A bride woke up covered in more than 50 swollen mosquito bites on the morning of her wedding after sleeping with the doors open when the air conditioning in her accommodation broke.
Auja Smith tied the know with husband, Nikhi Singh, 30, in Mallorca, Spain, on 5 June.
The 26-year-old’s wedding celebrations took an unexpected turn after their air conditioning unit stopped working two nights before the ceremony, leaving them to sleep with the doors open to escape the heat.
- Advertisement -
When Auja, who works in commercial art sales, woke the following morning, she noticed dozens of flat red marks scattered across her body.
“I woke up two nights before the wedding and there were bites all over me but they were flat and just red,” Auja, from Indianapolis, US, told What’s The Jam.
“I freaked out.
“There were mosquitoes swarming the room because we had slept with the doors open in our bedroom because our AC went out and it’s very hot.
“The next morning, I got up to go into our closet and as soon as I opened the closet doors, there were 50-plus mosquitoes in the closet almost hibernating.”
- Advertisement -
The couple rushed out to buy insect spray to stop any more mosquitoes getting into the room but by the following morning, which was also the day of the wedding, the bites had become significantly worse.
Auja said: “I woke up the day of my wedding and all of the mosquito bites had gotten extremely swollen.
“I had been taking antihistamines the day before and even slept with pimple patches on to try to mitigate.
- Advertisement -
“But nonetheless, I woke up and they were extremely swollen.
“Nothing like the day before.
“I went into solution, problem-solving mode and took more allergy pills and put Benadryl cream all over myself and iced them.
“I did everything that I could think of that might help, but quite literally nothing helped.”
Auja said she tried her best to enjoy her big day.
She said: “The boys went off for the day to run errands and it was me and a few of my friends at the house and I finally as I was starting to get ready, I just broke down and started crying.
“After that, I tried to just forget about it and accept that it was going to be a part of the day.
“I wasn’t intending on wearing a lot of makeup that day and because of how swollen they were, I ended up wearing five layers of foundation, and I told my photographer she better be good at Photoshop.”
Auja is encouraging other couples planning destination weddings to prepare for unexpected problems.
She added: “My warning to brides getting married anywhere abroad is don’t do anything out of the normal and definitely don’t sleep with the doors or windows open even if it’s hot.
“When you think that you’re prepared, think of every in any situation that could possibly happen and make sure you bring every medicine you have available.”
Looking back, Auja said she believes every wedding has something that goes wrong and that the mishaps only made the day more memorable.
She added: “I would like to say that I think that every single person’s wedding day has something that goes wrong and there were more than just the bites that went wrong on our special day.
“But when you are genuinely in love and so happy, there’s nothing that could get in the way of making the day the best day of your life.
“So I wouldn’t stress too much about what could go wrong and focusing on what’s right.
“And at the end of the day, I got to marry the love of my life and it was the most wonderful, fairytale wedding that I could’ve asked for.
“What God joins together let no one separate.
“Anything that happens that could be perceived as negative or going wrong on your wedding day makes it even more memorable and a part of the day.
“So many people focus on perfection of the day instead of what it’s actually about.”
READ MORE: Woman lives in the Lake District for just £190 a month – and THIS role saves her £6,000 a year
