Sorry this is quite long, don't have official pics yet so this is just friends ones. Emjoy
The day before
Spent the morning at the barn (venue for the reception) with my other half getting as much as possible ready. Some things, such as filling up helium balloons couldn’t be done until the day. Was a bit worried about everything getting done on time, but had to let go of that part as I would be busy getting ready.
Finally left my other half to it about 4pm and said bye. It was very strange to not be spending a night with him. Went to my parents’ house and we had a Chinese take away. I made sure that everything I could was ready and checked the weather forecast (as I had been for the last week or so), unfortunately it hadn’t got better. Thunderstorms were still forecast for the entire day. Not good, but nothing I could do about the weather. I took a long bath in an attempt to relax and watched Frozen with my sister. Forced myself to go to bed at about midnight, but struggled to sleep.
The day
Woke up about 4am, ahhh, why couldn’t I sleep? Looked out the window, the sun was starting to come up and no sign of rain yet, maybe I would be okay? Forced myself to go back to bed and drifted off again, woke up again at about 7am. I figured that was as good as I was going to get and so I got up. Again looked out the window at the weather, it was grey and overcast, but still no rain.
Hairdressers appointment was at 9.30am and my dad drove me there. I spent about an hour having my hair done, I was really pleased with the outcome, it looked even better than the trial. Phoned my dad when I was done to come get me, when I left the hairdresser it was pouring with rain! Oh no! I felt a little stab of disappointment, but was determined that it wouldn’t ruin my day.
When I got back to my parents’ house I gave each of them a thank you card as they had all helped with preparations a lot. I watched them all eat lunch while I nibbled on something small. Was not feeling able to eat, I was so nervous!!
I helped my mum and my sister (my only bridesmaid) get ready before doing my own make up and putting on my dress. While we were getting ready my dad put a ribbon on his car (which we were usuaing to get to the church). Aww, so sweet. My mum was picked up by a friend and driven to the church ahead of us. I paced the floor for what felt like hours waiting for it to be time to leave. I looked out the window again at the weather and to my utter joy found a blue sky and glorious sunshine. Yay! Finally my dad said we could go and drove us to the church. The drive was painfully slow and I was nearly driven mad with anticipation. Finally we reached the church, I saw my OHs dad standing outside the church and he rushed into the church when he saw the car approach. I guessed to inform the relevant people that the bride had arrived.
We pulled up in the church car park and were immediately approached by the photographer who commanded my dad where to park the car so he could get a good photo with the church in the background and then proceeded to tell him to straighten the wheels so the picture was better. I found the whole process very funny.
We then got out of the car and began walking towards the church, during which I stumbled and nearly fell over. The photographer claims he even got it on camera, oh no! Not a good start. I met the vicar outside the church and she asked if I was okay, I said yes and the it was time eek! The vicar entered the church first and announced to everyone that they should stand. I clung onto my dad’s arm, terrified of falling over, especially after my close call a few moments earlier. My dad was great and not only made me feel secure about walking, but held me back so I didn’t run down the aisle. I was very composed whilst waling and the whole thing was magical. I reached the front and looked up at my other half, to my surprise I saw tears in his eyes (he rarely cries). Oh no, I couldn’t stop it now, the tears were escaping my eyes. I faced the front, glad that the people couldn’t see my face. I was rescued by the best man who gave me a hanky to wipe my eyes, phew. By the time we had sung our first hymn I felt more in control of my emotions.
Most of the rest of the service is a bit of a blur, the parts I do remember are when I had to speak the first time I was terrified that my voice wouldn’t work, but luckily it did. I remember glancing up through the church window and was delighted to see blue sky and sun. The kiss was wonderful and I remember my partners mum, saying ‘easy’ when we got a bit carried away, whoops! I was relieved when we got to the signing of the register bit because I got to sit down for a bit and my legs were like jelly also because this made it official.
We lined up to leave the church and the music started and I felt so happy. My now husband had to hold me back as I nearly sprinted down the aisle. I made eye contact with one of my friends who gestured to her eyes to sign that I had been crying. I nodded at her and nearly started again, luckily composing myself in time.
We exited the church and the sun was shining and bells were ringing which was lovely. I somehow got stuck by the door of the church hugging everyone as they came out. That was something I hadn’t been intending to do, but it was lovely to see people. Eventually we (along with close family) got ushered away from the door for group pictures. After a load of them I talked to some more people before getting dragged back for a silly photo of us with a sword and a bow (relevant to us because of our re-enactment hobby).
Once this was done everybody was ushered to the barn venue and my husband (still sounds weird to me) and I went off with the photographer for some coupley shots. We then joined everyone else at the barn and were greeted by rows of people with real petal confetti, which was really fun, except for when people decided to shove it down both my front and my back. Tea and cake was up next and we cut the wedding cake and had some very brief speeches.
Next we socialised for a while until it was time for our first dance, eek! I was very nervous about this as we had practised a choreographed waltz routine. Luckily it went really well. Once we had done that it was time for barn dancing. I loved every second of that and tried to dance with as many different people as possible. Half way through we had a break where hogroast was served up and I finally got round to eating something. Once the band had finished we had a small disco which just consisted of a few songs on a playlist on our ipod.
People gradually left and we returned to the room we were staying in about midnight. The room was just a spare bedroom in my husband’s grandparents’ house. When we entered the room we were surprised to find that my husbands parents had left roses everywhere, put up a ‘just married’ banner and a helium balloon. They left us a bottle of Prosecco, two champagne flutes, chocolate and a lottery ticket. Such a lovely surprise.
The next day
The next day we helped take down the decorations in the barn, which was a bit sad. We had a BBQ with my in laws and opened all our cards. When we left to drive home to get ready for our short honeymoon in Sicily we found a just married banner in the back window of the car and ribbons all over it. Then when we drove off we realised that they had also tied cans to the car. We both had a little cry about how wonderful it was.
The whole experience was perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing. I still can’t believe that we had such wonderful sunshine for the whole thing, instead of the predicted rain and thunderstorms.
