beverage Projects Manager, Susan Reid.
Speaking on the difficulties of working during the Covid pandemic, Rebekah said: "It was actually terrifying to be going back to work in a hospital, not knowing what to expect or how to keep my family safe."
The wedding was made even more special as the pandemic ruined Rebekah and James's initial plans to have their own ceremony in 2020. Just like several thousand other unfortunate others, their plans were thrown into uncertainty.
"The restrictions meant we couldn’t be sure if the wedding would be able to go ahead or not, but we held out for as long as possible hoping that we’d be able to get married," said Rebekah.
"Eventually we had no choice but to cancel the wedding in June 2020. With relatives due to fly in from all over the world it just wasn’t going to work, but we were devastated."
James explained: "We’ve been together for seven years, engaged since 2016 and we have two beautiful children. We were desperate to finally tie the knot and share our love for each other with our family and friends.
"Apex Hotels made our dream wedding a reality and we can’t thank them enough for giving us such a wonderful and memorable day. For that day to have been in the city where we had our first date, Edinburgh, made it even more special."
Having heard so many stories of sacrifice and hardship from NHS workers doing their utmost to keep us all safe during the pandemic, Apex Hotels came up with the idea to give away five dream wedding packages to front-line NHS workers whose lives had been disrupted because of COVID and partnered with Operation Recuperation to make it happen.
Operation Recuperation worked with 20 of the hardest-hit hospital trusts throughout the pandemic and has gifted holidays, overnight stays and experiences to over 1,000 NHS staff and their loved ones.
Michael Stott, Commercial Director at Apex Hotels, said: "I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Rebekah, a mother of two very young children, to have to go into work in a hospital every day fearing that she might bring a potentially fatal disease home to her family. Then having to stand by and hope that her elderly grandparents would safely recover from infection with no way of helping them, as so many of us have experienced over the last few years.
"To then having to cancel her dream wedding in Italy where she and James wanted to declare their love for each other in front of their family and friends. It must have been quite the roller coaster of emotions for the couple for the last two years.
"I am absolutely delighted that, together with some great suppliers, were able to give them a fantastic wedding day to remember. Apex Hotels is a family-owned business and family values are important to us. Rebekah and James truly deserved a wonderful family celebration and we are thrilled to have been able to make it a reality for them."
The celebrations will continue over the coming months, with a further four lucky and deserving winners set to tie the knot, free of charge.
