Bride-to-be dumped at her own wedding after breakdown over nightmarish series of events

While brides are meant to be fashionably late at their own weddings, this Essex woman's ordeal is something beyond imagination. Bride-to-be, Nichola Touhy, accidentally missed her own wedding and managed to reach in time only for the reception when her furious fiancée, Darren Ferne, walked out on her.

Nichola blames a series of nightmarish events, including a makeup disaster, forgetting her daughter's flower girl dress and bridesmaid dropping out at the last moment for missing her £12,000 ($16942) dream wedding.

The couple met online in September 2014 and Darren proposed just five weeks later. Touhy admitted, "I was in love and blown away, but it was too soon. So when he asked again three months later, on Valentine's Day 2015, I said yes. He was my perfect man."

She said she began planning their wedding for 80 guests with her children Alexander, 20, Grace Isabella, eight, and seven-year-old Max.

The day before the wedding, care worker Nichola, rehearsed the ceremony which went without a glitch. "When the vicar said, 'You may kiss the bride', and Darren kissed me, I felt ecstatic," she told The Sun.

However, the wedding day did not go as smooth as she had hoped. Rather a series of unexpected events led to a meltdown. "I started crying. I had a bare face, no make-up on, no dress on, no flower girl dress and half an hour to get ready," she said, noting that while her would-be husband and elder son waited at the church for her, she was still trying to fix her makeup, fetch her daughter's dress and find a car to reach the church.

"I wish the rehearsal the night before had been the real thing. It was perfect and now we'd be man and wife. It was my fault. I just got so overwhelmed with things to do on the day that I had a meltdown. I feel like I have lost everything," she added, recalling the horror.

"My heart sank when I realised I'd missed my own wedding. I had jilted my groom without meaning to."

Groom-to-be Darren, a customer services adviser, is reportedly finding it easy to get over the incident. "We would probably still be together now if our wedding hadn't been ruined. It's not the kind of thing you can get over easily," he told the outlet.