**Report by stoice** Finally Finished - Lots of FLASHES!

The proposal

We love beachy holidays together. Always loved the beach even before we got Gina, in particular Cornwall and Devon. (Although we are only half hour from beaches in Essex too which is handy). So we had had a lovely day exploring the wonderful beaches of Cornwall, looking back I realised J was a little different to normal, he kept suggesting we sit down all the time, I later found out he was going to propose a few times earlier in the holiday but people kept walking past and he wanted it private. So we get to Hayle beach near St Ives. Amazing stretch of coast. I did a Geology A-level so am fascinated by the rock formation of the south west - Geek!!! - so between throwing the ball for Gina, we looked in rock pools, explored caves and I'm always snapping away with the camera.

We head up to a large sand dune and look out over the coast, not another soul on 'our' beach. Lovely. I look to J and think to myself as he had shuffled forward, how it looks just like he's on one knee in the sand, only for him to produce a ring and pop the question. I burst into tears (remember the big softie comment?) which set the dog barking and J is still waiting there on one knee! Of course I say yes and I'm officially the happiest girl in the world. We get home and tell my parents, my mums first words were 'about bloody time!' Followed by a hug. I suppose she's right though. We'd been together 12 years then, now 13 after finding a venue with 'only' an 18month waiting list - we just tell everyone we didn't want to rush into anything! We are both quite practical really though, and little did I know that J had been saving up for a few years to be able to afford a wedding without telling me. With the 18months till the big day, we worked hard and saved hard and once I've gone through all our receipts I'm pretty sure we've managed it without a massive debt.

MORE!!

This!!!

Loving ur mucky pup.

Dieting started in earnest. I'd grown comfortable and put on loads of weight. I joined a Bootcamp, ate right and soon the weight started to come off. I even took part in a mucky races event with my lovely bridesmaid, not just for a charity close to our hearts but also to prove to myself I could do it. J helped and joined in though. He's a better cook than I am, so he planned lots of meals and used we MyFitnessPal together. I lost three stone and he lost 2 and a half.

Hen dos

I had two hen dos. One was an afternoon tea at La Talbooth, a lovely hotel, spa and restaurant in Dedham. At this I could invite everyone that couldn't make the other Hen do which was Ladies day at Galway Races in Ireland. The afternoon tea was lovely, a great selection of cut sandwiches, scones and cakes, with endless tea or coffee. Plus it was a great way to have a girly gossip with my friends, cousins, aunts and neighbour. They had set me a game of mr and mrs with a few dares, plus a game of willy hoopla! (Don't ask. Lol) My bridesmaid had collected lots of photos of me and set them on a slideshow on the over head projector in the room. Some were quite embarrassing!

I am dying to read/see the rest!!!

Loving this. Hurry back and give us more!

At last! Loving it so far! More soon!

The Irish Hen do was brilliant too. The night we arrived we all had dinner with the ladies from J's family. Was a great craic, and also a great way for my hens to get to know everyone. Although I had to don a fetching pair of pink knickers, horns, a veil and a wand!

Next day was the Galway Races - Ladies day. We went on one of the wettest days they'd had in ages. Typical! It was very funny seeing other ladies who had applied a fake tan spray, as all their legs were streaky with orange feet! Had a little flutter. Won a few, lost a few, but then we only put 5 euros on a race max, so wasn't expecting much anyway.

J meanwhile had his stag do in Edinburgh. Don't know too much of what he got up to as 'what happens on stag, stays on stag' but I did get sent this pic!

My dress arrived three weeks before the big day. I was told not to loose any more weight though! The size I had ordered with a corset back wouldn't do up much tighter. If I had more time maybe I would've taken it in to show off more of the cross cross ribbon on the back, but I'd put off being measured in the first place due to dieting meaning a relatively late arrival time I guess and now there was no more time.

The shops hours were pants, only staying open till 3pm and closed Wednesdays and Sundays - ladies, bear this in mind when you order your dress. I had no more time allowed to take off work as i'd allocated it for our honeymoon, so that only left three Saturdays to get things sorted and one of those we were at a friends wedding. In the end I just got the hem taken up an inch as nothing else needing doing. However, despite trying it on in the shop, when I got back to my parents I noticed the top underskirt showed beneath the satin over skirt. My mum came to the rescue and tacked it up around the waist so nothing needed cutting. She didn't let on at the time but she was really worried as there was no time to get the shop to do it. I tried it on again (yay!) and it was perfect. Panic over. Love my mum, she's amazing.

I got mum to sew in my Nan's eternity ring with a blue ribbon. It was my official 'Old, borrowed and blue' from the rhyme, although I also had a blue garter, blue toenails and those blue 'i do' stickers on the underside of my shoes. This ring belonged to my Mum's mum who died last year . She'd suffered with alzheimer's and Dementia and didn't really recognise me towards the end, sadly. But when we announced our engagement, she was very excited on a clear day. After she died, my mum gave me a present of my wedding dress from Nana. Gets me very choked. On top of this my Dad's mum died a month before the wedding. Totally gutted. Both Nans quite close together, and neither would be at our wedding. It was very hard to be so excited about our day knowing they wouldn't actually be there.

