First of all I would like to thank this forum for all the ideas and interesting reading when we were planning the wedding. I didn't post much but was always around and one of my favourites was a wee read at the wedding reports so decided to do my own to pay it back. Feel free to skip to the pictures!
How we met
Mr B and I first met back in 2001 when I joined the same workplace. I was just shy of 21 and loved going out with my girls at the weekend and he was a married 24 year old with two kids. After several weeks of being the only two in the office before 8am and him ignoring me I had enough one day and decided he was going to speak to me so struck up a conversation about how his weekend had been. His first words in a panic were 'I'm married' so I set him straight with 'Don't worry, I'm not interested!'. In short, we were completely incompatible then. Over the years we became friends and when his marriage broke up I lent an ear when he needed to vent. On a work's night out he kissed me but I told him I didn't want to ruin our friendship as I felt that it was too soon after his breakup and truth be told, I didn't think of him in that way. Over time that changed and we decided to go on an official date and despite knowing each other for years we found all sorts of new things to talk and laugh about until the early hours of the morning and it began from there. It hasn't been easy and his ex wife continues to make things difficult at times but we've got through it.
The Proposal/Planning
I can't say this is romantic at all. After walking around Ikea looking for a chest of drawers on 12th September 2012 Mr B was overcome with emotion and proposed in the middle of a shopping centre (handy as I then got to pick my ring- a beautiful marquise cut sapphire surrounded by a double band of diamonds). I should add that he had been looking at ring in secret with the intention of proposing when we were away at log cabins several weeks later for my birthday but couldn't contain himself! We found the venue and set the date for 01st March 2014. Although he stayed at mine most of the time he officially moved in after Christmas and we decided to move rooms around and re-decorate to accommodate his kids at the weekend. Whoever told me you should never marry someone without living with them first is absolutely correect. I hated him! I had gone from having my own space to sharing with four other people who expected me to run around after them as it was 'my' house and i couldn't cope with it. I called off the wedding! After a few months we found our happy medium- I deal with painting, decorating and power tools while he loads the dishwasher and washing machine!! He then started to talk about the wedding again and after contacting the venue our date was still available and they would honour our original deposit. We decided it was fate and re-booked with just over six months to go. Luckily as our wedding was off-season all of our first choices had our date available- again, it seemed like fate lending us a hand.
We decided to go with blue as our main colour due to the sapphire in my engagement ring and soon had the dresses for the girls (my sister was my chief bridesmaid with Mr B's daughters as my junior bridesmaids and my niece was my flower girl) and had the kilts organised for the men. I was the only one left to dress. I had my shoes- Miu Miu by Prada heels but thought I may end up walking down the aisle wearing only them and a veil when i came across Mori Lee 6601 in a sample sale. It was a bit too big for me but I was advised to wait until nearer the time to get it altered and thank goodness I did. My dog (my running partner) died in November and I couldn't face running without him then my gran became ill so between working, hospital visiting and wedding planning I was living on take-aways/ ready meals. 4 weeks before the wedding I went for a fitting and it fitted but it was tight and I felt uncomfortable. I lost a bit of weight for the wedding so the dress fitted but i was still heavier than I wanted to be. On the day though, it didn't matter.
**The Wedding- Updated for those who wanted to know more**
As for the wedding I'll just give you the flashes to look through. My gran fell ill just before Christmas so it really put the wedding into perspective for me and rather than worrying about whether to have chair covers and sashes my only worry was if she would actually make the day. Only on the Wednesday before the wedding did she start to improve so having her in the photo's means the world to me.
The Lead Up
Before the wedding I had several make-up trials and with all of them, although the make-up artist had done a good job I just didn't feel right so I made the decision to do my own make-up. I did the make-up for a friend and all her bridal party a few years ago so was fairly confident I would be okay as long as I wasn't a bag of nerves on the day. My poor hairdresser must have tried at least 10 hairstyles on me over several trial's and eventually I asked her to put my hair half up/half down but straight (my hair is poker straight so I knew that if it rained or was windy it wouldn't affect my hair!) and sure enough when it was done I was finally contented with it- the least bridal hairstyle there could be! I wasn't a bridezilla (honest!!), I just wanted to feel like me.
