Firstly, sorry this is late - today is the first time i've done nothing all day, and literally the first chance i've had to write about it, secondly, we only got the link to our prof tog pics on saturday, and thirdly, this is really long, so much longer than i had planned, so make yourselves comfortable... ?
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THURS 30TH
First day off work - you know how the days leading up to the wedding are supposed to be all relaxing and spent in a spa making sure i am the most beautiful i could be? didn't happen in bluewater world. i spent the morning running round Bluewater shopping centre like a blue arsed fly trying to get organised for the upcoming days and the honeymoon. got my eyebrows threaded (has anyone else ever had this done? it was my first ever time, man, it hurts like a mother....!) tried to find some clothes for honeymoon, a pressie for H (oops), contact lenses and other bits. i promised H i wouldn't be too late as we had loads to do that afternoon. 3 hours later i emerged having only bought a third of what i needed... over the dartford bridge then to costco to get food and bits for sunday's BBQ, where i began to get a bit stressed as i was convinced it was all a Very Bad Idea given we had no idea how many people would be there and i wasn't sure the weather would hold out. back sarf over the river to b&q to get more gas for the bbq, just in case the current can ran out (learned our lesson from a previous bbq ?). rushed back to start cleaning the house as the ILs were due later that night at 10pm. 6pm, i'm in my cleaning pjs, hair greasy, no make up, sweaty, scrubbing the bathroom tiles, when H comes into bathroom, takes me by the hand and asks me to sit on the bed. the ILs had just come over the bridge and were due at the house in 5 mins ?. they were great though, they made themselves at home whilst i finished cleaning the bathroom. H and his dad quickly drove down to mcdonalds for dinner as we had little else in the house so we all tucked into that (sod the dress fitting, eh?!) my SIL and BIL (the best man) helped sort all our favours into envelopes for us to give to the venue the next day, which was a massive help. dropped into bed about 10ish, where H reminded me this would be my last night in our house as a single woman.
FRI 31ST
was woken up by our 3yr old nephew at 7am, which would normally have annoyed me, but i needed to be up and out. got breakfast, showered, and excused myself to drive to the beauticians to be de-fuzzed. nephew asked me where i was going, and asked if he could come with me.... while i was driving to the beauticians, the chris moyles golden hour was on, playing such quality tunes - it is one of my favourite memories - summertime by will smith the fresh prince (kept on singing 'there's an air of love and of happiness' to myself all day ?) and let's talk about sex by salt n pepa ? - i just felt totally happy and excited. got de-fuzzed, did a bit more shopping afterwards, til i realised i really should get a move on as there was still loads to organise.
got home, rushed to pack a bag for the friday and saturday nights, trying desperately to remember all the make up and toiletries i would need for the next morning, and also making sure to remember to pack a couple of changes of clothes. flung it all into a bag, and then packed up the car with that, the favours, table plan and everything else that needed taking to the venue. H called, and said he was at bluewater with the ILs having lunch, so drove there to join them. had a quick panini with them, but it was getting close to 2pm, and the venue had asked for us to deliver things before then. ooops. so H and i went outside and shared a bit of a tearful goodbye, bit weird it being in bluewater car park...!
i went quickly to pick up the m&s cupcakes, which would make up the majority of our cake, shoved those in the car, and drove like a maniac to the venue. dropped it all off with the staff there, who were great at reassuring me how things would be. took a call from the florist at that point, asking me where he should drop all the bits tomorrow - this panicked me slightly as i didn't have anything written down with me, he didn't have a list of what we had ordered in front of him, so i was a bit worried things wouldn't end up where they should be...
drove over to my parents house, where i demanded (!) my sister stop sunbathing and come help me buy honeymoon stuff, where in reality, all i wanted her for was to abuse her arcadia staff discount card ?. got all my toiletries for the honeymoon in boots, where i spent near on £80 ?. sis bought me a bit of nice make up from benefit which was very sweet of her.
friday night, me, mum dad my sis and bro all went to our local restaurant for dinner. dad was a bit concerned that we shouldn't eat fish just in case it were to give us dodgy tummys, but we all ignored him, given he had brought us to a fish restaurant! i felt really calm the whole evening, until i realised i had promised to email the florist something, so did so in the middle of the restaurant at 10pm....
when we got back, we tried to stay up a bit longer to watch wedding crashers, whilst i did my nails, but none of us could stay up any longer than 11. got to sleep pretty quickly as i was just so bloomin' knackered.
