Blazing Donkey owner Richard Martin has reportedly not been able to return to the business since his wife\u2019s death<\/p>\n
In a statement pinned to the gates of the site, the directors said administrators had been appointed amid financial pressures and personal tragedy.<\/p>\n
The sudden closure has left prospective brides and grooms scrambling to find alternative arrangements, with some due to get married this week.<\/p>\n
Among them is Kenna Nicholson, who was set to walk down the aisle on Friday after spending more than \u00a312,000 on her dream wedding at the \u201cbeautiful\u201d venue.<\/p>\n
She said administrators called her yesterday, warning her she would be lucky to receive a penny back for every pound she has spent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re devastated – our whole day is just gone,\u201d said the bride-to-be.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we booked it 18 months ago, everything looked great, but we thought something was up when we saw staff looking for new jobs on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Kenna Nicholson and her fianc\u00e9, Anthony Russell, were due to be married at the Blazing Donkey this Friday. Picture: Kenna Nicholson<\/p>\n
\u201cI sympathise with the owner, but the way they\u2019ve gone about it is disgusting. Even yesterday, they accepted a hotel room booking from one of our friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe communication has been terrible – we\u2019ve had four wedding coordinators in that time, which seemed odd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Nicholson and her fianc\u00e9, Anthony Russell, have now been forced to spend yet more money finding a new venue and putting friends and family up in hotel rooms.<\/p>\n
Bosses at the Blazing Donkey – which is run by Edenlodge Associates Ltd – say they \u201cdeeply regret\u201d the disruption, acknowledging the \u201cdisappointment this may cause to couples affected by these circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n
No details have yet been released on how payments and deposits will be handled, but the statement says contact details for the appointed administrators will be provided \u201cvery soon\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also reveals how the Martins\u2019 lives changed \u201cirreversibly\u201d in January when co-director Mrs Martin was admitted to hospital with an aggressive brain stem cancer, which ultimately claimed her life at the age of 63.<\/p>\n
The Blazing Donkey is said to have hosted more than 2,000 weddings since 1999<\/p>\n
Her illness had forced the couple to step back from running the venue, which hosted more than 2,000 weddings since becoming one of the first in the country to be licensed for outdoor ceremonies in 1999.<\/p>\n
Without their day-to-day involvement, administrators say the business quickly became unsustainable despite \u201csignificant cash injections\u201d from the couple\u2019s personal savings.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin is now understood to be in poor health and, according to the statement, has been unable to return to the business in any capacity following his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The statement reads: \u201cImmediate action was taken to close all non-event operations so that the team that remained could focus on looking after wedding clients that had already booked and ensure that every wedding and event due to take place last year and this year could proceed as planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the couple withdrew from the business, the team that remained in post were able to deliver all events.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, despite significant and sustained cash injections from the couple\u2019s personal resources, without the wider core business operating alongside, and with overheads remaining high, it has become impossible to continue hosting these events and operating the business in any form.<\/p>\n
Despite significant and sustained cash injections from the couple\u2019s personal resources…it has become impossible to continue hosting these events and operating the business in any form..<\/p>\n
\u201cThe family acknowledge the disappointment this may cause to couples affected by these circumstances and extends their deepest regret that such action has to sadly become necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Companies House reports for Edenlodge Associates Ltd are yet to show confirmation of the business entering administration.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin \u2013 who on August 24 incorporated a new property company classified as \u201cbuying and selling of own real estate\u201d \u2013 is listed as the sole director of Edenlodge.<\/p>\n
He made headlines in 2022 when he claimed to have rejected a fee of little more than \u00a31 million to turn his hotel into accommodation for asylum seekers.<\/p>\n
He told KentOnline that accepting the “fast buck” would have meant cancelling hundreds of weddings, with the popular venue already booked into 2025 at that stage.<\/p>\n
The shock closure of the Blazing Donkey is the latest in a worrying trend this year, with other high-profile wedding venues being lost around the county.<\/p>\n
In January, St Augustine\u2019s in Westgate-on-Sea also went into administration<\/a>, and weeks later, the Little Silver Country Hotel in St Michaels, near Tenterden, suffered the same fate<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Couples set to be married at a popular Kent wedding venue have been left devastated after the business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,192,191,3864,194,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-127377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-human-interest","11":"tag-kent","12":"tag-sandwich","13":"tag-syndicate","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}