Gosh sorry it's taken me so long to get around to doing this, I can hardly remember the details now lol. Cast your mind back to the first week of the year when the country had ground to halt because of the snow - we got married that Friday! I had a week of people ringing up asking what was happening but we had to plough ahead and hope for the best. The location was in the heart of the Peak District a mile up a hillside accessed by a single track ? I knew I'd get there in my 4x4 but wasn't sure about anyone else lol!! As it happened there was only my friend who got snowed in (she lives very remotely) and my brothers girlfriend who lives the other end of the country and the trains had stopped running.
The day itself was beautiful, crisp white snow with blue skies - it couldn't have been more perfect. I had the house to myself much to the amusement of the make up lady and hairdresser who couldn't believe how calm I was and that I didn't have a house full of relatives running round!! I drove to the venue with my parents and we got there fine despite the heavy snow! Checked into the bridal suite which was gorgeous and I think we were about the last to get there - the car park was full (we had the hotel exclusively) and I could see guests milling about. I had an hour to sit and chill and my best friends came in to see me and help me get dressed.
I was perfectly calm and when the wedding planner came to get me I went downstairs with my dad and got married! We walked down the isle to Green Day 'Time of your life' and it only really hit me when I was walking down the aisle and saw OH. The ceremony was short and sweet with a couple of readings and lots of friends and family crying!!
We had the photos outside and wow what a back drop!! It just felt magical with the snow, it added to the whole day although it obviously meant we couldn't make use of the grounds, just the one patio that they'd cleared for us. The mulled wine went down a treat. I was also glad of my fur stole which was fab (can highly recommend where I got it) but the best buy was by far my white furry 'ugg' boots from Primark which kept my feet toasty in the snow.
We ate about 4ish after my OH and best man had done a speech (my dad didn't want to do one which was fine). The best mans speech included the classic line that he was "pleased to announce we were off on honeymoon to Wales" (I was like ?????)............"at least J had said he was going to Bangor for the week"'. ? ? Once it had sunk in it caused much amusement with most of the guests! The food was fab and they served these lovely after dinner fudges with the coffee. (You can just see the views we had if you look out the window on this pic)
More mingling and drinking (not by me of course) and at 6pm we had a live Jazz band for a couple of hours and from 8pm - 12 we had a disco which was a huge sucess!!! The snow started to come heavily about 6.30pm so about 6 or 7 people left fearing they'd get snowed in but as everyone else was stopping no-one cared!! We had surprise fireworks at 9pm which were beautiful and then everyone came back in for the infamous Bacon Butties which went down a treat. They were just large cob sized and the veggie option was cheese and onion sarnies. They'd done pototo wedges and had cut the wedding cake up too.
The dancing and disco went on till half 12ish and people drifted off to bed or stayed up drinking in the bar. I think we went about 12.30 - I was shattered but it was the best day ever!! The next morning I woke up at 7.30 to lovely views and more snow!!! Everyone filtered downstairs for about 9ish and we all had a brilliant breakfast together which was a lovely end to the weekend and a bit surreal (it was like being on holiday with all your friends and family!!). People started to check out and leave as there were fears about getting snowed in but it soon stopped and we had lovely crisp blue skies again. As I say it was such a perfect day, the snow just made it magical.
