***Knitting Vixen's DIY, chilled vaguely vintage wedding. REPORT 17th Sept 2011 ****

Been waiting for this KV!

More, now!

How funny. Was going to send you a message today to ask of I'd missed your report.

Look forward to the rest

Loving this already!! Hurry.... ?

Brilliant, I've been waiting for this one... I'm off to put the kettle on...!! (looks fab so far!)

...and I made the fabric heart favours...

The table numbers were as above, fabric numbers on a luggage tag, tied around a wine bottle.

Not sure why the font is tiny and it won't let me change it... anyway...

After finishing, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and then I went straight out and met some of my friends who had travelled up from London in a nearby pub. Boy was I glad to see them. I was so stressed, seeing them made me feel more normal and happy. I had about 3 white wine spritzers. My sister in law and I returned to Mum’s after 11 and sat in the garden drinking Babycham, chatting. Before I knew it, it was 1 and I realised I had better go to bed. Luckily, the white wine spritzers did the trick and I fell straight asleep.

Saturday 17th September

Wow, I wrote a lot more than I thought for the day before. I didn’t think I had it in me. Turns out, I do!

Awoke and slowly realised that I would be getting married. Didn’t feel nervous at all. Mum brought me a cuppa, and I had a shower and washed my hair. My sister in law to be had stayed over (one of my bridesmaids) and the other one (my maid of honour) turned up at 8. Mum made delicious waffles in her waffle iron, I managed to eat a few of them. I handed out presents to Mum and the bridesmaids as well as a beautiful handmade card. H2b and I decided not to give out pressies in the morning, rather than during the speeches (I didn’t want to open a can of worms and give out pressies to all and sundry, and we didn’t want the speeches to go on for ages). For Mum (and h2b’s parents) I gave them a handmade present of a 2 heart favours, backed onto lace in a 3D frame. I didn't take a photo of the finished article but here is the prototype I made (without lace)... so it kinda looked like this:

For the BMs I gave them clutches (handmade from a website called Folksy) and a compact mirror.

Before I knew it, it was time to get going to the hair salon. The stylists cracked me up with their banter. They were typical hairdressers, a bright orange plump middle aged camp guy with teeth so white they were nearly blue, a sharp-witted and slightly potty mouthed girl in her 20s and a young camp lad who was the butt of all the jokes. I needed their banter, at this stage I started to feel really nervous about the wedding. They did a cracking job, and my hair looked even nicer than in the hair trail. The BMs looked stunning, like 40s/50s pin-ups (they had chosen their own styles themselves) and their styles were really in keeping with their dresses.

Back at mum’s we had a nibble of food and another cuppa and my good friend (also a beauty therapist) got started on the make-up. She did a marvellous job and it was lovely catching up with her... I know her from uni and she lives up north. With everything going on this past 12 months I hadn’t had chance to catch up with her. At this point I realised that the so called permanent eyelashes I’d had put in two days earlier were falling out much more than they were supposed to. My friend had to put mascara on, but one she did, you couldn’t tell and my eyelashes looked amazing.

I got a call from the florist (who is not professional, a friend of mum’s) who said her glue gun had broken and she couldn’t make corsages for the BMs. By this stage I didn’t care, posies would be nice.. . just as long as they had flowers.

My friend went off to get changed and the flowers arrived. They looked stunning. Beautiful dusky pink, brown and cream roses.

Now, the big moment, time to put on the dress.

My lovely BMs lifted me into my dress and fluffed out the layers. They cooed over me and said I looked like a little doll ?. They dressed too and looked so so amazing, really glamorous. I wanted to pose outside but it was raining, so had to make do with Mum's dining room, it's the brightest room in her house.

You looked stunning and I am really enjoying your report!

Congratulations!!! xx

Oooh KV you tinker- we need some more- love the whole look so far (no suprise there as am a fellow tea lengther )

You look fantastic, more pleeeeaase. ?

As you may know, I love knitting and so had knitted a shrug for the occasion. I didn’t think I would have much chance to wear it during the day- I was going to wear a veil and the two didn’t look right together. I wanted to pose with the shrug before here’s a shot of the back... please admire my handiwork ?

My friend, Olly, vintage Morris Minor owner turned up to drive us to the Register Office. He had decorated Myrtle (the car) with ribbons and was wearing a chauffer's hat. I am cheating with this flash as it was taken after the ceremony (hence Just Married) but I wanted to show you the effort and him in his hat!

