Before you start, this is an insanely long wedding report which took up 4 pages on MS Word! Cups of tea and biscuits may be required!
Friday 12th November
Last night together before the wedding! We decided to have a little supper together and reminisce about old times, dug out some old photos and had a right laugh over how much we have changed over the past few years. I finished off the packing and was shocked at how much stuff I “thought” we would need for a week. I have terrible stomach cramps, my period comes once every 3-4 months and it was only a couple since my last so I put it to the back of my mind.
Saturday 13th November
My dad came at 1pm to pick me up, we stuff everything into the car. Everything takes up the entire of the boot of the Micra, the front seat and two back ones! My mum has made a collage of my baby pictures on the kitchen door with “Our baby is getting married” written above, the tears start flowing, just as well dad stocked up on tissues! The front door goes and in piles my Gran, Grandad, Uncle and Nana. Everyone gives me a hug and asks if I'm excited, more tears! I haven't seen my Nana for three and a half years so I am tentative to go through into the sitting room and greet her. I walk through and her face lights up, she looks extremely old and frail but being back in her arms was like I had never been away, cue even more tears here!
The day is a whirlwind of card-opening and old-stories. Later in the evening we break open the Trivial Pursuit for a boys vs girls match over a few bottles of wine, we lose but it's all good! I'm sleeping in my little sister's bed whilst she's on the blow-up bed on the floor. The bed is unfamiliar and I have a hard time sleeping, I text Mark and say goodnight then play a few games on my iPhone. I eventually get a few hours sleep in only to be woken by Sophie at 3.30am because Nana is in the toilet farting! We get into a fit of the giggles and it makes me think of old holidays when we used to share a room.
Sunday 14th November
It gets to 6 o'clock and I can't sleep a second more so I wriggle out of bed and wake Sophie up in the process. We decide to go downstairs together and make the shortbread favours so bound downstairs. We feed the animals and then get cracking. Everything is done in the food processor so Sophie loses interest and decides to do her homework, I make five batches of dough, roll them into sausages and pop them in the fridge to solidify slightly. Mum wakes up and we greet her with fresh coffee and we have a natter in the kitchen like old times. A couple of hours later and the shortbread is finished and wrapped in cellophane bags with ribbon, perfect!
I go upstairs to get ready and whilst using the toilet realise the worst, my period has started! I broke down in tears in complete disbelief of my bad luck, luckily it is quite light. Dad drives me into the city to meet Mark's relatives off the train, I'm really nervous after having a not so good experience with his dad. I'm shaking and nervous as we enter the café, completely unnecessary!! Everyone stands up and hugs me hard, they seem genuinely happy to meet me and then the cards and presents come out. They were so kind I felt so silly for worrying, it makes me feel more prepared for tomorrow.
The men-folk go into the city for a Chinese buffet whilst us girls go to where my Gran is staying. It is an old train which has been converted into a self-catering holiday home, really cool! Sophie and me decide to get the puzzleball out and we chill in front of the TV. Gran makes us a beautiful dinner and I pick around it, trying not to eat too much. The men crash through the door in VERY high spirits after Sunderland won 3-0 and they regaled us with stories of them dancing in the pub whilst being glared at by almost every person present and giving “2-bar” to a homeless man to get himself a pint with. It was obviously a very successful night! We go back to mums house and try to sort out a running list of music, part-way through I have a panic attack from nowhere. My heart feels like it's beating out of rhythm and too hard, my mum gets me a brown paper bag and I try to calm down but it scared me. I run a bath and have a nice long soak, shave myself and try to unwind. Mum and dad go to bed at 11.30pm, I decide to stay up a little longer. I'm sleeping on the sofa as the men needed the air-bed but that doesn't bother me as it's a comfy one! I try to solve more of the puzzleball to keep my mind off things and at 12.30am I open my card from Mark and my present. I have a little cry and then decide to head to sleep. I felt unsettled being in the conservatory and so slept with the light on, I haven't ever done that before!
Monday 15th November – The Wedding Day!
