Bride gets dumped, turns New Year’s Eve wedding reception into ‘new beginnings’ party

Former army major Angela Burrow was dumped two weeks before her New Year's Eve wedding, but that didn't stop her from turning her reception into a celebratory "new beginnings" party.

The 52-year-old said that after "three days of crying," she managed to get her "fighting spirit" back, according to BBC News. She decided not to cancel her reception — seven-course wedding breakfast, Scottish pipers at midnight and all — and turned it into a different kind of celebration.

During the New Year's Eve celebration, Burrow told the Daily Echo: "Life is too short and you have to live each day as if it's going to be your last.

"I'm meant to be getting married today, but I want it to be a celebration of New Year and new beginnings."

The former nurse and mother of two had accepted the proposal of her 38-year-old fiancé in August after dating for three-and-a-half-years, and was shocked when she received a text message calling off the wedding, reported BBC.

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"I was standing at the hand dryer in the ladies' toilets in Reading, and I fished in my pocket for my phone," she said. "I read the first line which said 'the wedding's off,' and my legs just buckled underneath me. It was like somebody had winded me."

She added that some seem to think she "should be in bed in my widow's weaves and be like Miss Havisham" from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

But instead, Burrow hosted the event today, complete with traditionally decorated wedding tables with place cards, orchids and blue bows on the chairs, said the Daily Echo. Around 40 guests attended the party, many in military uniform, including Burrow herself, who is a former major in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.