Wedding report.
Thursday.
I’d dropped off all our stuff at the venue on Wednesday so all I had to do was a manic clean of the house before everyone arrived late afternoon. My parents and chief bridesmaid arrived about four and the weather was lovely so we all sat in the garden having a drink.
Our rehearsal was at six so we walked down to the church. Our vicar was lovely, she was really calming. Our videographer had turned up but our photographer was nowhere to be seen so had a bit of a panic! We practised everything but I couldn’t make it through my vows without turning into a blubbering mess. My Mum and CBM did too, we were all in a state and made the vicar cry.
Our photographer turned up and just as we were leaving we were running though some details and it emerged that our videographer thought our reception was at a completely different venue! So we had to all sort that out, followed by a meal in the pub with the best man, CBM my parents, and H’s mum turned up too. My parents had rented a cottage so me and CBM went back there to practice putting on my dress. It turned out the hoop I’d bought for it didn’t really work, so had to do some last minute research into where to hire one the next day.
Friday.
H and I woke up, had a nice breakfast and gave our presents to each other which was really nice and romantic. We didn’t know if two of our day guests were coming as their grandchild was very ill, and they were helping look after her. A letter from them arrived at PIL’s house so H’s mum rang to tell him. He told her we really needed to know so we could arrange seating and possibly substitute people if needs be so he asked if she would open the card to see if they were coming….she refused, so H had to drive all the way over there to get in and come back to ours. They couldn’t make it so luckily two of our evening guests could come to the whole day.
My parents and CBM arrived at the house and we had a quick cup of tea before H and Dad went off to play golf and we headed into the city to get our nails done and get the emergency hoop. We stopped at John Lewis to have lunch and I almost injured someone when my cheese scone flew off my plate and hit someone at the next table. We headed off to get our nails done, picked up a few last minute things in the shops and headed home.
It was arranged for all the ushers and their partners, me and H, CBM and my parents to go out for a meal on Friday night and as we were rushing round all day I wasn’t really in the mood but it turned out to be a really good idea, some of the ushers and their partners hadn’t met before and they got on like a house on fire, it was a really chilled evening with lots of laughs and I got to spend more time with my H. I think if I’d have been home I’d have been a bit more stressed. After the meal H and I said a quick goodbye as everyone was watching and they all headed off to the pub where he gave the ushers and best man their presents.
I went home and did some last minute pampering, hitched, and went to bed.
Saturday – the big day!
Surprisingly, aside from a text at 6.30 I slept right through the night and got up about eightish. CBM came upstairs and gave a lovely card about our friendship and a Tiffany bracelet. We ate pain au chocolat and watched Ally McBeal for about an hour before one of my other bridesmaid (H’s sister) turned up. I gave them their bridesmaid presents which were necklaces and earring from the wonderful Purrfect Gems and chocolates and smellies.
The hair and make up girls arrived and from that point it was all go! My mum and dad wrote me a lovely card and I just about had time to get my hair and make up done, grabbed one bite of a sandwich and then it was time to get dressed. My sister arrived in exactly the same hairstyle as mine even though both me and my mum had asked her not to, but I didn’t care. My mum and CBM got me into my dress, and manoeuvred me out of the front door where the cars were waiting. A butterfly landed on my bouquet and it was lovely but I don’t think there was a chance to photograph it. I got bundled into the car and found out on the way that the driver (who was a friend of FIL) has scratched the car a week before because he swerved to avoid a kitten and they’d had to have loads of paintwork done…they’d all kept it a secret from me so as not to stress me out, bless them.
I arrived at the church and the Vicar said I looked like a queen and the photographer and videographer were snapping away. We all lined up ready to go into the church (I was only three minutes late, feels like a sign as three is my lucky number, H said it felt like he’d been waiting for me a lot longer!) the music started up, and my nerves never arrived! I was beaming coming down the aisle and seeing everyone. H turned round to look at me and gave me a massive grin. The vows were great, I didn’t turn into a blubbering wreck I was just grinning from ear to ear. My mum broke down a bit during the reading which made me well up. The ceremony was lovely, it was apparently 45 mins long but felt about five minutes! H was squeezing my hand the whole time.
We came out of the church and the bells were ringing and I felt like some kind of celebrity with the amount of cameras pointed at us. We did all the formal shots at the church, my veil flew off during a gust of wind. Then we drove to the venue. It felt like it took ages and I just wanted to get there and see everyone but it was nice to have some time alone with H, even though the driver would not shut up!
We arrived at our venue and mingled and ate canapés for ten minutes before we had our pictures taken in the Greek sculpture in the grounds. We did a big group shot on the front lawn and then we headed into the marquee for the wedding breakfast. The food was delicious but we hardly had an appetite. The marquee looked amazing and people commented on how much work I’d put into it. We cut the cake and then it was the speeches. As is tradition, my dad went first and it was the perfect mix of humour, and love...except when he told everyone where and how I was conceived! Eeek! He made up for it though we saying some wonderful things about my husband.
H went next and did a short but really heartfelt speech where he said that when we met and I interrupted him eating his tea and watching TV, him switching off the TV to talk to me was the best decision he ever made. He said he’d married his best friend and he’d love me forever. The best man’s speech was lovely, he didn’t let us down and said how different Mike had been since we got together.
We decided that we would do a receiving line on the way out of the marquee to the evening reception which was in a separate place. I am so glad we did it was lovely to speak to each of our guests. We were so touched that everyone had made a special effort to be part of our big day.
The evening reception was great. The DJ accidently put on our first song before we were ready but that was resolved quickly and it was wonderful when we did it. We danced and chatted to everyone and danced some more! At one point I was up on the stage leading the YMCA, and we brought back the locomotion too, with all our guests joining in. New York, New York was our last dance. We chatted to some guests in the library for a while and then we went off to bed. We had a two person Jacuzzi in our room and several of our ushers and their partners wanted to use it with us…thankfully we persuaded them it was better if it was just the two of us so we had a nice relaxing Jacuzzi. The bed was massive and ridiculously high, it actually came up to above my hip so H had to lift me on to it which was all very romantic. And the rest as they say is history…
Well done if you made it this far, here are a few pictures:
Getting Ready:
Man and Wife:
Really Really happy:
Bridesmaids:
Rings
Centerpieces
Cake:
First Dance:
Random
