****Live long and prosper! Wedding report and mega FFFLLAAAASSH!****

Friday 20th May – one day to go!

6am and I was up and charging around! The kids needed taking to school and we still had to assemble the table plan, put together 3 more centerpieces, get all the action figures together, transport everything to the hotel, pick up my dress, get my nails done, get h2b’s hair cut, burn the ceremony music to CD and get the bridesmaids, my mum and the best (wo)man to our house! I started by putting the table plan chart together and I’m pleased to say the damn thing actually looked pretty fantastic when I was done sticking bits and shouting at it!

My appointment to collect my dress was booked for 10:30am and the original plan had been for the Best (wo)Man to borrow her sister’s car and give me a lift. That went out the window when she realized she couldn’t get insured on it, so h2b ended up taking me instead – cue the mission to guard the dress bag and make sure he didn’t peep! We got back home with just enough time to have a bit of a tidy up (wedding planning is such untidy business!!) before my nail technician arrived and I sat down to be pampered for an hour. Actually sitting down and being fussed over for a while was wonderful and the first time that week I actually felt like a bride. I settled on a French manicure with acrylic extensions (after interrogating the poor technician about the difference between acrylic and gel, and getting her assurances that her technique with acrylic wouldn’t damage my nail!) and she even painted the tips with a subtley sparkly polish to give them a real glimmer. I’m STILL staring at them and grinning now. They’re awesome, although a real PITA to type with. MIL turned up halfway through and asked if I’d like to borrow her grandmother’s brooch. She said h2b’s brother’s wife had also borrowed it for their wedding so it would mean a lot if I had it for my Something Old, Something Borrowed and Something Blue. I was really honoured that she’d offered me that, especially given how volatile things can be between us.

Once again my good mood was short-lived though as text messages started to trickle through with more cancellations; this time from my step-sister, who was supposed to be a witness, and from one of my oldest friends. Both pleaded poverty and apologized profusely but I was still devastated that my wedding day meant so little to them that they hadn’t bothered to budget for it months ago, or even tell me any earlier than the day before that they couldn’t come. Luckily my mum arrived about 5 minutes after I got those messages, so she set about cheering me up and bouncing around lots! My MoH arrived around 2pm and I gave her some final bits of detail on the centerpieces to do. That part happened to be adding the glitter to the edges of the ‘petals’, which is a messy, spangly job so she was very grumpy by the end!! H2b and the Best (wo)Man got back from their haircut mission and had also stopped by MIL’s house to collect the bouquets that she’d made. They were absolutely stunning and I cried when I saw what a beautiful arrangement MIL had put together for me, the bridesmaids, my daughter and the little button holes she’d made for the men.

My bouquet

With the house full of people, the atmosphere was electric and we delegated various jobs to people while I focused on not freaking out! I’d developed a huge blister on my thumb from folding flowers and threading beads onto wire, so couldn’t DO very much to help with the last centerpieces. I got one finished to show the bridesmaids what needed to be done and they decided to do the final ones. H2b and Best (wo)Man got on with grouping together the action figures for the tables so we could take them over to the hotel. I think the hardest part for them was resisting just sitting and playing! Luckily Laura had her Ultra Sensible and Organised head on and took charge every time someone started to procrastinate or I’d get into a flap about the house and start shouting at estate agents! Before we knew it, it had gone 7pm and was time to start loading up the cars with stuff to take to the hotel. Between 7 vases of origami lilies (and another 2 still under construction!), a big box of mirror tiles, 24 organza table runners, a giant chess set, giant Jenga, A3 playing cards, a 6ft TARDIS cutout, helium canister, 50 balloons, 16 balloon weights & the table plan, we had a mountain of stuff to take over! When we got to the hotel, the wedding party from that afternoon was still going on, so we found a side entrance we could subtly sneak through to take our things into the storage room. The wedding coordinator met us there and looked very excited by all the sci-fi stuff! He said they definitely hadn’t had a wedding quite like ours before but that he was very happy to take charge of all the set-up for the reception. I handed over the music CD, checked that the tracks played ok (they did, hurrah!) and we were off back home!

In the car park, h2b stopped to rummage in our car before producing a little exciting-looking bag. I opened it up and there was my little bottle of Chanel No. 5 that I’d hoped and prayed (and not-so-subtley hinted!) that I could wear for the wedding! I cried a bit right there and then and it really hit me that we were getting married in less than 24 hours!

We started to make our way home and stopped off at Tesco to pick up some nibbles for me and bridesmaids for that night and our breakfast for the morning. I sent h2b off to pick out some pastries (bit of a mistake as it turns out, find out why later!) while I browsed the dvd section for more cheesey wedding films (settled on Bride Wars for £3 in the end!) and the pyjama section to pick out new jimjams for the kids to wear on the wedding night.