After introducing him to everyone, we decided to take our leave. At this point the heavens opened. I stepped out of Mum’s to see some of her neighbours at the gate. This was the one and only time I nearly cried. I grew up with the neighbour’s daughter (who is now married with a child), the neighbour, her daughter and Mum’s friend from church had come to wave me off and take photos. I was so touched by this. I couldn’t really stop and chat as it was pelting it down, I said hello, they told me I looked beautiful (cue misty eyes) and I apologised for not being able to chat and squashed into the car. My BMs were travelling with me, and we all piled in. My neighbours were smiling and waving and asking me why I had a funny expression, I felt so emotional I couldn’t talk for fear of crying. I just tried to smile and nod! Olly had very sweetly brought a cassette tape of music from the 60s and 70s (old TV themes such as Benny Hill and The Generation Game), which made me laugh and calmed me down.

Meanwhile, the guests were arriving in the pouring rain.

Most of them dashed straight in to wait in the waiting room (Registry Office is not that glam!). I love this shot of my groom's brother putting his buttonhole on for him. I find it really sweet.

Here is the groom attaching the best man's button hole:

We arrived at the Registry Office and I was annoyed to see lots of the guests hanging around outside. I sent off one of the BMs to tell them to get inside. Once the coast was clear, in we went.

Dad was waiting for me (he and Mum are divorced) and I noticed he wasn’t wearing a suit. I asked him why, and he said, “You didn’t ask me to.” I didn’t think you had to ask your Dad to wear a suit to walk you down the aisle, surely it was assumed!?! I wanted a chilled and laid back wedding, but not chilled. Again, had too much on my mind to be that bothered and it certainly would be something of a talking point in years to come when showing future generations the photos. Here we are... note the lack of suit! Yes, he is my Dad, he is just very young looking (and also, quite young, only 50).

WOW, this is taking longer than I thought. I have to go now but will be back soon.

Loving it so far KV. I love how your day is so different and you! Look forward to the rest

We waited outside the room, the BMs were going in first. There was no aisle. I had been worried about it, basically, I had to walk in a door at the front of the room (intimidating to someone who can be shy in such situations). I heard my entrance music, Buddy Holly True Love Ways and in the BMs went, Dad and I followed. We had to stop and wait by the door, all four of us to pose for photos.

No photos were allowed during the ceremony. I was looking around the room, and saw that there were loads of people in the room. At that moment, my BM and SIL whispered to me, “Look at Damien, he hasn’t taken his eyes off you.” I jokingly told her off as she would make me cry... but I looked over and saw the look in his eyes. They were shining and I have never seen him look so happy or proud. He later told me it was love in his eyes and he has never seen me look so beautiful. Here is a lovely photo of what I saw when I looked over to my future husband:

I walked over to him and gave him a little kiss (naughty, but I think I had DDTB in my head as they always seem to do that!). The ceremony passed in a blur really, I remember that I kept on looking behind me to see if who was there. I don’t know why, it might have been a nervous tic.

The registrar had trouble saying my name as I have 2 middle names. I noticed my h2b welling up, I didn’t want him to cry as he would make me cry and I wanted to say my vows in a clear voice. I remember thinking that I wanted to say them in a loud clear voice because I can never hear the vows when I go to a wedding (my friends later ribbed me about this and said I put on a posh voice!). My friends did their readings, one of them read a poem about us that she wrote herself. It was moving and funny and we loved it. We then exchanged rings and were declared husband and wife. We signed the register and posed for photos.

The register we posed with was a dummy register (they won't allow photos of the real thing for "data protection" reasons). I hate posing for photos, so kept on making wisecracks to my new husband about signing it "Micky Mouse". This joke was so hilarious we couldn't stop laughing.

Wow! Lovely report. You look gorgeous in your dress.

The second picture I had to take a second look at though as at first glance i thought it was a pile of pants! (my eyesight isnt so good)

The registrar told the guests that we were about to take our first steps as husband and wife and we left the room to go outside. We posed for the usual group photos and then off we went in Myrtle to the reception.

thanks for that ??

We arrived at the village hall and everyone was waiting for us, including the guests who we couldn’t invite to the ceremony due to space.

