Before you start reading I warn you it is quite long. Didn't mean it to be.
Feel free to go get some tea/coffee/wine or just look at the photos if you can't be bothered.
OK I can't actually believe I'm writing this! Not sure how many of you will want to read it as I wasn't a massive poster, just kind of dotted about in the background.
Anyway a brief introduction of how we got to 11th August 2012, our wedding day.
We met in March 2005, K worked with my Mum's boyfriend at the time (they split up not long after). We were both 21 at the time and not long out long term relationships. I just wanted to enjoy being young and have some fun. K thought of himself as a bit of all that and liked to think he could get anyone he wanted. I was the opposite, didn't sleep around or have any kind of reputation so as you can imagine I was the perfect challenge to him and became 'the £10 bet'!!!
My Mum's boyfriend thought this was funny and gave him my phone number and told me he had a £10 bet on with another workmate. So the challenge begins.... Since this is my wedding report it won't take much imagination to guess who won!
Anyway after a few weeks of texting, a date to the Cinema, flowers delivered to my work (was so embarrassed) we became inseparable and pretty much spent all our time together. K is a massive Rangers football fan and his Idol is Ally McCoist. He always joked that Ally is ALWAYS above his bed. Fast forward 3 months to June. His lease was up on his flat. We said it was a bit soon to move in but he would stay with me until he got another flat and we'd see how things went! He never found a flat, infact I don't think he even looked. I came home from work one Saturday to find Ally McCoist above my bed!!! So it was official, we now lived together!
Just to keep the 'it's too quick' and 'it's a rebound relationship' gossips going K proposed to me on my 22nd birthday, only 6 months after we met. Our original plan was to marry on Saturday 12th July 2008. We even booked this little church in the middle of no where. It didn't happen though. We decided to use the money we had saved to buy a house instead as the property market was going mad and we knew we didn't want to rent forever. I fell pregnant soon after this too so now we needed to buy a house as the flat only had 1 bedroom.
In January 2007 we eventually bought a house together after months of looking and not getting anything due to being outbid constantly.
In May 2007 our first gorgeous son H was born and we became a little family. After 10 months we decided we were ready for another baby and I fell pregnant again. In December 2008 our family was completed with the birth of our second son D.
Our gorgeous boys aged 1 and 2.
Fast forward to January 2011 and a health scare that landed me in hospital for 5 days. K phoned me from work regularly to check I was OK. During 1 phone call he said that he realised that life could have been too short and that he wanted us to get married. I was so shocked, we often talked about it but always ended the conversation with 'one day' as we thought we'd never afford it.
K told me to look online at venues and book viewings for us at the weekend....
….. Our wedding is booked 11th August 2012 at Mabie House Hotel. We have 20 months to save.
Ok sorry to bore you, I will get to the good bit now. The wedding!
I finished work in the Hairdressers the Saturday before the wedding so I had a full week to chill out and organise the last minute details.
Monday 6th August. 5 sleeps to go
A little trip to Dunelm mill for artificial flowers to decorate the cake as I had ordered 4 plain white tiers from M&S as I couldn't justify the price tag to have it made.I arranged to meet my Mum there to give me a hand as I didn't really have a clue what I needed.Cue a very stressed Mum and 2 very bored boys! Chaos! Best of it was my Mum kept insisting that I was nervous and crabbit!! Hello pot, kettle and black sprang to my mind!
Mum told me to go home get what I needed and go to her house for the afternoon since 'I' was stressed! I declined this lovely offer as her mood would have caused a riot and her insisting it was me was wearing thin!
When K got home from work I locked myself in the bedroom and started to sort through everything for the wedding. I chilled out on my own with no one to stress me out, could finally see all my work coming together!
Tuesday 7th August (4sleeps)
Its really happening, I'm getting married this week!
I wake up to a text from a friend asking if I had seen the weather forecast for the weekend. Text back saying I refused to look but I'd guess it would be rain as it had been for weeks. Low and behold There was a little sun symbol on the map for Dumfries and Galloway on Saturday 11th August!! I cross everything that they haven't got it wrong!
