WEDDING row couple Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay gifted 200 guests a £190-a-pop engraved bottle of tequila and commemorative t-shirt.
The generous duo spent around £40,000 on the presents to thank invitees for their “love and support”.
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Newly married Holly Ramsay beams as she carries bags in LondonCredit: Darren FletcherAdam Peaty was also seen hauling bagsCredit: Darren FletcherAdam and Holly are all smiles after tying the knot on their big dayCredit: Splash
They felt indebted to those who attended their nuptials for sustaining them amid the bitter feud which led to most of the Olympian’s family being banned.
The Sun can also reveal the touching service details at Bath Abbey, where they tied the knot on December 27.
Hymns included Come Down O Love Divine and one of the readings was Psalm 127, which tells of the blessings of children – a hint that the couple are keen to start their own family.
‘Incredibly generous’
A source told The Sun: “Holly and Adam were incredibly generous to their guests, lavishing them all with a bottle of tequila embossed their own initials.
Gordon stunned guests when he addressed the furore head on, and slated his son-in-law’s parents.
He said his missus Tana is an “amazing Mum” – adding he can’t say the same about Adam’s parents.
But he said of the happy couple: “Tana will be a good mum to them both.”
In an emotional speech to 200 guests at the celebrity couple’s wedding feast, Gordon had another sly dig at Adam’s estranged folks.
Gordon gushed how “beautiful” his daughter and wife Tana looked – pointing out to Adam he was a “lucky man”.
He addressed his son-in-law: “Look at Tana and that’s what you have to look forward to.”
Then the chef turned to bride Holly and added: “Shame you don’t have the same.”
He lovingly mocked his daughter’s expensive tastes – calling her easily the “most expensive” of his four kids.
Gord had the crowd in hysterics as he revealed how at a young age Holly worked out how to attach his credit card to her Apple pay.
Holly has always wanted to do Vogue, so this is a coup for her.
Source
And the guests roared as he joked how his three other children will have to get married in a registry office due to the extortionate cost of the wedding flowers alone.
Gordon teased his daughter about their Bath Abbey wedding ceremony, laughing at how, “only Holly could pick the most beautiful church and choose to cover its stunning windows in white roses”.
The Sun revealed how stunning Holly – who wore a bridal cape over her wedding dress as she arrived and left the ceremony at Bath Abbey – will be showing the dress off in Vogue magazine, published on New Year’s Day.
A source added: “Holly has always wanted to do Vogue, so this is a coup for her.”
In his own speech at the glittering reception, thrilled groom Adam subtly acknowledged the pain caused by the bitter bust-up with his own family.
He poignantly turned to Mel Marshall, 43, his ex-swimming coach who has acted as his surrogate parent during his dazzling career.
Tearful Adam gushed how Mel has been “everything” to him – “grounding” him and “inspiring” him in recent years. And after an emotional pause the sportsman added she was, “like a Mum”.
Gordon teased his daughter about their Bath Abbey wedding ceremonyCredit: GettyHolly was seen in London on New Year’s EveCredit: Darren FletcherThe generous duo spent around £40,000 on presents to thank wedding guestsCredit: Darren Fletcher
Tellingly Adam thanked everyone for their “support”, adding how it has been a “difficult time”.
The bride had guests dabbing their eyes in emotion after wearing two outfits at their extravagant reception at plush Kin House in Kington Langley, Wilts.
One was her mother’s wedding gown when Tana tied the knot with Gordon in 1996.
A DJ announced the special tribute, sparking a spontaneous round of applause from thrilled onlookers.
Among the guests were David and Victoria Beckham – close pals of the Ramsays – and the A-lister couple danced the night away with all the other guests.
Mobile phones were banned throughout, with guests forced to put them in pouches.
Everyone invited to the nuptials was forced to wear a wristband, embossed with the bride and groom’s initials, to ensure security staff knew they were not interlopers.
I hope you never suffer the depth of pain you have put your mother through and despite it all she loves you still.
Adam’s aunt Louise
And a wedding gift list included a £1,450 green egg outdoor cooker.