I was delighted to see some of them dressed in 50s rockabilly style!

We got so many well wishes, hugs and kisses and complements.

My friend Kate did a make-up check...

and I did a twirl...

In we went for champers and triangular sarnies. I went and inspected the cake that my MoH made, it was stunning.

The cake topper looked really funny (I tried not to be offended by the characature)

then someone pointed out the back... the bride was pinching the groom’s bum. Was so funny.

We mingled, drank champers from saucer-style glasses and ate sandwiches... actually I didn’t eat sandwiches I just didn’t feel hungry. I was really pleased how the room looked, the tealights in lacy jam jars looked amazing.

We were serving the cake as dessert so cut it before we sat down for dinner.

Soon it was dinner time, we served stew which went down very well amongst the guests. The caterers came around with seconds and some people even had thirds! The cake was served with icecream and was, in all honesty, the best cake I have ever eaten. It was really chocolatey. It have been made by my MoH, what a talented person she is. She had put real chocolate in the cake it was rich and moist. Next came one of the best moments of the day- the speeches. My brother rang the bell to get everyone’s attention

then my Dad started. I had been a bit apprehensive about his speech. He can sometimes say the wrong thing, can be a misery guts (when in a bad mood) and he talks fast when he is nervous. I needn’t have worried, his speech was funny and moving. He kicked off by saying something along the lines of, “I like marriage so much, I did it twice!”, everyone howled with laughter, I cringed (see below) but in a good way. I really wish I could remember it all, he said all the usual things about how beautiful I look, what a great man my husband is (both true he he he). He also said that there are many things that he regrets about his life, but having me and my brother was not one of them. In fact we are his proudest achievement. I am proud of myself for not blubbing. I just grinned!

Awww your report is lovely, your photos are great and you looked stunning!!!

I can't believe your Dad didn't wear a suit!! Like you I'd have assumed he would but he still looked smart and I'm glad it didn't matter on the day ?

Next up was my new husband, I think he started off by saying when he met me he thought I was the coolest person he had ever met! He thanked the many, many people who helped with the wedding. His speech was hilarious. He had told his brothers that he wouldn’t write any notes and would just wing it. He said, “I told you I hadn’t written a speech. But ha ha, I fooled you, I did write a speech. Here it is” and he whipped out a flattened fag packet with the speech on it. Really funny.

One of the people he thanked was my Gran. She lives in France and drove all of the wine over for us in her van (we had gone earlier on in the year and bought boxes and boxes of it). He said that she was the second coolest person he knows (the first being me he he he) and she is role model to him. She loved it ().

Then it was my turn to stand beside him and say a few words. I was really nervous and started to wish I wasn’t doing a speech. My hand was shaking. I was going to thank our friends for being wonderful (as friends don’t tend to get thanked in speeches) but I forgot. I said a few brief thank-yous to my MoH for being great and for making the beautiful cake, and my other BM, SIL, for being so supportive. I had meant to talk about my new husband, about how proud I feel when I am with him, about his many talents (he is modest and hides most of them) and how he has made me the happiest woman alive.

I thanked him, but I couldn’t go into detail, I was so nervous, I just wanted to sit down- again, I didn’t want to cry. I thanked him for being a great boyfriend and said I know he will be an amazing husband.

I sat down and he finished the speech- I wish I could remember all of what he said. He thanked and toasted the BMs and said wonderful things about me, including that underneath a sarcastic exterior lies a lovely, funny and generous person (or words to that effect) and toasted me.

There are some lovely photos of the guests listening to the speeches:

The Best Man speech was hilarious, he talked about the stag and my husband’s school years when they were in a band together- Concealed Pineapple. He showed everyone a photo of Damien when he was younger and had Morrissey hair (likening him to Jedward). Very funny.

Me too!!!!

Edited to say... I'm now at the end (so far) of the report and it's fabulous, I just love how personal it all was, and you and your husband look to be made for each other :-)

After that the evening passed in a blur. The band were amazing. They were a 50s rock n roll band and were very animated. So many people danced. We didn’t have a first dance as such (not a fan due to shyness!) but we danced together loads. Here’s a lovely photo of our first dance together, though it is NOT the “First Dance” as there were others dancing alongside it.

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Here are some photos of the dancing, the atmosphere was amazing, everyone kept telling me it was the best and most chilled wedding they had ever been too.