By the time we got home, the kids were in bed already and bridesmaids had almost finished assembling the last 2 centrepieces – and cursing me for designing such intricate, awkward arrangements!! I cheered them up by giving them their presents – silver star lariat necklaces to wear for the wedding – and we all got very excited about breaking out the Cava and sticking some dvds on! We packed h2b off to his mum’s house around 9pm and he & I stopped to say bye and really absorb the fact that the next time we would see each other would be as I walk down the aisle. It had been such a frenetic few days, and actually filled with a lot of bad news, that we were both really emotional when we realized that we were nearly there and all the To Do stuff had been taken care of. I waved him off to his mum’s house and collapsed on the sofa with a glass of cava! Unfortunately we were all so exhausted, that about an hour into the film we decided to call it a night!

Next bit - the actual wedding day! Haven't written that part yet so must beg your patience!

Oh wow you sound as though you really had a stressful last few days! how sweet of your OH work! Can not wait to read the rest!!!

xx

More more more ?

Will need serious patience judging by the length of those nails - gorgeous btw almost wish I'd had mine done but I can't cope with long nails!

Look forward to reading the rest. Love your table plan

Oh, this is fabulous! Can't wait!

Lovely report so far, Sammy! x

Brilliant so far...more more.

Exciting! Congratulations, Sammy!

Congratulations! I cant wait to read the rest of the report!

Awww - I need more pics!!

MORE!!!! MORE!!!! I can't stand the suspense!

Saturday 21st May – THE WEDDING DAY!

So! Having gone to bed just before 11pm and fallen asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow, I woke up at about 4am and was Wide Awake. Waaaaaaaay too excited to sleep! I tossed and turned for a while, then decided I was thirsty so pottered downstairs to get a drink. I tiptoed past the lounge where the bridesmaids were sleeping and got a glass of juice, then out of nowhere popped up bridesmaid Jennifer saying SHE was struggling to sleep because she was too excited! She went to get a drink and I tiptoed veeeerrrry quietly into the lounge to get a dvd to watch upstairs and trying not to wake MoH Sarah. Never mind! Her little voice piped up saying she couldn’t sleep, she was far too excited! Jennifer heard her, so the 3 of us decided to make some coffee and sat up gossiping and giggling at 5am! The kids were up and charging round by 6am so we started making breakfast (sausage and egg bagels, yum!!), put ’27 Dresses’ back on the tv and working out the best order for everyone to get showered. I bathed the kids – which wasn’t easy because my eldest son was bouncing off the walls singing made-up wedding songs!

Me and a very excited flower girl at about 6:30am!

Even though the previous few days had been really stressful and I’d been very down in parts, all that seemed to have evaporated and I was just elated all morning. That was until I realized I’d TOTALLY forgotten to pack any overnight stuff for me and the kids to take to the hotel! Back to panic stations and trying to find pyjamas, toiletries and a change of clothes for Sunday before 9am when SIL2b and her boyfriend would arrive to take the boys down to MIL2b’s to get ready with h2b. I discovered that my sons have NO clean, matching socks anywhere in the house, so had to ring SIL2b to ask if she’d swing by Tesco and get a pack of grey or black socks for them! Fortunately they’d planned to stop somewhere on their way over anyway so when they arrived, SIL2b’s boyfriend had 3 different designs of boys’ socks, including some with guitars on that he was particularly pleased with! The boys’ suits were already over with h2b so all that remained was to hug my lovely sons, tell them I’d see them at the wedding and send them off to get ready with the rest of the menfolk.

SIL2b (Kia) and the other 2 bridesmaids set up Make-Up Camp in the lounge (which looked a lot like a bomb had hit it by then!) and we also took the time to unveil The Dress and spend some time ooooh-ing and aaaah-ing over it. Unfortunately my cats also decided it was a lovely dress and would clearly make a wonderful tent, so we had to try and evict them from the premises. This meant keeping all the doors and windows closed though, which was stifling given the unexpected heatwave, so instead we had to take it in turns to be on Cat Duty and protect the dresses from tiny claws.

My daughter gets the star treatment from SIL2b and MoH (plus MoH's little boy hovering in the background)

And my daughter returns the favour!!

My dress and my daughter's dress

Brill so far and excellent teaser pics LOL!!

Blimey, where does your hubby work??? Looks like my office!!! lol

If i was at your wedding I'd beg to sit at the Buffy table but OH would just be stuck between Star Wars and Red Dwarf LOL!

