Jilted bride who went ahead with wedding gets engaged

When Kayley Stead was left alone at the altar on her big day, she did what few would think to do - let the wedding continue.

Kayley, now 30, became a social media sensation off the back of her decision in 2022, with many of her guests also agreeing to "just go with this madness".

Footage from the day shows her enjoying her day in her wedding dress, making speeches and dancing - despite there being no husband in sight.

But four years on, Kayley has found love again and is engaged to the man she now lives with in Swansea.

"I'm going to invest in AirTags because he needs them all over him, obviously, so I need to know where he is at all times," she joked.

Recalling the wedding, Kayley told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: "We'd just come out of covid, I hadn't seen friends and family for such a long time.

"I had people coming from Ireland and Scotland. They had spent money, I spent just shy of £12,000 of my own money on this wedding."

Kayley said another reason she carried on was because she was looking forward to a nacho bar.

She said: "I had a cheese fountain, salsa, guacamole, jalapenos, the chips. I had the whole works. I love it."

She added: "I wish I could go back and do it again, but as me now. I would enjoy it 10 times more.

"It's a day nobody gets to be filled with so much love and gratitude."

Her non-wedding day video was viewed by more than 800,000 people online.

After the wedding, Kayley was supposed to go to Turkey on her honeymoon, and stay in a flat owned by a relative of her former fiancé.

Instead, she flew to New York with her friend and had her "own dream honeymoon".

"I did things by myself, like have breakfast in a window eating a croissant. It was such a poignant moment. It was like a movie," she said.

Kayley first met her now fiancé Richard Perrott, 31, when they were on the same course in university 10 years ago.

She said he asked her out in their first year but she said no. Then, in third year, she asked him out and he said no.

Richard, from Midsomer Norton in Somerset, got in touch to offer support after he heard about her wedding day.

They rekindled their friendship and began their relationship two years ago.

He popped the question during a return visit to their old campus at University of Wales Trinity St David in Carmarthen, where it all started.

"It was just a complete shock," she said.

"We'd spoken about marriage... but I think to put me off the scent, he was always kind of going, 'oh, I don't know whether I do or not'.

"So it was a long game he played."

Next wedding 'a big party'

Kayley has since heard from other people recounting their own experiences of weddings or other events being cancelled.

"People, when they go through break-ups, just want to kind of go into their own bubble which they have their right to do," she said.

"But reclaiming my strength and love in that moment has shaped me so much more.

"It's made me a more confident person. It's made me stand up for myself."

Kayley and her fiancé are planning to marry in April 2028, at a wedding she plans to be "a big party".

She has also made her mind up on the biggest wedding decision she has to make.

"There will be another nacho bar. Grander, bigger. That's going to be my centre-piece," she said.