My name is Tina* and I am a terrible Hitcher. It is 2 months and 1 week since my wedding day. Until now I have failed to write my report. In order to make up for this, here is an epic report that will probably bore the pants off you all. But I promise there will be lots of flashes. Ok?
*not really
Pre-wedding: Wednesday 18th - Friday 20th May
My last day at work was Wednesday, and the whole office had therefore officially declared it "let's not really do any work" day. There was a cake, a card, and my lovely friend who used to work with us took the afternoon off and came in for lunch. Mr Spoon had taken the day off and was busy at home wrapping gifts for our parents, BMs, best man and ushers, and was generally making himself useful while I sat around eating huge sandwiches. Excellent. As I left the office, everyone was wishing me luck and saying they'd see me on Sunday, but it still didn't really feel real. I got home and Operation Pack for Honeymoon began - unfortunately, I flaming hate packing with a passion (it confuses me ? ); I couldn't for the life of me work out what I needed to pack, I then realised I also needed to pack a small case for Saturday and Sunday night at the hotel, and when it turned out one of our suitcases had disintegrated in the loft, I had my one and only Mega Bridezilla Moment. Oops. This involved a full-scale tantrum, a lot of tears, and Mr Spoon just calmly leaving the house and returning half an hour later with a new suitcase. Ah, so that's why I'm marrying him.
On Thursday, Mr Spoon had to go to Edinburgh for a training course, so I had the whole day ahead of planning and prep. I was armed with a to-do list and I was determined to get things done. First stop was the docs for my final injection before the honeymoon, then off into town for the final dress fitting. As I got to the shop I started feeling really nervous! My dress had always been too big around the boobs (I had named it my Jessica Rabbit dress as it was built for someone with a teeny waist and enormous breasts) and the design was awkward to take in around the bust. Luckily for me, Jen the Amazing Seamstress had given it a stern talking to (and also done a bit of sewing) and it now fitted perfectly. This was the first time I could really start to get an idea of what I was going to look like on my wedding day! I had a good look in the mirror for as long as Jen would let me (about 5 minutes - she's a very busy woman), then left the dress in her care overnight to be steamed. Then I was off round town to get my eyebrows threaded, buy books for the flight, and pick up the last few honeymoon clothes.
I got home and got started on the table plan - halfway through, Mr Spoon phoned me "just to see if you're getting on ok, after you were so worried yesterday". This made me a very happy woman, as essentially the night before I had screamed at him like a banshee, and yet he still wanted to phone to make sure I wasn't having a nervous breakdown amongst the table centres. I finished the table plan, wrapped Mr Spoon's presents, and started wrapping ribbon around plant pots - oh the glamour of wedding planning. Then it was time for a couple of hours off! I went round to my friend P's for coffee and a doughnut (hope I still fit in that dress...) and played with her little girl. By this point I was starting to see light at the end of the planning tunnel, and when I got home I finally felt relaxed enough to have my first attempt at writing my speech. I had been planning to start it a little bit earlier than that, but oh well. I wrote straight from the heart and was actually very pleased with it; it was short but said everything I wanted it to. Mr Spoon came home and we spent a bit of time packing tea cups in boxes and gathering all the stationery together before I dyed my hair to sort my roots out.
Some flashes of the table centres, etc; we DIYed everything:
On Friday we were both finally off work at the same time, so sprung into action gathering everything together and triple checking every last thing. On Saturday some of our guests were arriving and we needed to get everything to the venue, so this was our last chance to have everything sorted. I unleashed my inner Monica and made lists: lists of phone numbers, lists of what we were taking, lists of what needed to go where, lists of lists... I was in heaven. We bought the last few bits and bobs - although I swear we'd spent every day for the last fortnight buying the last few bits and bobs. Then finally we were done. Mr Spoon took the cat and rabbits off to the cattery while I went back into town to PICK UP MY DRESS! This involved some interesting manouvering through some of the busiest shopping streets in the rain, whilst carrying my dress wrapped in a duvet cover and the enormous box that it originally came in, but finally I made it to the car, spent an interesting 10 minutes trying to arrange a wedding dress in a Ford Ka, and then was on my way home.
By 3pm we'd run out of things to do and just sat there looking at each other. The planning was over. That night was our last unmarried night together so we went out for a couple of drinks and a curry. I would absolutely, totally, 100% recommend this; we had a wonderful time and it was great to just spend a bit of time together, away from wedding stuff, and think about how much we enjoy being together.