The week before

Despite planning the wedding for a good 18months, I found the last 7 days the most stressful. My work had been so busy, we artwork packaging for Sainsburys, tesco and morrisons and the Christmas rush starts in May and lasts through to about September. I've been staring at mince pies and Xmas cake for months and doing crazy hours 6days a week. They cut me a little slack though as other people worked 8am -10pm, I'm allowed to 'go home early' at 6 to do wedding bits. Grr. J has the whole week off before the big day but after allocating the honeymoon and a few days for dress fittings etc, all my holiday is gone so can only manage a day and half off before the big day. (I also had to go back to work for 4 days until our honeymoon the weekend after - didn't get much work done though! Ha ha). Anyway, the suits came in about a week before the wedding so we collected them together, then passed them on to my dad and brother. I have to say, they looked really smart. Thanks Moss Bros.

More more more!

I tried on your dress, I think in the same shop and loved it!

Where did you go? I was just settling down to a nice long read....more please ?

Thanks all.

Alyj66 - I can only add in pics from my works computer as my pooter is broken so I'm using my mobile for Hitched stalking reading. I'll get some more up on Monday, soz.

Canary - blushing brides in Witham. Used to walk past that shop every day on my way to school as a kid. Tiny shop! But it had 'the one' for me and my shape. I loved the ruffle bit at the back and along the bust line.

Stoice, I'll hold you to that!

Congratulatiojns. I'm loving this and can I just say I lost 3 st one myfitnesspal.com - Isn't it great? Doesn't it just make you feel like the belle of the ball? I hadn't seen a few of the guests in a while and a few said they wouldn't have recognised me if I hadn't been the one in the big white frock. Can't wait to see you all done up with hair and make up! 13 years is a long time to wait and you obviously have the stuff to make it work. Sx

S108HAN - Can't rave over MyFitnessPal enough, although you do have to be disciplined!

Wednesday evening I get my legs waxed and my fingers and toes shellac polished (my toes in blue for my 'something blue' and for my hands a French manicure with a gem on my wedding fingernail) Never had shellac before, it dries instantly under uv light so no smudging or chipping and it lasted ages. Here's our toes on honeymoon!...

We'd had a meeting with the venue and caterer that week too so I had printed out the table plan and finalised everything regarding menu choices, seating arrangements etc. However our neighbour had been really ill, in and out of hospital, so he pulled out, and his wife then only came to the church do. So now we are two seats down. We have a large family (J's dad is one of 11, my dad is one of 6, I have 32 cousins now they're all married and they all have kids) so we had said that only aunts and uncles for the sit down, but cousins and their children are welcome to the church and evening do. We would have filled the venue with family only other wise. But as we had a gap, we thought we would bump up J's cousins coming from Wales, although that meant space for three was needed as one would be bringing his wife. Quick call and agreed to pay the extra £59 for an extra person in cash to the venue when we drop the bits the day before. Quick scrabble round and by Thursday lunchtime when I finish work I've reprinted right part of the table plan, reissued the plan to the caterer and made new place names. (On the day the extra guest didn't come anyway, plus another person went sick so we bumped up another couple on the day. Bit frustrating with all the running around but at least it didn't go to waste)

That evening was the rehearsal at the church. J's mum didn't want to come as she wanted the whole thing as a surprise so it was my parents and brother (he wanted to know where he could put a tripod for his video camera), my bridesmaid and J's two best men. Our rev went through everything in detail so we knew how it would go, even got us to say our vows (although he kept a line out so weren't accidentally married on a Thursday evening!). He also explained that in his 40 years of marriage he only has a few memories of his big day apart from his few official photos. One was seeing his bride walk up the aisle and the other was the two of them walking back down it. His advice was wherever possible to try to image yourself as a cameraman and really try to etch in those key moments into your memory like taking a mental photo. I thought that was really nice. He said J could stand facing front until i arrived but advised him that the best memory he would get is to watch me walking up. Started to feel very real. Up until this point it always felt like someone else's do I was organising. We were both nervous of being the centre of attention for the whole day, even though its all our loved ones there to share with us, it's still scary.

Mum had made pew ends for ten rows of pews, two arrangements to hang on the church porch gate, and two amazing arrangements to go on plinths inside the church. She installed them after our rehearsal and they looked so lovely.

Friday morning we pack up the car with all the table vases (filled with shells from our holidays), favours, garden games (that were never used), flip flop basket (massive hit, thanks Primark), hamper for cards, basket of toiletries for the guests (also well received) and other bits and bobs. We almost needed a van!

Once that was dropped off it felt like we could relax, panics over then on to the next task. I got my lashes done while J collected his family that arrived from Ireland. My lashes took two hours to do and I was so relaxed I almost fell asleep. Totally worth it though, as it meant I didn't need mascara, and as I'm a crier, even the waterproof stuff would've run down my face eventually. Then I got home to lots of hugs from my new family-to-be and we had a good catch up. My bridesmaid arrived a little later and we left J behind to stay at my parents. Said goodbye to everyone, including the dog, who will stay at a dog sitters on the wedding day. Felt weird to say bye to J knowing the next time ill see him will be in church the next day. He finished off his evening sipping a coke in the pub while the rest of his family were drinking and enjoying the craic.
My mum, my bridesmaid and I watched tv (mrs Browns Boys with a wedding - must be fate!) with a hot chocolate before an early night.

Tomorrow i'll be a mrs!

I'm sneaking out this report on the sly at work as my home pooter is broken. Bear with me everyone, I'm trying not to drag out my ramblings! LOL

The big day

I woke at 5am but stayed in bed until my alarm time which was 7:30, hoping to catch a few more zzzz. No such luck as I was thinking about everything. A bit like trying to go to sleep after a can of red bull - Will everything go to plan? Will the people I've booked come through for us? Will everyone have a good time? Will it rain? Would it matter if it did? Will I trip up in my dress? How much will I cry? Is J as nervous as I am?I opened the present that J had got me. A perfect pair of sparkly studs. He knows me so well, they were just what I would've chosen. I'd given him a 'lucky bag' like he enjoyed as a child, only this one had a fob watch to add to his ever growing collection of watches, a tshirt for the morning after, a lucky Irish six pence, some mints and his favourite jelly babies.

I went down and had breakfast with my mum and bridesmaid. I only managed a tiny bit of porridge though. Mum informs me she had been awake since 3am! Bless her. She's been an absolute star during the prep for this wedding. She wanted to do so much for us but I had to make sure she wasn't taking on too much. Nerves were showing. Although she had sorted the church flowers, she had also made our cake. The fruit tier she made in advance and had already iced but she had been making the sponge tiers (one choc, one vanilla) during the week after work, finished icing them and added the flowers on Friday night. We were allowed into the venue from 9am so mum and dad left to set up the cake and installed some sign posts for the guests to find the barn as the road turnings were a bit sharp and could easily be missed.

Mum had made a separate cake just for the topper I'd got commissioned from Folksy. It was the best way I could think of to get our Gina-dog to the wedding!

What a time for your computer to break down! It all looks fab so far - your mum did a great job on your flowers and cake, and I absolutely love your table plan!

Ahh! Not again ? Look forward to your next episode.

Trish - Apple laptops are fickle creatures. Aparantly needs a new motherboard now. It had been getting tempremental, only turning itself on in a fair wind with a prayer, and now the cd drive and USB ports dont work either. Rah.

Anyway, I can write a bit more on the ipad and will post up some pics tomorrow while the boss isn't looking...

In the mean time my hair and makeup lady, Dawn had already arrived so we set up a chair in my parents living room in front of the patio doors. My bridesmaid made me some toast and said she would tell me off if I'd not eaten at least half of it. I usually love food but I was getting nervous. Mostly in waves if I thought on things too much. Mum and dad came back, cake safely installed, then the flowers arrived. Although I had especially given the florist little silver frames with photos of my grandparents who are no longer with us (my dads mum died a month before the wedding, which was devastating) they had forgotten to include them. She left the flowers with us and headed straight back to collect the frames. Then the TOG arrived, oh and our flower girls too, at almost the same time. The house was filling up and getting quite chaotic. While the flower girls had some lunch the TOG took pics of my dress, shoes, flowers etc, then spent a good while getting pics of the flower girls running around the garden once they were changed. Couldn't wait to see those pics, they looked so cute in their dresses and our TOG works so well with young children too.

Loving it all so far! Do you mind me asking - what's the link to Galway?

Hubby's family are from Galway t4yt0! That's why I did the Ireland Hen do, so I could include as many of them as I could. Not all of them could make it over for the wedding so I came to them.

My brothers job of the morning, once he had he suit on, was to deliver the button holes to J, his dad and his best men and to take a few pics of him getting ready if he could. In particular of the transport our friend had arranged for him. He took him for a spin around a few villages before delivering him safely to the church.

Then everything went so quickly. I was put into my dress, in the middle of the living room which was a bit weird, but actually quite practical as it meant I then had no stairs to negotiate and the TOG could get some nice shots without being cramped.

My transport had turned up, a beautiful white VW camper called Molly. My bridesmaid's boyfriend, also called J, had decorated his car with ribbon and announced it was time to take my bridesmaid and my mum to the church ahead of me, the TOG followed them after a few more pics of me and my dad, and the flowers girls were whisked away then too.

This really annoys me when all my pics get squashed. It doesn't do it all the time either. Rah. I'll post up a link to my photos on facebook at the end of the report, and to my TOGs website so you can see them all in their unsquashed glory. LOL