SAT 1ST - OUR WEDDING DAY!!!
woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep for an hour, so just tried to tire myself out by lurking on the internet from my phone for a while. eventually got back to sleep at around 5ish, and was woken up at 7.45 by my mum with a cup of tea. we had all planned to wake at 7 to enjoy a leisurely champagne, croissants and strawberry breakfast, but by this point, we all needed to be in and out the shower before the hairdressers at 8.30 so it didn't quite work like that ?. as we were running out the door to the hairdresser's, dad shoved a pandora bag into my hand, saying he was under orders to give this to me in the morning. did i want to wait til i got back to open it? did i heck - i took it to the hairdressers with me ?.
got there to find one of the wedding guests also getting her hair done at the same time! hair was washed and dried, and hairdresser promptly started to backcomb my hair and put about a ton of kirby grips in there to keep veil in place. i opened my pressie from my H to find a pandora bracelet, with a little heart locket charm on it - something i had asked for for my 30th bday later this year. a very lovely surprise. we texted one another, me mainly to say thanks, and to remind him to take the music CD with him to the wedding, otherwise i'd be walking up the aisle to nothing....
got back home around half 10 to find the florist had delivered all the bouquets and buttonholes. he had mocked one up for me 2 weeks before the wedding and i hadn't been very happy with it, but was stunned to see what he had delivered, they were exactly what i had wanted - better, even. i started on the rescue remedy at this point, as although i wasn't nervous, i thought if i kept my levels high, it would do me well throughout the day ? managed to eat some cereal while we all sat round gossiping, and watching saturday morning TV. about 11, the door went, and dad came through saying more flowers were being delivered - was a bit perplexed by this as all the flowers i had been expecting had been delivered. had the florist mucked up because of how disorganised we had both been? no, H had ordered some flowers to be delivered - some beautiful sunflowers and purple stocks, with a card in it saying 'don't be late! x' (he had always joked that he would wait until 2.16, and then would give up and go home....) started to feel a bit emotional at this point.
put make up on, and then dress - realised i had forgotten to put my lovely body lotion on, so smothered myself in that, then realised that probably wasn't a good idea as i would need to put t1t tape on as dress is quite looooow. some how managed to make it work - just. came downstairs and had some pics taken by a family friend (and weirdly enough, my first boyfriend....?) who has an interest in photography. he took some amazing pics.
flower girls arrived, high as bloomin kites, few more pics and then we decided we should get going. my dad drove me in his pride and joy - his renault gordini, while my BMs, their mum and my mum went in a 7 seater cab behind. we had loads of people beeping us and staring - i loved every second! we wanted to make sure we got to the venue with lots of time (also because dad's car is a bit unreliable....) so pulled into the brands hatch paddock entrance to kill time...
10 to 2, the BMs all drove round the corner, dad and i waited a few more mins. we both took another few swigs of rescue remedy, and then some breath mints - the RR was making our breaths smell...! we then made our way, and arrived at the hotel. felt like a movie star as i arrived as our tog was there (in his words) 'going paparazzi on my ar5e...'
registrar came and did all the legal stuff, spellings and all, and then said he would go and check everything was ok to start and someone would come and get us. ten minutes go by, as does 2.16 so H got a bit nervous, so we have to remind one of the hotel staff to check with the registrar we were ok to go. apparently they were, but the hotel staff had forgotten to come and get us! so at 2.20 we all got started. i don't remember much about walking up the aisle except trying to look at the people around me, and remembering to smile. i was walking slowly, taking it all in, but dad was so nervous he marched us up there!
