Dominican Republic Wedding Turns Into Nightmare

FOR newly-weds Mike Goodhall and Heidi Loader, the devil was definitely in the detail as a simple spelling mistake turned their £4,000 dream Caribbean beach wedding into a nightmare.

Returning home from a romantic wedding, the couple looked forward to years of wedded bliss but instead discovered that the clerk in the Dominican Republic had misspelt Mr Goodhall’s name as ‘Goodhael’ on the wedding certificate, thus rendering the union null and void.

Goodhall or ‘Goodhael’ even, returned the document to Thomas Cook, the travel company who had arranged the holiday and wedding. But they proceeded to lose the original certificate and now, six months on, the unfortunate lovebirds still can’t officially use their married names to open joint bank accounts, apply for passports or get a joint mortgage.

Mr Goodhall is understandably rather unhappy. Says he: “It’s a kick in the teeth - and it’s all over a missing letter L. Thomas Cook gave us a letter saying we’re married, but no banks will accept it.”

The couple paid £2,600 for the wedding and another £1,500 for Thomas Cook to organise the legalities of registering the marriage and getting the certificate sent to England.

Money back? No. The travel company have so far only offered £50 in compensation.

Meanwhile, the clerk is believed to be working as a supply English teacher in a London school.

Anorak

Posted: 1st, June 2007 | In: Strange But True Comments (4) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink