Hello all
So we had our big day on Friday, 29 November 2013 and although it's only just over a month ago it feels like a lot longer! We had a lovely honeymoon in Mexico after the wedding and got back just before Christmas. Here's a quick summary of the day:
The Night Before
We spent the morning before the day of our wedding dropping off our centrepieces, table plan, favours etc at the venue before having a quiet lunch together at home and going our separate ways. I spent the evening before the wedding with my parents, sister and baby niece just relaxing, drinking champagne and opening presents from my family - lovely! I actually slept pretty well too!
The Big Day
I honestly can't really remember what the weather was like, but being November it was dark when we got up at 6am to start getting ready. We all showered and had breakfast at home before heading off to pick up my MUA and drive to our venue where we would finish getting ready. We arrived at Fennes for around 9am and were taken up to the bridal suite where my hairdresser got started on my hair straight away. We had champagne and sandwiches, chatted and sang and danced along to music while having our hair and make-up done, it was all very calm! Things started to feel a bit more real when my flowers were delivered and the videographer and photographer arrived, and before long my two little bridesmaids, sister-in-law and mother-in-law to be were there too and things started to get hectic! I remember going to the bathroom and looking out of the window at about 1pm and seeing a minibus turn up and some of my OH's family get out - that was the first time I felt nervous!
After photos with my family and bridesmaids it was time to see the Registrar. That ramped the nerves up a little bit more! And then it was time to go downstairs and get married! The last hour flew by!
Our ceremony was at 2pm and I gather I was about 10 minutes late although I had no idea of the time on the day, I just went with the flow! I felt quite emotional when I was waiting for the right moment of 'One Day Like This' (played by string trio) to start walking in until my dad trod on my dress which pulled me together again. It was just so exciting and lovely to see everyone in the room turn around and watch us walk in, and I even heard a few 'oohhs and aahhhs' which I hope were for me, not my dad! ?
I remember seeing my OH waiting at the top of the aisle, he didn't look around until I was right there, but when he did he genuinely looked happy and emotional and told me how lovely I looked - unprompted! The ceremony was a bit of a blur, it all went smoothly apart from the string trio getting a bit confused about when to stop playing during the signing of the register... I doubt anyone noticed apart from me! Next thing I knew we were walking back out to them playing 'It Must Be Love' with everyone throwing confetti over us - fun!
We served kir royale and sparkling wine during the reception, but we spent most of that time having our photos taken. I gather everyone had a good time and enjoyed the string trio and the drinks though! We managed to mingle with our guests for about 25 minutes before we were called through to have our mock 'cake cutting' photos taken. These were done in the main room where our wedding breakfast was to be served, and it looked amazing! I was so pleased with the way everything looked, it was lovely! We were then taken outside for a few more photos while everyone was seated for the wedding breakfast.
Our wedding breakfast went down really well, the portions were a good size and everything tasted great, particularly the lemon and lime cheesecake! Yum! I just wish I could have eaten more, but unfortunately my dress was a little too restrictive for a real pig-out! Our best man was too nervous to eat, but my husband and dad didn't weren't showing too many nerves before the speeches, which all went really well. My husband's speech was really touching. He's not a particularly soppy person so to hear him saying such lovely things about how he feels about me and our relationship was really special. And they were all funny too! I was really proud of all of them, they did so well.
The evening party went brilliantly too. We had debated whether or not to have a free bar and in the end went for tokens for the evening guests. I had been worried how that would go down but no one seemed to mind at all, and it definitely didn't stop people from drinking and having a good time! My only slight regret was that our bar was at the opposite end of the hall to the dancefloor and it did mean that there were often times that the dancefloor wasn't full because people were busy drinking, tucking into the buffet and chatting at the bar - they were certainly enjoying themselves though! That being said, plenty of people did dance, especially as the night wore on! Our first dance was to Take That's 'Rule the World' and our videographer suggested we follow that up with Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You', which was amazing! I love that song anyway and it was perfect given the time of year and that our venue was freshly decorated for Christmas. Everyone joined in and danced and sang along and I am sure it is going to be one of the highlights of our DVD. I can't listen to that song now without feeling emotional! ❤️
We ended the night with cake and nightcaps in the Fennes library with our close family and friends who stayed overnight with us, before heading to the honeymoon cottage where the staff had left us a platter of cheese and biscuits from our buffet! So exciting because I had been so busy dancing all night I hadn't eaten any of it before then and I was starving. Amazing! We finished the celebrations with breakfast the following day which gave us a chance to chat to our guests who had stayed over about the wedding and hear all the stories from the night before that we didn't know about at the time.
The whole wedding was just great and we loved chatting about all the different parts of the day and hearing everyone's stories the following day over lunch with our families and then on our own at the airport hotel before we flew to Mexico. I just can't wait for the DVD now to relive it all again!
Here's a small selection of photos from our day:
