BLINDED by my wedding cake

A freak accident turned Kellen and Gabby’s special day into a nightmare

- Amber Wemyss

Carefully wrapping a pair of hiking boots, I placed my handwritten note on top.

I can't wait to walk the path of life together, I wrote.

It was the morning of my wedding to Gabby, then 26, and I couldn't wait to call her my wife. We'd first met at the hospital where we both worked as nurses, almost three years earlier.

Bonding over our love of the outdoors, and the fact we were both going through divorces, we leant on each other for support.

Wanting to get to know each other even better, we went kayaking one day. Out on a lake at twilight, we spent hours talking and laughing, and I knew then that I'd found The One.

When I introduced Gabby to my kids, Cameron, then five, and Jameson, two, she loved them right away.

Shortly afterwards, we moved in together and, in March 2021, we bought our first home. On our first night there, I asked Gabby to marry me, on bended knee.

'Yes!' she cried, ecstatic.

Just four months later, we said 'I do' in front of 100 of our family and friends.

After our meals, and the speeches, it was time to cut the cake.

When I was growing up, my mum Lynette and grandpa Jerry loved pranking people by telling them to smell the cake. Then, when the person's face was just centimetres away, they'd push it into the icing.

So when I asked Gabby to 'smell the cake', she knew what I was trying to pull.

'No!' she giggled, refusing to put her face near the three-tiered cake.