I was finishing up work on the Tuesday before the wedding to get organised and when I went in on the Tuesday morning my desk was all decorated with balloons, banners and ribbons and I burst into tears! My boss then came in and told me just to pack up and get going but by the time everyone had been round to wish me well, pass on advice etc I was another two hours before getting out of there. I decided to spend the afternoon finishing off my place settings and I'm glad I did as the next few days were hectic. For place settings I had decided to do personalised wine glasses using water decals to put the names on and I glittered the base with blue to tie into the colour scheme but they all still needed to go into the oven to set the decal. Who knew an oven would only take 16 wine glasses at a time?!!
On the Wednesday morning I finished putting together the kids activity packs. I had made an activity book together with a stackable colouring pencil and then filled a box with sweets and stickers.
With my fingers firmly crossed I had also arranged an appointment for my hairdresser to go into the hospital to cut my gran's hair in case she was fit for the wedding. When we went in she was in good spirits and for the first time i actually believed that she might even get there. Wednesday evening was spent having extensions fitted to my nails and getting my manicure done.
I was up early Thursday morning to go to Bearsden to get my brows tinted and threaded and my semi-permanent lash extensions fitted (thank goodness for groupon!). I may have wanted to feel like me but hey, I needed some glamour on my wedding day! Mr B was going to collect his kilts and make sure everything fitted. Disaster- his shirt was too small, everything was too small for the best man, his son's kilt was too short and his socks had a hole in them and various other disaster's! One more thing to add to the list of things we needed to do the day before the wedding- changing the kilt's.
It was finally the day before the wedding and I had barely slept for a week. My plan was to drop my pup off at the boarding house we was staying in for two days, replace the kilt's, go home and do a quick tidy up as Mr B's relatives who were coming from abroad were going to stay at our's, get all the boxes to the venue and then go to my mum's and have a relaxing night with my mum, sister, Mr B's daughter's and a couple of my friends. Despite having only been to the boarding a couple of weeks earler we got completely lost and the journey which should have taken half an hour ended up as an hour and a half. On the road back we stopped in to replace the kilts. We then got a phonecall from the best man to say that the person who was supposed to be covering him and his wife at work had phoned in sick so his wife wouldn't be able to make it and could we arrange the seating to make sure his son was sitting with someone he knew. By the time we got home it was almost 3pm so I sent Mr B to pick up his kids from school as the hairdresser was going to my mum's to put their roller's in for the next day and I set to work on getting the house tidied up and labelling up the boxes. Once that was done I re-tackled the seating plan. The only option was to increase the size of the top table by one and have the best man's son beside his dad. After a quick shift on the computer it was off to Tesco's to print the new photo's for the seating plan. Mr B went off to meet his relatives from the airport while my dad, brother in law and I packed up the cars with the things to take to the venue. At 10pm I was only just taking boxes into the venue. I returned home afterwards to grab my overnight bag and say goodbye to Mr B when I was hit with the scent of chip shop shops and realised I hadn't eaten all day. I arrived at my mum's just after 11pm so my night of relaxation had gone down the drain. I went to bed and checked up on my puppy via the webcam at the boarding and tried to get to sleep but my mind was racing- Did I remember to take the box of favours?, Was my dress going to fit?, Did I remember to confirm the cars? I eventually fell into a sleep....
4.45am
Boom, wide awake. It's my wedding day!!
I tiptoed downstairs so as not to wake anyone and settled down on the couch and watched an episode of Ugly Betty on E4. We are all early riser's so just before 6am my parents got up and the flurry of preparations began. Quick shower and then we were heading to my sister's as the hairdresser was coming for 8am. When we arrived she was already there and had done one of Mr B's daughter's hair and was partway through the other. It felt completely surreal- we were getting ready and I was getting married! I handed the girls their bridesmaid survival packs (a personalised hoodie, clear lipgloss, mirror, sample bottle of the perfume I was wearing on the day and various goodies) and gave Mr B's girls their jewellery. My 2 year old niece thought it was great fun having everyone around and she kept us all entertained by dancing and trying to help with the make-up! It was my turn to get my hair blown-dry and my rollers put in. I was scarily calm and composed and the hairdresser even commented that she had never done a bridal party with less chaos. My brother in law went out to collect breakfast and then escaped to my parents house with my dad and I sat down to do my make-up. Not long afterwards the photographer arrived and it was all system's go. The girls couldn't wait to get their dresses on and soon it was my turn. My mum helped me into it and it was the first time all morning I felt nerves- praying it would fit. We were all dressed with an hour to spare before the cars arrived and then my flowers arrived. They were exactly as I had wanted. When i first mentioned I wanted lime green to be a contrast to the blue a few people looked at me with raised eyebrows but I loved them. My dad and brother in law arrived and the photographer took us outside to get some shots of us all together. I'm glad he did as my niece lost interest later in the day and didn't want to be in pictures. The joys of a 2 year old! Soon the cars arrived and this is when I felt the first flutter of nerves. My mum told me she was proud of me as I more or less put the whole wedding together myself, especially in the latter months due to my gran being ill and my dad told me I looked beautiful and the first tears escaped. The girls, my brother in law and my mum left in their car leaving just me and my dad. We both laugh a lot and none more so than when we were trying to work out how to get me into the wedding car in my enormous dress. the driver (bless her) went in my dad's side of the car and lifted my dress while I backed in desperately praying that my knickers weren't on display to the world! It was a cold but bright late winter morning but on the way to the venue it started to rain and i just laughed and thought 'typical'. It only lasted a minute or two though and the sunshine broke through again.