the actual ceremony went by sooo quickly - i can't remember much of what was said, but remember smiling the whole way through. here's C giving me my w-ring. at one point after the best man had handed over the rings, the registrar used his name instead of my H's as part of the legal proceedings bit, and given it's his twin brother, it raised a load of laughs. he then, after 7 and a half years of patiently waiting, pronounced us husband and wife - yay! it was worth the wait.
so we signed the register, the whole thing finished, and as the piper was on his way into the room to pipe us out, i did a little jump for joy! not sure where it came from, i didn't plan to, it was just how i felt at that exact moment. haven't found anyone with a pic of it yet though...! so the piper piped us out, which was great fun.
we went outside for pics ASAP as the weather forecast had been rubbish for the saturday all week - thankfully we managed to get all the shots we wanted, just before it started to rain at 4-ish. and boy, did it rain! it was torrential - but by this point i didn't care one tiny little bit. we missed all the canapes coming round because of all the pics being taken, but i'm told they were yummy (the caramel and chocolate dipped strawberries in particular....)
went in just after 4 for the wedding breakfast, where i saw my cake for the first time - a real family effort - cake made by gran, garland made by mum and eldest FG (aged 8), decorated by middle and little FG (aged 6 and 3). the green and white stripes are for H's footie team.... the cupcakes also went down an absolute storm.
speeches followed - dad, who had been so nervous, was absolutely brilliant, you would never have guessed he was so nervous. said lots of funny, embarassing (and true) things about me. H's was great also, striking the right note between sweet, funny, deprecating, and heartwarming. best man's was close to the bone, i sat there the whole time thinking, stop taking the mick out of my husband!
meal was fab, we made sure to go round all the tables to say hello to as many people as we could while they were all in one place. our evening guests started arriving at about 7-ish, and the DJ arrived and started setting up. we had had some dance lessons for our 1st dance, and by this point, H was getting very very nervous. we escaped to our bedroom for 5 mins to do a quick practice (i also relieved myself of my suck-you-in pants at this point, and put on something much more comfy and much sexier.... ?)
the first dance happened at about 8.30 - we hadn't told anyone what we were planning, so it was a huge surprise. everyone loved it - the whole time H and I were talking each other through the steps, but we had great fun!
the rest of the night flew by - i spent the whole night on the dancefloor, going mental to loads of music like killers, kings of leon, proclaimers, deacon blue (it was a half scottish wedding after all). we had given the DJ about 30 songs he had to play, and he played all but 2 or 3 of them. he took our list as inspiration and also played some great songs we hadn't requested but fit really well, such as the charlatans - took me and my school friends back to our days of being 16 and sneaking into a club at king's college in london called collide-a-scope...
the whole night finished after the dj played never forget, new york new york, and the bonnie bonny banks of loch lomond - a massive riot. our 8 yr old and 3yr old FGs managed to stay up right til the end - they were a bit intimidated by all the flinging around at the end, but had a great time. H and I seemed to end up in the middle of a circle with people dancing round us a number of times!
it all finished at midnight, the DJ came up to us and said he himself had had a great night, which made us really happy. we escaped up to our room to find my BM and FGs had ransacked the place with rose petals and confetti - it looked like total carnage but it was really funny. the hotel had also saved us a massive plate loads of the evening buffet, which was a great idea as we were starving! eventually made it to sleep around 2ish.
SUN 2ND
apparently loads of our guests stayed up during the night to make their way through a bottle of vodka - they were politely asked by the hotel to bring the party downstairs as they were being a bit loud... oops. the next morning they all looked totally hungover - these people included my brother and my FIL...!
we got home, and had a good number of our guests come over for the BBQ - not as many as we had anticipated, which was great (in a weird way) as our house is so small, but the weather was beautifully sunny and we got a chance to nose at people's photos! everyone left at about 5pm, giving us a chance to pack for our honeymoon in thailand the next morning.
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so i'm really sorry this has ended up SOOO long, but it's nice to get it all down so i can at least try to remember some things. even after 4 weeks i've forgotten loads ☹️
so if you still have the energy, the rest of our wedding pics are at www.mrandmrsmooney.co.uk and there's also a vid our DJ put up here of some of the dancing (it's not great quality, but just a bit of fun).
lots of love, Mrs M xxxx