Already contender for best wedding report 2011, Sammy your kids are adorable, now can you please hurry up and write some more

My mum arrived with my stepdad and was close to tears all morning. Lots of hugs and telling me she was proud of me and asking how on earth I was so calm! There was still one or two little details to take care of, so I asked my mum to trim down the vows I’d printed into flash-card sized pieces and also to stick the picture of my Nan (her mum) into the photo frame charm I’d bought so I could secure it to my bouquet. That set us both off crying again and we reminisced about my Nan and how much she’d have loved to see me get married. My brother and my two friends he was travelling with arrived just then with their overnight stuff as they’d asked to stay at my house after the wedding. When I saw my brother all dressed up in his suit, it really hit me that I was having an actual wedding and really actually getting married! Mum grabbed us both for some photos, which was lovely as we don’t get together very often at all as we live at opposite ends of the country. In fact, I think it’s been about 4 years since we all got together last.

Around 11am, the rest of the convoy arrived – namely MoH’s sister and her boyfriend, plus MoH’s partner – all of whom were staying at my house that night and all needed to get ready at my house before heading to the hotel. I put Mum in charge of ‘Making Sure There Aren’t Too Many People Around’ so I didn’t get stressed out by all the activity, and she very diligently sent everyone off to the hotel when they’d gotten changed. That coincided nicely with the arrival of my make-up lady and also my dad (which prompted my mum to make her way over to the hotel too!!). Embracing the restored calm in the house, I sat down for some more pampering when my tummy started to rumble. Bridesmaid Jennifer very helpfully arranged some nibbles for me, at which point we discovered why h2b should never be allowed to pick out Danish pastries.. the daft boy had only gone and forgotten that I’m lactose-intolerant and got a lovely selection of vanilla crème pastries!! Jennifer quickly found me a sandwich and some kettle chips instead though, so all was well!

Our photographer friend had arrived in the middle of all the hectic coming and going of friends and family, so once we had a moment’s peace, I showed him where the bouquets were being stored, and mine and my daughter’s shoes so he set about taking some photos of those and of the dresses hanging up and bridesmaids getting ready. My cat decided to jump up into my lap just as my make-up lady was putting in my eyelash extensions, so there are probably some very funny photos of that to come!!

With hair and make-up done, all that remained was to get us all into our dresses and set off!!

Sammyjay, I've loved reading this, but you can't leave it there, I actually have popcorn and everything! x

Ok, just to be a bit different and because it's something I've always wanted to see on hitched, I'm now handing over control to my husband so you can have a (albeit much more concise!) report of his experience from when he left our home on Friday night up until the moment the ceremony began...

Ok, so Left the family home at 10:30pm and went to my Mum and Dad's, and took with me the essentials for a couple of nights away from home (toothbrush, glasses case, laptop) plus some other bits and bobs that had to be done before the wedding. I'd already taken mine and the kids suits round so I could travel light. My Aunt, Uncle, and oldest cousin's daughter were already at M&D's, and had already had dinner, so Mum kindly warmed up what was left, which was quite possibly the tastiest shepherd's pie I've had. I stayed up chatting to Aunt and Uncle, had a whiskey with my Dad then retired for the evening sometime before 1am.

And that was my Friday night.

I was truly knackered from the previous day running about the place, and that combined with the whiskey meant I didn't drag my sorry carcass out of bed until after 9am. I panicked a bit when i realised how much stuff I had to do, so rather than spring out of bed and charge downstairs for a plate of toast to carry back upstairs to the shower, I stayed in bed and fished out the laptop and did something I had wanted to do since we got engaged. I posted the Youtube video of Billy Idol's 'White Wedding' on our wwwedding website with a message to Samantha saying I couldn't wait to see her. Annoyingly, she didn't see it until the next day.

I spent the rest of the morning paying a bouncy castle bloke, getting my car throughly cleaned by some nice Polish gentlemen (that 'Polish' as in they are from Poland, not that they do lots of polishing.... you pay extra for that), and then started working on finishing some of the table decorations. Had lunch, got myself and the kids suited up, and went off to the Hotel for about 2pm. As soon as I had parked up I started bumping into people (not literally)and chatted, giggled, laughed politely at anecdotes, all the while vaguely aware I needed to find the registrar and drop off the final table decorations.

With stuff still to be done before I could relax, the two boys dragged me to the bouncy castle and made me hold their suit jackets while they bounced themselves stupid. When i was eventually able to peel them away from the bouncy castle, My Mum kindly offered to supervise them while I did the formal stuff with the registrar. I had then duck into the wedding room as Samantha had just pulled up outside and obviously I wasn't allowed to see her.