The couple also invited guests to buy them a £995 mahogany table, £800 chair and footstool, and £450 log storage bin.
Adam, who turned 31 yesterday, and Holly, 25, banned his loved ones, including his mum Caroline, dad Mark and brothers James and Richard.
The family were left even more distraught amid claims Mark was told by the swimmer’s sister Beth before Christmas he could attend, but had to sit at the back of the church.
Beth was the only member of his family in attendance. She was a maid of honour alongside Holly’s sisters.
Adam had disinvited his great-aunt Janet and her husband Eddie just days before the wedding.
‘Her soul screams’
Adam’s aunt Louise, who was also not invited to the wedding, sent him a message moments before he walked into the abbey with his five-year-old son George, from a previous relationship.
She wrote: “I hope you never suffer the depth of pain you have put your mother through and despite it all she loves you still. Shame on you both. Shame.
“Remember on this, your happiest day, and on each anniversary of your happiest day, that you hurt your mum so deeply her soul screams.”
As a former hotel receptionist, I received requests and questions from guests that often left me baffled. One in particular became the most annoying, and most people do it
There’s one infuriating thing about working as a hotel receptionist (Image: Getty Images/Stock Photo)
Receptionists are at the heart of a hotel, handling reservations, addressing guest inquiries, and supporting other departments. But there’s one question that is instantly frustrating, and it’s more common than you might think.
I spent around four years working on the front desk of a hotel, and during that time, I gained a real insight into the hospitality industry from the good, the bad, and the ugly. One of our most popular phone calls was, unsurprisingly, to make a reservation, whether for an overnight stay or dinner at one of the two restaurants.
Friday nights, in the hotel and two restaurants, were often fully booked. The weekends were the busiest times for every staff member in every department, with a buzz and a hint of overwhelming stress seeping through the corridors as we did our best to make the guests’ experience as smooth as possible.
As front-of-house staff, the often overwhelming demand for tables in the restaurant and rooms for the night landed on us. We’d have people calling up on a Friday afternoon asking for a table in the cosy pub, or attempting to book a last-minute staycation over a weekend.
We’d always politely explain that we were fully booked, whether in the restaurant or hotel, but they’d inevitably reply in the same way. And it went a little something like this:
Me: ‘I’m sorry we’re fully booked in the restaurant tonight’. Them: ‘Don’t you have any tables?’ Me: ‘No, I’m sorry, it’s a Friday night, every table is booked’. Them: ‘Can’t you squeeze us in anywhere?’
It was bewildering how many people would ask these questions, as if we could magically add an extra table and chairs to an already packed restaurant. More often than not, people would fail to understand the concept of reservation times.
Frequently, we might only have had a table free at 5.30pm or 9pm, both of which are awkwardly inconvenient. Yet, people would always push for the time they desired, not understanding how table turnovers work and the running of a restaurant. After all, 90 people can’t sit down all at once to eat at 7pm in a restaurant that only seats 45 at a time.
And it didn’t just happen for restaurant bookings. After explaining to would-be customers that the hotel was fully booked all weekend, we would get the response: ‘Don’t you have any rooms available?’ To which we’d reply, ‘I’m sorry it’s fully booked’. But that wouldn’t stop them.
I had people explain that they wouldn’t mind being in the smallest room, or squeezing their family of five into a room only suitable for double occupancy. While it’s always worth asking, to some extent, these questions became irritating. It was as if those on the other end of the line thought we were making it up.
Hotels and restaurants really do get fully booked, and no matter how much they want to cater to you, sometimes there really is no way around it.
Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
In the quiet village of Kozubivka in Ukraine’s Poltava region, Nelia and her husband Oleksandr open their home to people displaced from Kharkiv, where bombing and shelling have forced thousands to flee.
But rebuilding a life in rural Ukraine is not easy. City people must learn to navigate unfamiliar routines on the farm, endure physical labour and bear the emotional weight of displacement. In the process tempers flare despite moments of tenderness.
Through these intimate encounters, Guests from Kharkiv reveals what it means to create community in the middle of a war and the courage it takes to adapt to a new way of life.
A documentary short by Halyna Lavrinets, produced by Eleron Pictures.