Shortly after my Mum phones me to tell me she has just been and bought a new dress as she didn't feel comfortable in the 1 she had and she been crying most nights for a week about it but didn't want to tell me as I had enough to deal with.
I drop the boys off at a friends and load the car up with everything that has to go to the venue beforehand, table plan, postbox, favours etc etc. Off I go totally enjoying some time to myself. On arrival all I hear is banging and the carpark is full of vans and trucks with the company erecting a marquee for the wedding the day before mine! I drop everything off and ask the owner when the marquee will be down, she assures me they will have it down first thing Saturday morning. Off I go quite happy thinking the next time I'm here will be my wedding!
Wednesday 8th August (3 sleeps)
This is K's last day at work and he is being a total nightmare! He is so nervous. It was quite nice to begin with now it's doing my head in! Everyone is stressing around me and I'm patiently waiting on the flutter of nerves to hit me! Take my shoes, etc up to my Mums today to save me having to stress about it on Friday. Mum is a bit more relaxed now she has a different dress and we enjoy a nice day in the garden with the boys and the SUN! Kris's last day at work and he going to play golf with friends afterwords. Im hoping he comes home chilled out!
Thursday 9th August (2 sleeps)
Today is the day I will know for deff if I have my flower girls! My 2 nieces should be going to my Mums today to stay with their Dad but their Mum is good at saying 1 thing and meaning another so it all depends if she changes her mind and stops them coming. Fingers crossed!
We head into town to pick up the page boys hire kilts. When we get there we are told that they didnt have the ruffle ties that we ordered in May available so had put a normal tie in instead, eh NO! Then as if that wasn't bad enough they told us that the didn't have the jacket to fit D! K lost it and totally stressed out! I explained we had ordered them 3 months ago, was back in 2 weeks ago and phoned last week, each time to be told it would all be ready to be picked up today. Anyway after Kris sent me out and I think a bit of noise was made we were told that the missing items would be delivered to our house before 5pm.
We bumped into my brother on way back to the car – I have 2 gorgeous flowergirls!!!
Friday 10th August (1more sleep)
We have a quiet morning and spend time sorting clothes out for our holiday to save us doing it on Sunday. At 1pm I give my 3 amazing boys a kiss and tell the kids that tomorrow I will be Mummy Henderson! Still no nerves, damn I wish they'd hit me now so I don't spend my wedding morning on the toilet!
I head into town and pick up the wedding cake before a quick stop at McDonalds for some lunch to eat on the way to Mums!
As soon as the car pulls up my Mum starts flapping about, I tell her very nicely that if she is going to stress me out I'm going back home!
Anyway after I'm finished my burger we set about decorating the cake. Half an hour later and its all done! Another hot day but there is no way that I'm getting strap marks today!
I have a wee snooze on the couch just because I can as I don't have the boys to run after. My Mums big plan for my last night as a MISS..... BINGO! And I dont mean at a bingo hall I mean in the back of a pub. Think I was only 1 under 50! And I didn't win a penny!
Arrive home from pub at 1.30am have a cup of tea then go to bed and unbelievable I sleep all night!
The cake we decorated
'Lady in red, is dancing with me.....' What the h3ll???? My Mums alarm which means its 7am...which means
I'M GETTING MARRIED TODAY!!!!
Are you still with me?
Saturday 11th August
I get up and my Mum has made my favourite breakfast, poached eggs and toast and a cup of tea.
My hair appointment is at 8.30am at my work. I needed to leave no later that 7.50am to make sure I had time to park etc. At 7.45am I'm still splashing about in the bath as if I have all the time in the world!
Leave at 8am to go get my hair done and after 10 mins realise that I have forgot my tiara and need to go back for it. Luckily the roads weren't too busy and I got parked outside and arrived just on time. The girls doing my hair knew what I wanted and set about giving me a set. While under the dryer I pulled out my kindle and a can of coke and chilled out. My friend arrived at 9am to have her hair done and laughed at how chilled out I was. I gave her a bag with K's present from me and asked if she would give him it for me (she lives 2 doors away). I got him a paper panda design with the words to our first dance 'Thank you for loving me'.