So I was all alone in a room full of empty chairs, the previous 48 hours and been some of the most manic and panicky I've ever had and it had all been about this moment. I then I stopped and smiled, I even almost started dancing.... why? Because Billy Idol was being played in the background.

Then a bunch of people turned up, took some pictures, and the music changed from Billy to Fleetwood Mac, and Samantha walked in looking more beautiful then I'd ever seen her, genuinely.

Awwww!!!

CEREMONY TIME!

Oh Sammy - what your hubby has just said about you is so lovely - literally brought tears to my eyes.

Can't wait for the next installment of the report - I keep on refreshing to see if it's popped up yet!

Ah this is such a lovely report, big congratulations from me and Mr T x

Excellent report so far! Love the mini report from the hubby!

I'd be torn between Buffy and Doctor Who but think I'd sway towards Buffy. My OH hates every single one of those programmes so he'd just have to sit on his own outside! Ha - serve him right for not having good TV taste!

Im welling up now! more please sammy x

Am fricking loving this!!!!!

Especially love the input from your husband. Roll on ceremony time!

LOVE the grooms perspective! Great idea.....

More please ?

Sammy, I'm loving this! And your Husband (Yay!) just made me well up. So nice to hear the groom's take on it all

Loving this report! Good work! Now more please! ?

So! Back to my version of the day then!

First on the agenda was getting my daughter into her dress. She was a little star and stared at herself in the mirror for ages! I decided to get changed in the lounge rather than heave my dress upstairs then try to negotiate the narrow stairs back down again. Beforehand, I’d run upstairs and changed into my actually Not At All Sexy wedding underwear scaffolding but had to call MoH Sarah to come fasten my bra because my evil thumb blister meant I couldn’t grip the back to hook it together! Casting all dignity aside, she helped me into the scary Wonderbra and I chucked my clothes back on over the top so I could scoot downstairs to change into The Dress. I had to take a moment by myself in the room with The Dress to look at it and absorb the fact that this would be the very last time I would put it on, and also the one wearing of the dress that I’d spent months building up to. Ponderous moment aside, I clambered into it (also not very dignified, thank heavens I was on my own!) and then shouted bridesmaids to come back in and button me up. Thankfully we’d remembered to get a crochet hook from MIL2b beforehand so the buttons weren’t too fiddly, and the photographer was snapping away. My daughter ran off to fetch my shoes and helped me into them. I say helped, she sat on the floor trying to put them on me backwards then decided she’d rather wear them anyway.

My dad had been outside fixing ribbons to his car then came in to show off his work. Seeing a proper wedding car outside my house, waiting for me really hit me and I felt my knees go a bit wibbly! Luckily we were running slightly late and none of the bridesmaids were in their dresses yet, so I went into Ultra Efficient mode and started barking orders at them. At least it made me focus! Dad loaded up my overnight stuff into the back of his car, then FIL2b arrived with his MG all decorated ready to take my daughter and 2 of the bridesmaids over to the hotel. I’d designated Jennifer to be Keeper of the Bridal Handbag, which contained a number of important items but namely my phone. That detail is important later……

The photographer lined me and the Bridesmaids up outside the house and took some snaps of us getting ready to go, then he shot off himself so he could get to the venue 10 minutes or so before us and have time to get some shots of guests arriving and then us arriving. FIL2b and co set off straightaway and took the direct route so they would arrive first, then me, MoH and my Dad left last. Getting into the car proved much less tricky than I thought but once I’d sat down and the engine started, my heart was in my throat and the butterflies well and truly took over. I mused over mine and h2b’s relationship and all the various dramas we’ve had over the last 5 years. I thought back to when our daughter was born, when h2b proposed and when we finally moved in together. It seemed like such an epic journey but at the same time like what we were about to do was just the logical next step.
Fortunately a horrifying realization snapped me out of my reverie – I don’t know Milton Keynes very well. MoH isn’t local, and neither is my dad. None of us own a map, and neither of us knew exactly where the hotel was from my house. Furthermore, both mine and MoH’s phones were in my handbag safely in Jennifer’s possession…. In the other car. Which had already left. We all ended up giggling hysterically and thanking my over zealous planning and insistence that we should be ready to leave 45 minutes before the ceremony starts even though it’s only a 20 minute drive away. Thankfully it turns out that Milton Keynes roads are very logical and my vague recollection that the hotel is near the hospital was enough to navigate us in the right direction until we saw sign posts!

(sorry, this bit has no photographs yet!)

Oh this is fabby!! Come on next please!! xx

Oh next bit please!! This is the best report i've seen. I love your husbands account of the day! It's brilliant!

Sammy this report is awesome and hubby's bit made me cry! Loving the flashes too - can't wait to hear more. Sorry to hear about your let downs before the day though that sucks xxx