My alarm wakes me up at 7.30am. I open the blinds fully expecting torrential rain, I was prepared for it. The sun streams through the window and my mood soars! Dad comes through and asks how I'm feeling. I didn't feel nervous at all, it surprised me. Perhaps the panic-attack the night before broke my anxiety. Everyone else rises and mum pours bucks fizz for everyone, even Sophie gets a little glass, her first taste of alcohol! (even though it was a weak mix!) We take a few photos and then it's all go! At 9am I have my nail appointment and get a lovely French manicure then spend the next hour bossing Sophie around with the excuse of me not wanting to ruin my nails! I feel tetchy, I just want everything to start. I thought I would be a wreck of nerves and anxiety but my calmness holds, it's unnerving! I have a small breakfast of half an English muffin with a tiny bit of scrambled egg and a rasher of bacon, I feel terribly sick if I don't eat anything in the morning so needed something filling.
At midday mum takes Sophie and me to the salon for our hair. Sophie gets low curls and her tiara is pinned in place, she looks brilliant. Her hair is all done and dusted and I'm still sitting with heated rollers in! At my hair trial my hair took an hour and a half and that was including a trim so I was expecting my hair to take about half an hour to three quarters of an hour to do, considering they didn't need to wash it or anything. Time rolls by quickly and I start to panic, we need to be in the car and ready for just after 2 o'clock, I still need to do my make-up and get into my dress. They finally finish up with me at 1.40pm, leaving barely any time for me to get ready! My dad swings the car around the corner to collect me and save my hair getting jostled around. I look up at the sky and there's not a single cloud in the sky, the sun is blazing and everything is perfect. Mum thinks it was her dad's doing, a way of him being here for me.
My Aunty Sandi and Uncle Billy have arrived, I haven't seen them in almost four years. Sandi takes me into a huge embrace and tells me how much she likes my hair. She has gotten us a huge bag of gifts but there's no time for me to delve into it right now, I have to rush upstairs! Sophie is ready in her bridesmaids dress and she looks so adorable, I feel tears prickle my eyes but I keep it together. On goes my Gok Wan corset and slicker knickers, not the most sexy of underwear but you have to make sacrifices when you have wobbly bits! Now onto mum's room where I hurriedly slap my make-up on. I would have been happier if I had been able to do it at a leisurely pace but I manage anyway. I was going to wear false eyelashes but my hands were shaking terribly and my mum can't do them so after one attempt of putting them on we decide to abandon them.
Now the moment of truth. The dress. As some of you may remember, due to my wedding dress shop lying about letting my dress out it was ridiculously tight, to the point where it eventually would not even zip up so I had to do a starvation diet. Mum slides the dress on over my head, my heart is racing, please please let it fit! I hug the bodice as close to my skin as I possibly can and hear the zip slide smoothly up the runner. It fits and with inches of room, thank goodness! My mum then hands me my bouquet and my heart feels like it's glowing through my beautiful dress. Everyone is still waiting downstairs so mum arranges everyone off in cars so we can get moving. My dad has never seen my dress so I make my descent downstairs, trying to hold myself together and failing! My dad looks like he is bursting with pride, he's not a man of many words but I know he is happy. Final application of lipgloss goes on and we pile into the car. Pile being the operative word. I hitch my dress up until I'm flashing my unflattering beige Gok Wans and literally roll myself into the car, the corset is restricting so much of my movement it's all I can do! We pull out of the village and then see the other cars waiting at the road end to follow me, we have a little convoy going on, leading everyone to the registry office. It's like a game making sure we all make it through the maze of traffic lights without losing people. York has a lot of traffic lights so it's a miracle that we made it the entire way through! Then problem! The arch that leads to the back of the registry office is the tightest I have ever seen. Wing-mirror to wing-mirror, my mum panics and has to swap places with my dad and let him drive it through. My dad is an extremely experienced driver and he still had trouble getting the car through!
My mum runs inside to see that everyone is in position and she comes out looking flustered, her and dad seem to be concerned about something. I'm sitting there panicking, thinking that Mark hadn't turned up in the end but it turns out that it's just mum's tights are too big! By the time she had walked into the registry office they had been around her knees! She lifted up her dress and tried to pull them up, completely oblivious to the fact that all our guests could see her through the windows!! I swallow hard and then tumble from the car, mum and Sophie arrange my dress and we walk into the registry office.
