Vision into reality: Darcie and Ryan’s dream wedding

Port Talbot couple win a £30k dream wedding and raise thousands for a 3-year old diagnosis with childhood cancer

A heart-warming story which brings back some faith in humanity…. a couple from Port Talbot – Ryan and Darcie – very much in love, wanted to show their love with a wedding, but they’d just ploughed all of their disposable money into renovating their home, so plans for a big do were put on ice.

Until they won a competition for a dream wedding worth over £30k!

Scroll back to spring 2022 when Rachel Jenkins, owner of The Dancing Daffodil florist in Port Talbot wanted to make a meaningful contribution to the fundraising efforts for a little girl from Cwmavon.

The community were desperately raising money to help 2-year old Olivia Finch who had been diagnosed with childhood cancer – it was stage 4, high risk, a condition called Neuroblastoma, a very rare form of childhood cancer, with under 100 cases diagnosed each year.

The family had an initial fundraising of an ambitious quarter of a million pounds, needed to support Olivia to receive pioneering treatment in America for a vaccine that could save her life.

Such was the heartfelt nature of the appeal, many businesses in the area rose (pardon the pun!) to the challenge and the florist brought together her crack network of wedding suppliers to donate their services for the fundraising effort, and Rachel arranged everything needed for a dream wedding which would be hosted at the outstanding Gellifawr Woodland Retreat in Pembrokeshire.

Everything for an exclusive and dream wedding was included, including fine dining and an evening buffet; an award winning photographer (Richard Savage), highly-rated videographer Paul Harris (of Paul Harris Wedding Films), stationery (Quaint Hearted Weddings),  bespoke venue decor (Megan and Claude), suits (from Formal Hire), wedding dress voucher (from Willow in White), hair and make-up (from Bethan Bennett, mobile hair dresser and Zoe May make-up artist), Cookies for the after party (from Honey Suckle Bakery) and a wedding cake (by What Sophie Baked), there was also a celebrant to marry the couple (Hwyl Ceremonies) and of course award winning florals from The Dancing Daffodil.

A wedding worth more than thirty thousand pounds was going to be raffled.

The date was set for Friday the 17th February 2023 and Rachel set about advertising the raffle on her social media pages, selling tickets for £25 each.

Ryan Phillips, a welder fabricator, himself an enthusiastic fundraiser* called into the florist on Beverley Street in Port Talbot and bought a few tickets – he called his Mam on the way out of the shop and told her “I’m getting married next February Mam, get that fascinator ready”, he just knew, he felt lucky!

When he got home to Sandfields, back into the chaos of house renovation, he announced his predication to his fiancé Darcie Ravenhill, a social worker who covers the Cardiff area, she was busy removing sticky glue from old flooring, and did a trademark eye roll, but it was a lovely thought that got them through many hours of chipping off plaster, laying a vintage floor that had rescued from an old school and making do with stand pipes while their plumbing was sorted!

Rachel waited until the tickets sold reached a total of almost £6,000 and made the prize draw 6-months before the wedding day and on the 1st of July 2022, a poorly, but incredibly brave Olivia was well enough to go to the florist and make the draw for the wedding herself.  She wore a princess dress and a flower crown, and despite still receiving her nutrition through her feeding tube, she enthusiastically pulled out a name from a glass jar – it was Ryan!

The draw was live on Instagram and Ryan heard he’d won through a friend and raced into the shop, tears everywhere, soon joined by Darcie, they couldn’t believe it and were so delighted to receive the good news.  The wedding is in a couple of days – excitement is off the charts to see the dream wedding come to life.

The Dancing Daffodil – Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/thedancingdaffodil/

Olivia Finches Fight – Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/olivia_finches_fight/

*Winner: Ryan Phillips and Darcie Ravenhill – have raised over £40k for charity in the last few years, Ryan’s Dad died from cardiac arrest while exercising at Aberavon Beach, his life could have been saved if a defibrillator was available, so Ryan and friends raised thousands to have them installed.  This is story that was covered by Wales Online.