Ok ladies. Not sure if this is laid out right or what I'm expected to have written... if I've missed something majorly important, do feel free to shout ?
Friday - my last day at work
Came in to find this waiting for me. Spent over 45mins clearing it all & I'm still finding sequins now! They'd done a collection & got us lots of vouchers & made me my own Autosport front cover (I have one from my 21st birthday too).
Saturday - collecting bits
Picked up the M&S cake, my dress & the 3 bridesmaids dresses. Then we had the first & only bridesmaids meeting at my flat. Making sure all the ladies knew what they had to do & where they had to be.
Sunday - away from home
Everything was bundled into 4 cars & we drove down to St Mary Hoo (4 miles from the venue) to stay in 2 cottages for the night before. My mum, Grandma & their 2 dogs were in 1 cottage & me, 3 bridesmaids (inc. 2 other halves & an 18 month old) & Toki, the budgie, were in the other cottage. Arrived around 4.30pm & began unpacking & hanging up dresses & suits. I cooked dinner (anything to stop my brain going into overdrive) which was a cobbled together mish-mash of pasta bake & pizza. My CBM seemed to be the most nervous of us. I was pretty calm, more paranoid that I'd forgotten something really obvious than nervous about the next day. We sat & painted our nails & discussed our hair & make-up.
Monday - the big day!
I sleep like a log, a very deaf log, so my bridesmaids were told that if I wasn't up & about by 8am then they should come in & jump on me until I am making coherent conversation! Fortunately I woke myself up at 7.50am.
Mum & I drove down to Cooling Castle to take the cake, favours, table names, etc. Drove in two cars so I could leave mine at Cooling. On the single long windy road from the Stable Cottages to the venue, we met a large herd of sheep being moved to another field. I LOVE SHEEP!!! "To meet a flock of sheep on a journey is an omen of good luck" Very happy at this point even thought I was made to run a little late by the sheep & I was being stared at by the various pedestrians we passed as I had a lot of curlers in my hair! Collected my bouquet & the girls wrist corsages from the florist who was already setting up our table centres. OH txt to say he (inc. best man, ushers, my brothers & dad with suits) were at a local service station. Panic! Mum & I scuttled out of Cooling & gave them the all clear to come & get ready in their room.
Finally got back to the cottages and began helping the girls get into their dresses. I had my make up done (one of my bridesmaids did all the hair & make-up) & munched on a bacon sarnie until it was time to get into my dress. Took the curlers out & my hair was very, very curly!!! Started to gently tease it out so I didn't look so much like Bonnie Langford. The car came to collect the bridesmaids & I was left with only me for company until they came back with my dad to collect me. OH had sent me flowers & a couple of little gifts. My dad arrived & I was bundled in (no pics of me exiting the car, seriously not an elegant sight!).
Whisked upstairs to go through the official stuff. The registrars were so lovely. Very chatty & friendly. They asked if my dad was alive (as OH father is deceased), he sat & told them the story of 'he nearly wasn't'. They were both very excited about having our budgie there.
Dad & I stood at the top of the stairs behind the door waiting for my cue. The seating music faded & an instrumental version of The Final Countdown began. I could hear everyone laughing (OH & I thought it would break the nervousness but knew fully well it would probably make him feel worse!). Then my song came on, the instrumental version of Drops of Jupiter by Train. I stepped out the door & saw someone there (hard to miss, he's an albino) who was an evening guest only. My heart sank.
Got to the front & instantly noticed OH had the wrong shirt on (ladies, get your guys to check that the suits fit before the morning of the wedding, all the suits would have fit it the shirts were in the right bags, OH had ridiculously long sleeves & Best Man had to fold his cuffs down so they reached the end of his arms!). We had a real giggle throughout the 'serious' part. Couldn't work out which hand to put OH's ring on! Luckily he was facing me (away from everyone watching), he was constantly welling up & chin wobbling. I managed to only chin wobble a couple of times. Toki wolf-whistled after the registrar asked if there was any reason not for us to marry. She really was the star of the show! Whistling & calling for Si at the appropriate times. We were both so chuffed with how the official part went, it was all very light & fun (exactly what we wanted rather than anything too stuffy).