I leave the hairdressers just before 10am and head back to my Mums. By now my nieces are up and getting excited. I pack the car with everything that needs to go and wait for my BM to arrive at Mums so load the dresses into her car.
At 11am we leave to go to the venue with a quick stop at tesco for some sandwiches etc. I arrive at the venue to see a massive marquee and 3 vans with people doing something to it.
Ok nearly had a bridezilla moment! I go into the venue to see my MUA waiting for me. I ask the girl behind the desk why the marquee isn't away. She said it would be here until Monday! I ask to speak to the owner to be told she not here yet and would she like her to phone her...YES! Owner tells me on the phone that she told me on Tuesday that it would be there for my wedding, err no!
After a while I realised I was just wasting time and decided to go out and speak to the marquee company. They said that they were only taking the tables and chairs etc and the shell would remain. I decided that no point making a fuss as it was too late and though it would be good for the kids to play in later if it did decide to rain!
What happens next is a blur. We went from having loads of time to not! BM got her make up done with I curled the flower girls hair. This was a mission as the had decided to play hairdressers the weeks before and had missing fringes! I got my make up done and by now I could hear other guests arriving that were staying and getting ready in the hotel.
Excitement started to build but still no real nerves. By now I had giving up waiting for them to come.
Before long I hear a horn peep! I knew that was my H2B and my 2 sons arriving in my FIL lorry.
So the good news was wasn't getting stood up!
In under an hour I was going to be a MRS!
Knock Knock... Its the photographer wanting photos of me in my dress! Whoops was I meant to be in my dress?
I started to get ready. Put my dress on, jewellery veil etc and turned to see myself in the mirror. I then looked around the room and everything was in slow motion for a few seconds. There was a BM, 2 flowergirls, my Mum a TOG and VOG and me I was a Bride! This wasn't a dream it was happening and I couldn't wait to see my Groom!
At 3pm I was ready to go. My mum was away to be seated it was just me my 3 pageboys BM 2 flowergirls and my Dad.
I was patiently waiting for the knock at the door to tell me we were ready to go.
Wow I just felt a butterly but I think it was just excitement! This is really going to happen!
Knock Knock.. Are we ready to go said the voice. I'm more than ready!
I walk down the stairs. The pipes begin and the photographer gets a few photos of us before the bridal party make their entrance and walk outside to where we will get married. The bridal party are away its just me and my Dad. I know he is really nervous. He not really into showing emotion but I'm his only daughter.
The bagpipe music changes to Flower of Scotland. It's time. I walk outside, see everyone looking at me, I pick out people and give a smile, K didn't turn to look, His BM was smiling and nudging him. I knew K was nervous. I was there at the top of the Aisle. K turned to look at me, he broke into a massive smile and said 'You look amazing'.
We had opted for a short ceremony, no hymns, no readings. It's just not us. The minister was great. Very laid back and started to high 5 the kids during the ceremony. Some of the kids played in the gardens during the ceremony. Our youngest D wanted K to lift him and started to tickle K. It was all these little things that made it a very chilled out wedding.
Before long it was official. We were Husband and Wife!!!
We had asked the photographer to capture the day with natural photos and we didn't have many staged or traditional. We don't even have many with our boys in them as they didn't want their photo taken so we didn't force them.
Me and K went to the park down the forest and had some photos taken. This was great as it was just us. We had so much fun.
Before we knew it it was time for everyone to get called in for dinner. Everyone really enjoyed the meal. Only had positive comments about the food. 3 tables ended up with napkins going on fire with the candles. 2 small fires and 1 that required a jug of water to be thrown on the table. Luckily this was just after the desert so people were just moving anyway!
Night time arrived along with the evening guests and the party began. Nothing really exciting happened at night. I danced...a lot. K drank... a lot. And everyone had fun... a lot.
Ok If you are still with me … well done!
P.s K never did get the £10 from the bet he had on with a work mate.
The End! (of report)
This is just the beginning of my happy ever after. ?
Thank you for reading/ looking at the photos
The photos are taking ages to upload so if you want to look they are at https://www.photobox.co.uk
