A COUPLE set to tie the knot are praying their big day goes without a hitch as their pre-wedding preparations have been hit by a litany of bad luck which has cost them thousands of pounds.

Bob Oliver and Michelle Nicholson say their respective stag and hen dos were ruined by an apparent con, cancellation of flights and discovering their suit supplier had gone into administration.

Now the pair, of Woodham, Newton Aycliffe, have had their honeymoon - a once-in-a-lifetime Eastern Caribbean cruise - cancelled after devastation caused by Hurricane Irma.

Mr Oliver, 45, said: "We're just highly stressed and disappointed. We've had this wedding two years in the planning and within two weeks it's falling apart."

The father-of-three claimed things started to go wrong earlier this year when, a month after spending almost £1,400 for a villa in Portugal for a hen party, the couple learned it did not exist.

"Nothing had happened and we realised on Google Maps it was just a shack," he said. "The hen party all lost the money and had already booked the flights so had to fork out again for another villa which cost £1,100. We thought that would be the end of it."

But last week as the stags were enjoying themselves in Spain, Mr Oliver received a call to say the clothing store he was hiring his suits from, Greenwoods, had called in the administrators.

The groom and his worried bride-to-be at home were then faced with liaising with the retailer's supplier, ACS Clothing, to secure the suits.

Mr Oliver said in order to receive the gear, he had to pay out half of the initial cost of £822 again - dipping into his pocket for a further £411.

"Obviously they don't have a shop for them to be delivered to, so the suits will come here to my home and we'll have to fit them ourselves," he added.

The misfortune continued this week on Tuesday when the stag party return flight from Spain was cancelled due to French air strikes.

And despite Ryanair securing them another flight, the team spent nine hours stranded in Spain and were flown to Newcastle instead of Leeds - incurring an added fee on the pre-booked taxi.

With the wedding due to take place on Saturday, September 30, at Walworth Castle, near Darlington, Mr Oliver and mother-of-three Miss Nicholson, 46, have high hopes the day will be a success no matter what.

"It has just been the stress and inconvenience of it all," said Mr Oliver. "It ruined the stag do and the hen do and nearly the wedding day, but thankfully it didn't.

"It'll go ahead without a doubt - I told her (Miss Nicholson) I would get married in a skirt if I had to."

Following the hurricane hitting the Caribbean, then couple's dream honeymoon cruise, with stop-offs in the now devastated Tortola and Saint Thomas, has been cancelled, forcing the pair to hastily rearrange their holiday, which will now be a tour of the Western Caribbean.

According to ACS Clothing, from the point Greenwoods went into administration there was a backlog of 10,500 orders - for which ACS Clothing had not received any payment for.

A spokesperson for ACS Clothing said they wanted to reassure customers that the company was not trying to profit from the situation, that all orders would be honoured, but those who had paid in full in cash or by debit, like Mr Oliver, were required to pay 50 per cent of the fee.