Brit couple spent the most terrifying wedding night ever locked in a shoe shop cupboard with strangers after being caught up in Las Vegas gun massacre
A BRIT couple who travelled to Las Vegas to get married spent their wedding night locked in a shoe shop cupboard after getting caught up in a deadly gun massacre.
Vanessa and Philip Dyer, from Kessingland, Suffolk, were strolling back to their hotel on October 1 last year when Stephen Paddock opened fire during the open-air Route 91 Harvest Festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
The 64-year-old's shooting spree killed 59 people and wounded over 500 more in America's worst mass shooting.
The couple had been together since 2000, after meeting on a night out, and both had children from previous relationships - Vanessa's kids Ross and Jade, and Philip's boys Nathaniel and Joshua.
After getting engaged at Christmas in 2016, the couple decided to marry in Las Vegas and booked The Little White Wedding Chapel, where celebs like Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford and Demi Moore and Bruce Willis tied the knot.
Vanessa booked a ceremony package, including a limo to the venue and the hiring of the pastor and two people to act as witnesses.
They arrived in Vegas in September 2017 and stayed at the Eygptian-themed Luxor Hotel, in a room on the 21st floor.
"The view from our balcony was amazing," Vanessa recalled.
"We spent ages just gazing down at the strip below. There was a country music festival going on across the road and we thought about getting tickets, but there was so much else to see and do in Las Vegas, we never got around to it."
On the day of their wedding the newlyweds returned to their hotel to change before going out for a steak dinner at the Venetian Hotel.
At around 10pm they were heading back to their room when they heard a strange popping sound.
"I suddenly felt a bit nervous, as it sounded like a machine gun, but nobody around us seemed worried - everyone was just sauntering along, taking the evening air.
"Then I heard it again and this time, other people noticed it too. People stopped walking and looked around, confused.
"It was hard to tell which direction the noise was coming from. But then began the wail of police car sirens, in the distance.
"Suddenly people were screaming and running towards us. We didn’t know it at the time, but they were the first people fleeing the Route 91 music festival - that same event we’d watched from our balcony the night before - as a lone gunman fired down on them from the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
"We started walking, fast as we could, following the crowd, back the way we’d come. Then a woman shouted at us from inside a shoe shop, telling us to go inside and take cover."
Next thing they knew, they along with around 30 other people were being ushered inside Famous Footwear.
Staff were urging passers-by into the shop, then with everyone was safely indoors, they closed the metal security shutters and the manager locked them inside a big store cupboard at the back of the building.
"I was in shock," said Vanessa. "It was our wedding night, and here we were, hiding out with a bunch of total strangers in a cupboard!
"There wasn’t much room in there, either - people were perching on step ladders and piles of boxes, others were sitting on the floor.
"Everyone was very scared. One young woman was retching until she threw up through fear. Other children and adults sobbed.
"For the most part, people were trying to keep a lid on their emotions, out of consideration for everyone else.
"The room was fairly quiet as we strained our ears, listening to the noises from outside. There were shouts and yells and we could hear more and more sirens joining in the din, getting louder as they drew closer to us.
"Whatever was going on out there, it was very near to us indeed. There was speculation that there was a terrorist attack and voices claiming police cars had been stolen. It was terrifying."
They texted their kids and parents to let them know they were OK, and after another 10 minutes went by the gunfire stopped.
It was hours before they were let out of the cupboard, and Vanessa told how people became tired and uncomfortable in the cramped conditions.
She recalled: "They started asking to use the loo. Shop staff let us out of the cupboard, one or two at a time, so we could go. We couldn't believe what was happening - it felt like being in a movie.
"We spent three hours of our wedding night hiding in that cupboard, before we were finally allowed out.
"But with much of the city still remaining under police lockdown, we couldn’t return to our hotel and took refuge in the nearby MGM Casino and Hotel, which had reopened.
"Phil went to get coffees and was gone for an hour as there was a huge queue - I started imagining all sorts of things. By the time he returned, in my head I’d become a bride and a widow, within the space of 24 hours!"
The couple finally got back to their hotel at around 6am and could see the scene of devastation from their window.
"Over at the Mandalay Bay, a single curtain billowed out of the window of the room where the shooter had been," Vanessa recalled. "It was a chilling sight. As the death toll mounted we realised how close we’d come to a massacre.
"While Phil and me escaped physical harm, our story could so easily have been drastically different.
"Two days after the shooting, we left Las Vegas for New York. In one restaurant, a waiter who overheard us talking brought over some desserts, saying, 'These are on the house. We’re so glad you’re safe.'
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"Now Phil and me will always remember our wedding night, but for all the wrong reasons.
"We’ve decided we’re going to return to Las Vegas for our first anniversary, when we will be calling into the shoe shop to thank the manager whose quick thinking saved us."
A hero nurse who protected his wife and a woman who died in her husband's arms were among at least 58 people killed in the massacre.