What should have been the happiest day of one bride’s life took a dramatic turn when her sister-in-law doused her in black paint just minutes before she was set to walk down the aisle.
Gemma Monk, 35, had spent nearly 20 years waiting to wed her childhood sweetheart Ken, but Antonia Eastwood, 49, brought the celebrations to a halt when she launched the attack outside Oakwood House register office in Maidstone, Kent, back in May 2024.
The incident left Gemma’s £1,800 wedding dress ruined and also splattered two of her bridesmaids, though the determined mother-of-two managed to clean herself up, borrow a replacement dress, and still exchange vows with Ken around two hours later.
Antonia Eastwood speaks out
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Antonia — who goes by Toni — opened up about her actions, saying: “I feel ashamed of myself. It’s not me. I’ve never been in trouble with the police before. Ever.
“I had a full-blown panic attack on the day I was sentenced. I was petrified I’d go to prison. It has all taken its toll.”
Even so, Toni admitted she struggles to fully explain what drove her to do it, describing it as a “spur of the moment thing.”
Her explanation for the paint being there at all centred on a recent family milestone — her daughter Hollie had just had a baby, and Toni had been using the paint to capture the newborn’s handprints and footprints.
“My daughter Hollie had just given birth to our first grandchild and I’d been using some black paint to do our new granddaughter’s handprints and footprints,” she explained. “It was child-friendly, watered-down black paint in a tub of around 200ml and it happened to be in the side pocket of the car.
“I saw her [Gemma] get out of her car — she was a few yards away. Then I just shouted to her and threw the paint. It hit the back of her dress.”
A bitter family feud
Toni and her husband Ashley, one of Gemma’s four brothers, had not received an invitation to the wedding — yet they showed up regardless.
Toni said her intention was to give Gemma “a piece of my mind,” and she went on to allege that Gemma had attempted to sabotage her own wedding the year before by deliberately trying to trip her as she walked down the aisle.
Gemma was having none of it, branding the accusation “delusional.” She said: “I’m about 5ft tall. My legs aren’t long enough to trip her even if I wanted to.” She added: “I told them they were ridiculous for accusing me. I’ve since looked back at their wedding video and it shows Toni walking past me without any incident at all.”
Gemma did acknowledge that relations between them had soured over time, saying: “I didn’t warm to her all that much.” She recalled: “The first time I met Toni she was telling me how she left her husband and children to be with Ashley, who in turn had left his wife and children too. It was like she was splitting up two families.”
True love is more durable than lace, Antonia Eastwood tried to stain the day with black paint, but Gemma Monk still walked the aisle in borrowed white. https://t.co/82IydPOUg1 pic.twitter.com/EkvnMg6TwS
— Trend_X_Now (@TrendxNow) April 17, 2026
Court ruling and fallout
When the case came before Maidstone Crown Court, Toni pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal damage and was handed a ten-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.
On top of that, she was required to complete 160 hours of unpaid community work, was placed under a ten-year restraining order, and ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation — £4,000 of which went to Gemma, with the remaining £1,000 awarded to Oakwood House.
Presiding Judge Oliver Saxby KC was unconvinced by any suggestion the attack had been impulsive, ruling instead that Toni had deliberately set out to “wreck” Gemma’s special day. He described her actions as “horrid and nasty and mean.”
For Gemma, the resolve she showed on the day speaks for itself. “We’d waited so long for that day. Nothing was going to stop me,” she said. She continued: “I didn’t think twice. I would have walked down the aisle in my knickers and with black paint over my face if I had to.”
Ashley said his wife now carries regret over what happened. “She regrets what she did and wishes she could turn back time,” he said, before adding: “It was a family feud and that’s how it should have stayed.”