We have the big room, beautiful dark wood chairs, crisp white drapes at the windows, a wonderful thick red carpet for me to walk up! The registrar takes us into a side room to go through the details for the marriage certificate and she talks us through what's about to happen and what we should say. I am shaking uncontrollably now, suddenly hit by a wave of nerves. We are then led to the outside of the door, I can hear Love Story playing and then it stops. I chose a piano version of Canon in D and heard the first few notes tinkling within the room, Sophie waits for a few moments and then walks into the room, closing the door behind her. Dad and I look at each other for a while, tears in our eyes and then dad leads me forward. The door opens and I see the smiling faces of our guests, cameras flashing in our eyes, I feel like a princess. And then a snag. Literally! I was wearing a pashmina around my shoulders and the door was on a spring, as my dad went in first I didn't have a hand free to hold the door open and it had swung back on me and caught my pashmina on the outside handle, dragging me back. My dad thought I was just shy and so tugged at me until I explained that I was caught. He was looking at my dress and I was going “My pashmina!!” As dad was freeing me I said “You just knew something like this would happen!” and everyone fell about laughing. It's true, I have never made a graceful entrance in my life so why would my wedding entrance be any different. Although I got a small hole in my pashmina I didn't care, the little hitch was totally me and everyone knew it! Mark later told me that he thought I was going to burst into tears! I compose myself and continue to walk down the aisle, I break down in tears again at everyone's smiling faces, there's something so heart-wrenching at the thought of everyone being happy for me. All the way through the ceremony my dad kept squeezing my hand, it kept me together, I kept smiling up at Mark and nudging against him, still in awe at what we were doing!
Mark's mum did a beautiful reading, she's really good at public speaking and paced it out well. Then my Gran did a reading, she looked as though she was going to burst into tears at any moment but she made it through and I was so proud of her. We wrote our own vows, exchanged our rings and suddenly we were married! It was so surreal, we turned to our guests and were both beaming as the cameras flashed in front of us. We were married finally!! We exited to the surprise track I Believe In A Thing Called Love, we hadn't told anyone about it, it was our rock stamp on the day. We watched as one by one it dawned on everyone what the song was and everyone burst into laughter and applause and we left from the patio doors into the garden. Everyone took photos and commented on how lovely the ceremony was and then we made our way to the reception.
My mum had done an amazing job of decorating the tables with candles and table gems, my home-made place settings and favours were out, my wedding cake was sitting proud beside my Vera Wang cake knife set. Everything was perfect and beautiful. The speeches were made before the meal, my dad told everyone the story about the first time he met Mark and whilst he drove him home he had said “In the country no one can hear you scream.” Mark did a lovely speech and then my brother Sam, our best man, thanked everyone for coming. The food was brilliant although I couldn't eat much with the corset on. One funny moment was during dessert, Sam set his napkin on fire by accident. Everyone was calling to him going “fire, fire!” and he's just sitting eating his dessert, completely unaware. I throw my melted ice-cubes over the steadily rising flames and miss completely, then everyone piles in trying to put the flames out. It was so funny. Mark then got Sophie started on how he was now her brother-from-another-mother and we had to sit through a two hour continuation about how she has one brother and a brother-from-another-mother. My Uncle started a game using the table crystals where you had to stack as many as you could on top of each other, then everyone was suddenly trying with tricks such as melted candle wax! We then put some music on and my dad and grandad did a dance routine to Madness which had everyone in stitches and the fun continued well on into the night. Everyone got merry, dad more than anyone, and then suddenly it was over! Mum drove us to our log cabin and I whipped my dress and corset off, we opened my Aunty Sandi's present and then decided to soak in the hot tub. It was exactly what my poor squished body and sore feet needed, we stayed in there for hours just talking about the day and how much fun it had been. It was very strange that it was below freezing outside and we were boiling hot in the tub! It was the best day of our life. Mark told me that he thought I was going to be wearing a blue dress which is really strange because the sample I tried on was actually blue! We were so tired that night that we simply showered to get the chlorine off us and then collapsed in a heap on the bed and slept right through until the morning!
It still hasn't sunk in that we are married, it's very strange knowing that I'm now a wife!
