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A Briton has been left with a sold-out wedding guest list due to new quarantine rules that go into effect this weekend.
Oliver, who did not want to share his middle name, is from Kent but has lived in the Czech Republic for 11 years.
He will marry his 33-year-old fiancee Andrea in Prague, who is from a city east of the Czech capital called Pardubice.
But the new rules mean that arrivals to the UK from the Czech Republic – as much as Switzerland and Jamaica – They will have to isolate for 14 days if they arrive after 4 am on Saturday.
This is to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The rules were announced Thursday night and caused nearly 30 of the wedding guests to leave before the ceremony in an effort to overcome the restrictions.
Oliver, 38, told the Pennsylvania news agency: “I have 30 guests and my little sister, who is a bridesmaid, is distraught about having to fly home tonight before the wedding (she is a teacher).
“We haven’t had much sleep in the last few days and we are emotionally drained before the wedding.
“We just said goodbye with tears in the eyes of the family who have to leave today before the wedding at great cost.”
Oliver said that some family members had already retired due to age and poor health, which he described as “a shame but understandable.”
However, some of his friends and immediate family, in addition to his sister, will be subjected to isolation rules upon his return to the UK in order to attend.
He said the situation had left him “even angrier at UK leadership (or lack of) than before.”
“Where is your explanation of decision making? It is arbitrary, random and has simply left a couple and a family here crying before what is supposed to be the best day of their lives,” he said.
Oliver and Andrea had already canceled their wedding twice due to pregnancy.
Before the lockdown, they booked their third attempt for August and confirmed last month that it would go ahead after the Czech Republic was included on the government’s list of countries from which arrivals would not have to be isolated.
Oliver said: “We decided to go ahead when the Czech Republic had done very well in controlling the virus and relaxed many of the restrictions.”
But on Thursday it was announced that the Czech Republic would be added to the quarantine list after a 25% increase in COVID-19 cases in the last week.
