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Saturday July 29 was meant to be the day when Charlotte Dowling, 32 and her fiancé Lewis Bowden, 33, tied the knot on their dream wedding day in Greece.

But as the wildfires wreaked havoc on the Greek island of Rhodes, the dream wedding was cancelled and the holiday turned into a nightmare – leaving the couple thousands of pounds out of pocket in the process.

Charlotte and Bedwas RFC player Lewis flew out to Rhodes on Saturday July 22, as the wildfires on the island worsened.

They were with a party of more than 20 friends and family members from Caerphilly, who had all booked their flights and accommodation through TUI.

The party included two people over the age of 80, as well as three children aged two or under.

Their plane was delayed for an hour at Cardiff Airport, but they were then given the all-clear to fly to Rhodes – with the party not told the extent of the wildfires ahead of the flight.

TUI had reassured them before they left and there was no Foreign Office advice not to fly.

However, it became clear just how bad the situation was when they came to land – with the wildfires easily visible from the plane.

Speaking to Caerphilly Observer, Charlotte explained the party were ushered into taxis upon their arrival in Rhodes and taken to a basketball arena which was being used as a crisis centre.

The Princess Andriana resort they were meant to stay at in the town of Kiotari, had already closed as the fires had destroyed some of the hotel’s buildings.

“We had no idea what was going on,” Charlotte said. “TUI reps reassured us and said everything would be fine.”

Despite promises of a new hotel, the party spent four days and three nights at the crisis centre.

There, they received support from locals, who provided them with food, drinks, and shelter while they tried to secure flights back home.

The couple had to deal with this chaos while looking after their two-year-old child, who found the ordeal difficult.

“We needed to get home but were told there were no flights. We were ringing TUI but no one could get us flights back.”

The group managed to get flights back to the UK on Tuesday July 25 – which coincidentally happened to be Lewis’ birthday – but they had to land in Birmingham instead of Cardiff as initially planned. It meant they had to fork out for a minibus to get them back home.

While TUI has promised refunds on the hotel and flights, the ordeal has still left the couple thousands of pounds out of pocket.

“It was a nightmare. We have to go through all the stress again trying to rearrange it for next year. We’ve lost thousands” said Charlotte, who had spent 18 months arranging the occasion.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We understand how distressing and difficult it’s been for those who had to leave their hotels and curtail their holidays due to the wildfires in Rhodes.

“Our teams have worked round the clock to offer support and we brought in many additional reps to help assist as soon as the situation escalated. They’ve done their utmost in challenging and difficult situations, collaborating with the local authorities who managed the immediate evacuation.

“We relocated impacted customers in new hotels as soon as we could and have brought hundreds of people home. Many more will be travelling back to the UK on flights today and our teams will be in touch with everyone who impacted on their return.”