Soon enough, we were approaching the venue and I was hit by the nervous giggles which didn't help when we pulled up in front and I wondered where my bridesmaids were. My car had arrived first!! My poor page boy's face was a picture when he saw us arriving and then driving away again- I think he thought we had done a runner! We circled around a few times and then saw the other car arriving so made our way to the venue again. We spoke to the registrar and then the music started: 'Marry Me' by Train. First up was my page boy who was carrying the rings. Off he walked with one hand carrying the ring cushion and the other on his hip. He was adorable! Next to go was Mr B's youngest daughter followed by the oldest and then it was time for my sister and niece. My niece decided right at that moment to throw her basket away and pull her dress over her head but with a little coaxing she walked down the aisle holding her mummy's hand. Deep breath, it was time for me! Just before we walked around the corner my dad stood on my dress and I tripped up so I burst out laughing and then we rounded the corner. The first person I saw sitting at the end of a row was my gran and i burst into tears and sobbed the whole way down the aisle. It felt like forever however the registrar informed me I raced down the aisle. No sooner had I got there than my niece decided to throw a terrible two's tantrum but I'm glad she did- I needed to laugh! The registrar started the ceremony and my friend was first up to do a reading that I had written. We said our vows and then Mr B's youngest daughter was doing her reading. She tripped over her words at one point and as she was embarrassed, burst into tears. Mr B went up to help her finish and the photo of them at this point is one of my favourites. After this the day flew past. Our ceremony was at 2.30pm and the meal was 5pm and I wondered how we were going to fill this time. There was no need to worry- time just ran away from us.
We decided we weren't going to do speeches but Mr B and I would do a quick thank you so after the meal it was my turn to take the microphone. I didn't plan anything down as I wanted it to come straight from the heart and so began my speech and it was pretty good if I do say so myself although i did forget to thank the best man. Oops!
It seemed no time and then the evening guests started to arrive. It was time to cut the cake. My mum's cousin had made it for me based on a few ideas I gave her and I loved it. Then it was time for the first dance- 'I Won''t Give Up' by Jason Mraz. I hate being centre of attention but strangely when we were dancing I felt really completely relaxed and at ease. It was then time to get the party started so off came my shoes, my dress was bustled and away I went. I didn't stop all night and it's true when people say to take some time out to yourselves as Mr B and I barely saw each other! My niece was having a grerat time dancing on the floor with all the other kids when she suddenly stopped dead and ran straight towards Mr B's cousin with her arms stretched open (who was sitting where we had been earlier). There was a collective 'Aaaw how cute' before a gasp as she projectile vomited all over him so word of warning to you, a kids box filled with sweets plus a candy cart and twirling children is maybe not the best idea!!
At 00.45 the party was still in full swing when the buses arrived and I had to actually ask for the evening to come to an end. Everyone was having so much fun we didn't realise it was the end of the night already. We got in a circle and Loch Lomond started and my mum told me again how proud she was of me as everyone had had a fantastic night. The bar was staying open for residents but after a week of very little sleep it was time for me to retire.
We had fully booked the venue so it was lovely to see everyone again in the morning for breakfast. When we were passing one of the rooms checking out I noticed a tray of rolls from our evening buffet the night before. My mum burst out laughing and said that my friend had brought them upstairs at 3.30 after they finally left the bar and was going to go round checking if anyone wanted one before her husband dragged her to bed!!
All in all we had a great day with friends and family and it took us about a week to recover.