OH got very choked while having pictures signing the register. My mum & dad were on my right & only his mum to his left. She was very tearful & apologised to OH which made him well-up. He wanted his dad to be there. A few faces were missing from the small selection of people we wanted to be at the ceremony. OH's aunt & cousins hit traffic. His aunt was in quiet hysterics as they came in just after the ceremony. 3 of our friends weren't their as the car broke down. I was gutted but can't let them know as much as they're already beating themselves up enough for it. They were there for the official pictures which is an important thing.
Lots of pictures then happened. The group shots, the confetti shots & some really nice ones of our family with their pride & joys (the boys & their cars).
The meal was amazing. Although they did set up the top table the wrong way round which meant OH & I had to swap names & favours around. We'd planned the front tables so the Best Mans gf was nearest him & the CBM OH & little boy were nearest her. Something to keep an eye on Stazzle as they told me I'd input it wrong on their site (it was them who'd laid the site out wrong).
OH's speech made me cry, can't remember it for the life of me now but we have the 'original copy' anywho. Best Mans speech included a tiny piece of paper which said 'Hairy, Short, Smells' (an ongoing joke about our Best Man smelling, he doesn't really) to describe OH. My dad couldn't manage doing a speech, he struggled a lot of the evening & stood close to the door to pop out every now & then to get some air. My mum proposed a toast & instantly burst into tears. The food was gorgeous. Amaretto chocolate tart *yums*.
Everyone loved the little touches we added (personalised table confetti, band table names, bird related bits & pieces). & everyone loved the cake topper, although they did all think it was edible! We cut the cake, very wonky, & then moved out the way so the dancefloor could be created & our evening guests could trickle in.
Waited what seemed like forever to perform our first dance. My mum had driven my Grandma & Toki back to the Stable Cottages & checked on the dogs. So now it was time. We'd prepped the DJ as to how long we wanted him to play the song for (it's 10mins in total & we wanted it for 3mins & then to fade out to Iris - Goo Goo Dolls). Our song choice... Soldiers of the Wasteland - Dragonforce. It's got a distinctive start up & so all of those who knew the song gasped & cheered, all the people who didn't thought 'oh how lovely, their song'. We began by swaying for about 30secs until the music really kicked in & we headbanged for about 1min!!! Roars of laughter & cheers as we began to headbang (man I'm glad we practised as the first time we did we headbutted each other!).
The night was incredible. I've never seen all my friends so smiley. Lots of our mates had recently been travelling & planned their whole trip around coming back for the wedding so everyone was catching up with each other. Everyone got up at some point in the night to have a boogey. It was amazing. We requested about 8 songs (gave them to the DJ on a CD) & he played them all including Sultans of Swing, The Chain, Wrathchild, Nothing Else Matters, Always. He really got the idea & played Metallica's cover of Whiskey in the Jar & Kings of Leon Sex on Fire. Everyone commented on how personalised it all was & it was perfect for us.
I decided to throw my bouquet pretty late on. Was umming & arring about it all day as it was beautiful. Decided to throw it in the end as I didn't want to come back after the honeymoon & see it dead! My feet were killing me (4 inch heels but they were too gorgeous to take off!). I had numb feet for 6 days afterwards, seriously considered going to the walk in clinic on the Saturday between our 2 parts of the honeymoon. Everyone has commented on how energetic I was & that I should have been wilting after such an exhausting day. I was buzzing.
The thing I suggest most is to take a deep breath & step out of the day. I kept popping outside for cool air & boy did it help! The day went on for so long, I couldn't believe it. There was an after party in one of the guests rooms which went on till 2.30am but we had already gone to our room by then (although we stayed up & talked about the day until 3am!). We found out the next morning that 5 of our friends decided (after a lot of alcohol) to streak! We are yet to see the CCTV footage.
All in all, a pretty amazing day. Only heard one bad comment. Apparently the gf of the best man moaned about being shoved in the corner (she's very diva-esque & thought she would have the centre seat on one of the front 2 tables). Luckily my BM explained that she had the centre chair & that her seat was 'in the corner' as it was nearest the Best Man.
I'm just excited to be back to 'normal' & have a tidy flat without wedding related things strewn everywhere! Thanks if you've made it all the way to the end (really, think I've over done it!).
xXx
