"GET me to the church on time" is usually the plaintive cry of the hung-over groom, but for one unlucky wedding couple, that desperate plea came from the priest.

A nightmarish sequence of events turned the marriage of Michael Snowdon and Joanne Harvey into a wedding from hell.

The stand-in priest arriving an hour late for the ceremony was just one of their many problems as their wedding day, on Saturday, lurched from one disaster to another.

First, the couple's daughter fell ill on the night before the wedding, leaving Joanne exhausted after staying with her in hospital all night.

Because of her tiredness, she overslept and was then told that her wedding car had crashed on the way to collect her.

The disasters continued when the best man, who had also overslept, found he could not get to the church in time for the ceremony.

When the wedding party arrived at church they found the vicar was ill and his stand-in had no transport.

The farce contributed to the groom fainting at the altar through stress when the ceremony eventually started.

Just when the couple thought things could not get worse, they arrived at their reception to be told the honeymoon suite was double booked.

Joanne, 24, and Michael, 25, both from Hartlepool, were married at St Hilda's Church in the town.

Joanne said the final blow came when the honeymoon suite at the Staincliffe Hotel, at Seaton Carew, was double booked.

She said: "That put an end to a very long day. We just walked out and headed along the road, me in my wedding dress and Michael in his suit.

"Luckily a taxi driver pulled over. He said he was on his way home, but he stopped because he felt sorry for us.

"When we got home we both sat down on the settee and burst out laughing. We had spent the entire day lurching from one disaster to another, it was just unbelievable. The tiniest hitch in a wedding day is seen as a disaster, but I think ours really takes the biscuit. But despite everything I will look back on it as a brilliant day and one I will definitely never forget."